Tactical – Go Lean…Caribbean

Category: Tactical

Zero Sum: ICT as a tool, the “Great Equalizer”

Posted on February 22, 2021 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Industries, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Not all countries are at the same level of modernity; in some places, people ride bullet trains while in other countries, people still use horses, camels and mules. This salient point was related in the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean on Page 69:

The idea of convergence in economics (also sometimes known as the catch-up effect) is the hypothesis that poorer economies’ per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies. As a result, all economies should eventually converge in terms of per capita income. Developing countries have the potential to grow at a faster rate than developed countries because diminishing returns (in particular, to capital) are not as strong as in capital-rich countries. Furthermore, poorer countries can replicate the production methods, technologies, and institutions of developed ones.

There are many examples of countries which have converged with developed countries which validate the catch-up theory. In the 1960s and 1970s the East Asian Tigers rapidly converged with developed economies. These include Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan – all of which are today considered developed countries or cities. In the postwar period (1945–1960) examples include West Germany, France and Japan, which were able to quickly regain their pre-war status.

The “catch-up” principle also applies to Internet Communications Technology (ICT). It is clearly evident that for one country to update their technology footprint, no other country have to lose theirs. Nope! ICT is naturally Non-Zero Sum.

There is another related concept: leapfrog. If you were operating at 1970’s technology, and then decide to upgrade, you do not move to 1980’s, then 1990’s, then 2000’s, then 2010’s. Nope, you jump straight to 2020’s technology. Leap-frog, not Catch-up.

In fact, migrating straight to the cutting-edge could be advantageous in other ways: there is no historic or intermediate baggage; there is nothing to unlearn.

The subject of technology adoption refers to strategy, tactics and implementation. The related issues were thoroughly defined in the Go Lean book, which serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). That roadmap asserted that in a short 5-year period, all Caribbean member-states could update their technology investment and infrastructure. See this excerpt from Page 74 here:

From the outset, (Year 1 of the 5-year roadmap), the CU will build data centers and server farms across the regions, erect contact centers and harness the efficiencies of the internet for delivery of government products and services. Rather than looking backwards, there is the opportunity to apply “leap-frog” strategies and jump right to where data center trends are moving, like utilizing alternative energy sources such as Hydrogen Fuel Cells to ensure power in the case of downtime or natural disaster emergencies.

Here is the appeal of the Go Lean/CU roadmap, we get to leverage the whole region and deploy a technological solution not possible for any one member-state alone. This is the Way Forward for competing with the rest of the world in this new globalized footprint. Since the “world is now flat”, we must be better equipped to compete with other stakeholders; we cannot beat “them”, so we have to join together to compete with them.

This is Non-Zero-Sum Thinking …

… this is the needed Community Ethos – the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of society – that we must adopt before we can consider any strategy, tactic or implementation for deploying ICT in the Caribbean region as a great equalizer.

This is the continuation of the February 2021 Teaching Series for the movement behind the Go Lean book. For this month, we are looking at the subject of Zero Sum Thinking and trying to model good examples from the world of ICT so as to elevate Caribbean society. This third entry, 3-of-6, asserts that we can look, listen, learn from other institutions (enterprises, governments and institutions) and see that the problem for the Caribbean is bigger than just the Caribbean. Consider the full catalog of this series, has it is being presented:

Zero Sum: Lesson 101 – No more “Gold Standard”
Zero Sum: Realities of Globalism – “Non-Zero Sum” for the whole world
Zero Sum: ICT as a tool, the “Great Equalizer”
Zero Sum: Regional Tourism should not be a competition – Encore
Zero Sum: Book Review – Racism is a factor; “Us vs Them”
Zero Sum: How to fix “Inequality” – Raise the tide, all boats are elevated

We started this series on Zero Sum by looking at the economic principle drawn from the “Gold Standard”. Now, that we realize that the quantity of gold is inconsequential, we can now strategize to use ICT to level the “playing field” with the rest of the world, small or large countries, rich or poor. This is the mitigation plan for Globalization, as related in the Go Lean book:

The CU will level the playing field of global trade by fully deploying Internet & Communications Technology (ICT). The embrace of e-Delivery, e-Commerce and e-Payments systems allow firms and institutions in the Caribbean region an able-bodied chance of competing head-to-head with anyone in North America, Europe and Asia. – Page 119

We have addressed this issue before, many times over in assessing the needs of ICT in the Caribbean elevation plan. Our conscientizing efforts started in the 2013 book, and then continued in many related blog-commentaries. Consider this advocacy (headlines, summaries and excerpts) from the book’s Page 197, entitled:

10 Ways to Foster Technology

1	*Lean-in for the Single Market* treaty for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people, across 30 member-states and an economic impact for a GDP of over $800 Billion (circa 2010). The CU will lead the industry efforts to create economies-of-scale to deploy technological investments, (such as Libraries and other Community Technology Centers), and generate justifiable benefits. The CU governance also provides the intellectual property protections such as patents and copyrights, and ensures their enforcement both locally and abroad. The technology initiatives are designed to include everyone in the region: the technically-savvy and the technically-ignorant. In addition to the CU providing community education services like the CTC’s, the CU incentivizes Not-For-Profit agencies, NGOs and Foundations to help the community efforts.
2	e-Learning Facilities and Industries Though the CU is a Trade Federation with an economic empowering charter, it is accepted that education is vital to growing the economy through technology endeavors. As such, the CU will foster public libraries, and partner with private and public schools to encourage and incentivize academic courses, training and continuing education via e-Learning channels. This effort will not only focus on the young or educated, but also on ubiquitous acceptance from the public.
3	STEM Charter Schools and STEM Teacher Recognitions
4	e-Government Services The CU Trade Federation will provide government services. Where ever possible, these services will be delivered with the embrace of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICT). Therefore, Caribbean citizens can request and interact with CU government services via web & phone portals (contact centers), and when personal visits are mandated, service level agreements (SLA) will be implemented to set expectations for quality and timely response.
5	Public Access Wi-Fi
6	Incubators, Venture Capitalists Funds and IPO’s
7	Tax Credits for Technological Investments
8	Technology Expositions
9	Centers of Excellence Quality assurance arts and sciences are important cultural influence within an economy, (think Swiss watches). Quality measurements like ISO-9000, CMM, and Six Sigma would be encouraged and incentivized thru the CU Trade Federation. The best-of-the-best in these endeavors should be recognized, elevated and rewarded.
10	Whistleblower Protections

Wile the Go Lean book has provided 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new Community Ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to accomplish this goal, this commentary has highlighted many real world manifestations of technology efforts leveling the industrial and commercial playing field. Consider these 3 scenarios:

e-Commerce – Changing how we transact business.

Uber: A Better ‘Mousetrap’ – March 13, 2019
We are learning that car-ride-sharing solutions – like Uber or Lyft – are actually working successfully. They are faster, better and cheaper than other transportation options, like taxi’s …

… it might be argued that local governments can simply ban ride-sharing companies like Uber, Lyft, etc..

Alas, the “genie is out-of-the-bottle”; ICT or Internet Communications Technologies (and smart-phones) make messaging and electronic commerce seamless and effortless. This is likened to holding back the tides. Resistance is futile! …

The [Go Lean] book asserts that no one Caribbean member-state can tackle any of these challenges alone; there is an urgent need – a Clear and Present Danger – to convene, collaborate, consolidate and confederate the response to these modern challenges – we need the economies-of-scale.

e-Learning – Still learning despite no travelling

Keep the Change: Making e-Learning Work – April 24, 2020
In the Caribbean, this was always our BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal – that we would terminate the strategy of sending our children off to college to only then watch them “never come back”. …

Thanks to the Coronavirus – COVID-19 crisis, the world is coming to the e-Learning party. It is April 2020 and the world is locked-down, sheltering-in-place. The majority of people in society have avoided gathering and all but essential contact for people – other than their immediate household – in order to “flatten the curve”. Schools are not essential: not primary, not secondary and not tertiary schools.

Education is essential; school (building, library, administration, etc.) is not.

We can only say that now … that e-Learning options [ i.e. Zoom] – are real and viable. …

The Go Lean book had originally asserted that e-Learning may be the answer for all the ills in the Caribbean education landscape. The book further states (Page 127) that “electronic commerce industries – Internet Communications Technology (ICT) – can be a great equalizer in economic battles of global trade ^[179]”. This is how and why we Keep the Change!

e-Government – Bigger deliveries despite smaller footprint

e-Government 3.0 – June 20, 2018
What if we had the chance to “start all over again”, with the knowledge, wisdom and experience that we have now? Could we do “it” faster, stronger, better? Can we do more with less?

Absolutely! Yes, we can!

We will therefore be [are] in a position to “start all over again” and create an administrative regime that can make the Caribbean homeland faster, stronger, better as places to live, work and play. This regime can be dubbed: e-Government 3.0.

e-Government 1.0 refers to just the facilitation of government services via some electronic mode, the first attempt to embrace an online presence and processing; 2.0 refers to the quest for greater citizen participation in the governing/policy-making process, “putting government in the hands of citizens”.^[54] This 3.0 brand however, refers to the penultimate e-Delivery, processing and optimization of ICT (Internet & Communications Technologies) among all the different roles and responsibilities. Imagine digital interactions …

between a citizen and their government (C2G)

between governments and other government agencies (G2G)

between government and citizens (G2C)

between government and employees (G2E), and …

between government and businesses/commercial entities (G2B).

If this sounds fantastical, just know that there are successful role model countries doing this e-Government 3.0 right now. For example, the Baltic Republic country of Estonia is widely recognized as e-Estonia, as a reference to its tech-savvy government and society.^[98] [See the related VIDEO here].

VIDEO – Estonia Built the Society of the Future from Scratch – https://youtu.be/cHkIfiTGmzo

Beme News
Published on Jan 10, 2018 – A tech revolution is going down in Estonia…of all places. The tiny Baltic nation has built a futuristic, digital-first society. Lou explains how it works, why it works, and if it will work elsewhere.

Sources & Further Reading:
E-Estonia’ official website – https://e-estonia.com/
Estonia the Digital Republic – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20…
Is This Tiny European Nation a Preview of Our Tech Future? – http://fortune.com/2017/04/27/estonia…
How long it takes to file taxes in Estonia – http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-met…
How long it takes to file taxes in the U.S. – https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/…
Why Americans didn’t vote in 2016 – http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/…

Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

In addition to these above 3 examples of “leveling the playing field” with technology, we have published many other previous blog-commentaries on the related subjects of technology adoption and assimilation. Consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18524	One Step Closer to an e-World: e-Money Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16364	5 Year Technology Review: All the Caribbean now fully ready for ICT
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15923	Industrial Reboot – Payment Cards 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15875	Amazon: ‘What I want to be when I grow up’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14224	How are the Youth are Consuming Media Today? Hint, all ICT!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13999	First Steps – Deputize the CU for “Lean Operations” and SLA’s.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12532	Where the Jobs Are – Artificial Intelligence: Subtraction, not Addition
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11314	Creating Addiction to Smartphones – One way to Forge Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11184	Model: Wow, JPMorganChase spent $10 billion on ‘Fintech’ in 1 year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9839	Alibaba Cloud teaches how to reach the world with new Data Centers

Don’t get it twisted, Zero Sum thinking is still a reality in a lot of facets of modern life, but it does not have to be when it comes to ICT. The online (streaming) media industry is all based on the premise of Write Once Read Many (WORM), so it does NOT matter if 50 people consume a production or 500 million. The effort goes into the production, not the distribution. This means that Small Market productions can finally rival Big Market productions. Boom! That’s a “level playing field” with equal opportunity for all competitors – small or large. See the related assertion in the Appendix VIDEO below.

The expression the “world is flat” does not only refer to globalization, but also to the emergence of communication technologies, in that across the planet can now interact with us as if they are next door. ICT flattens the round world.

“Get ready, here it comes’.

Oops, too late! If we are only now planning to address this actuality then we are already behind – playing catch-up. Let’s finally catch-up with a leap-frog approach.

Let’s get busy …

… let’s do the work to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders – high tech, low tech or no tech – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to elevate Caribbean society. 🙂

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

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

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

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

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.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

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.

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

——————–

Appendix VIDEO – SMW ’18: JD Fox Talks Making Small-Market Sports Streaming Look Big League – https://youtu.be/wq5x_0e3wDM

Posted Dec 12, 2018 – Streaming Media’s Tim Siglin interviews JD Fox, Director of Partnerships and Product Management at PrestoSports, at Sports Streaming Summit and Streaming Media West 2018.

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ICT, Model, Transform

Pandemic Playbook – Caribbean Inadequacies: Missing the Bubble Opportunities

Posted on August 26, 2020 in Government, Industries, Social, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Welcome to the … Bubble.

This is the only business model – in the leisure industry – that can find success right now.

For the record, we are addressing the concept of a travel bubble (think isolation bubble):

What is a “travel bubble?”
Travel bubbles, also called travel bridges or corona corridors, do away with that waiting period for a select group of travelers from certain countries where the coronavirus has been contained. “In a ‘travel bubble’ a set of countries agree to open their borders to each other, but keep borders to all other countries closed. So people can move freely within the bubble, but cannot enter from the outside,” says Per Block, an Oxford University researcher in social mobility and methodology. “The idea is to allow people additional freedom without causing additional harm.” Travel bubbles are an extension of one of Block’s research specialties —social bubbles, where people expand their quarantine zones to include more people they consider safe. Block is one of the authors of an Oxford study that suggests social bubbles could be an effective strategy to alleviating coronavirus isolation, although the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed. – Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/five-things-know-about-travel-bubbles-180974983/

The foregoing says “the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed”. Well, the review is in; according to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the US, the “Bubble” works. See the experiences here:

2020 NBA Bubble
The 2020 NBA Bubble, also referred to as the Disney Bubble^[1][2] or Orlando Bubble,^[3][4] is the isolation zone at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, that was created by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to protect its players from the COVID-19 pandemic during the final eight games of the 2019–20 regular season and throughout the 2020 NBA playoffs. Twenty-two out of the 30 NBA teams were invited to participate, with games being held behind closed doors at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and the teams staying at Disney World hotels.^[5]

The bubble is a $170 million investment by the NBA to protect its 2019–20 season, which was initially suspended by the pandemic on March 11, 2020.^[6] On June 4, the NBA approved the plan to resume the season at Disney World, inviting the 22 teams that were within six games of a playoff spot when the season was suspended. Although initially receiving a mixed reaction from players and coaches,^[7] the teams worked together to use the bubble as a platform for the Black Lives Matter movement.^[8]

After playing three exhibition scrimmages inside the bubble from July 22 to 28, the invited teams each began playing the eight additional regular season games to determine playoff seeding on July 30.^[9][10] The 2020 NBA playoffs then began on August 17, and the 2020 NBA Finals is scheduled to begin on September 30. – Source: Retrieved August 26, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_NBA_Bubble

—————

VIDEO – The NBA and Tyler Perry provide Bubble Models – https://youtu.be/WGnP4SfHpZo

Posted August 16, 2020 – Story – With pro basketball teams and staff living in isolation, actors and crew quarantining at Tyler Perry’s Atlanta studios, and families forming self-isolating “pods” for the sake of their children during the coronavirus pandemic, many are working hard to keep protective social bubbles from bursting. Lee Cowan reports.

Despite the threats of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the Bubble is working! The economic engine of the NBA is restored-protected; that means the preservation of a $8.76 Billion business enterprise; see the related chart here:

The COVID-19 pandemic is also wreaking havoc on the economy for the Caribbean – where our primary economic driver is leisure travel; no people are consuming vacations nor cruises. We have no Bubble to mitigate this pandemic.

There is an over-arching need for mitigation. See the outstanding COVID-19 cases in the Caribbean (CariCom member-states) as of today:

Source: https://moodle.caribdata.org/lms/pluginfile.php/4951/mod_resource/content/0/26Aug2020%20Regional%20Briefing%20.pdf

We need to look-listen-and-learn from this Bubble strategy; we are missing out!

This commentary is the continuation of the Teaching Series for the month of August 2020 on the subject of Pandemic Playbooks. This is entry 2-of-6 from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. There is the need for Travel Bubbles in our Playbook. According to the foregoing VIDEO, it works for the NBA, for Tyler Perry Studios and it can work for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean.

“It is possible to beat COVID at it’s own game”.

Yes, we can! The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Pandemic Playbook: Worldwide Leadership – Plan ==> Actual
Pandemic Playbook: Caribbean Inadequacies – Missing the Bubble Opportunities
Pandemic Playbook: Bahamas Example – ‘Too Little Too Late’
Pandemic Playbook: Only at the Precipice – ENCORE
Pandemic Playbook: To Be or Not To Be – COVID Vaccine
Pandemic Playbook: Success – Looks like New Zealand

This is our objective. Yes, we can!!! With a Pandemic Playbook, it is conceivable, believable and achievable to restore our society and economic engines.

In order to accomplish our objectives, there is the need for this Pandemic Playbook for the Caribbean as a whole and for the individual member-states. The playbook must include Bubbles. Imagine this vision:

An all-inclusive hotel resort with controlled entry-exit. Imagine too, all staff on the property being tested regularly and limited to the property for a few weeks contiguously; lastly, the visitors (tourists) only enter the Bubble after qualified testing.

Wait?! Controlled Access and guaranteed testing?! This is exactly what the CruiseLlines intend to do to restart their economic engine. Remember, these cruise ships cost $Billion; this investment is wasted if they are not transporting passengers and providing leisure. They are crying out for a Bubble strategy.

See their Cruise Bubble plans as portrayed in the Appendix below.

How about land-based resorts?

We strongly urge Caribbean hotels and resorts to copy the NBA model. In fact, while Orlando has privilege of facilitating the NBA end-of-season and playoffs, other communities can (and should) propose solutions for other leagues.

Imagine NCAA Basketball (National Collegiate Athletic Association) …

… there is the annual Battle for Atlantis (Nassau/Paradise Island) tournament; see more here:

The Battle 4 Atlantis is an early-season college basketball tournament that takes place in late November of each year, at Atlantis Paradise Island on Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas, on the week of the US holiday of Thanksgiving. The games are played in the Imperial Arena, a grand ballroom which is turned into a basketball venue.^[1] The tournament is known for being the richest Division I men’s early-season college basketball tournament. Schools are awarded $2 million in exchange for their participation in the men’s event.^[2]

In 2020, a women’s tournament will be added, also featuring eight teams. It will immediately precede the men’s tournament.^[3]

The tournament is promoted by Bad Boy Mowers, and is televised by ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.^[4]Source: Retrieved August 26, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_4_Atlantis

Can “we” continue this for 2020, but this time in a Bubble, with these modification:

Every player, coach and support staffer must be continuously tested negative to participate.
Increase field from 4 teams to 32; modelling the World Cup by FIFA.
8 Groups of 4 teams each; during Group Play, each team plays each other in the group; guaranteeing 3 games.
Elimination Rounds continue with the 16 top Teams, then 8, then 4, then 2, then Champion.
Facilitate e-Learning for all College Students in the Bubble – they are student athletes.
Allow fans, family and media to participate if they comply with the protocols.
Perfect the model and repeat through the Caribbean with more 32 Team combinations.

There you have “it”: Caribbean deficiencies averted; economic opportunities exploited.

The Go Lean book and roadmap provides a glimpse of a new Caribbean that is ready to explore all the opportunities in the Sports eco-system. This plan was published as a Playbook … 7 years ago, far before there was a COVID-19 virus.

Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.

The CU/Go Lean roadmap presented a new Caribbean preparedness that is ready, willing and able to deliver economic optimization and Good Governance.

The CU structure allows for a Sports Management functionality – Sports & Culture Administration – within the Cabinet-level agency, the Department of State (Page 81). The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt the needed community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. We need these types of efficiencies in our Pandemic Playbook. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 229 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Sports

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Embrace the advent of the Caribbean Single Market & Economy initiative of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. This will allow for the unification of the region of 30 member-states into a single market of 42 million people and a GDP exceeding $800 Billion (per 2010). This market size and multi-lingual realities allows for broadcasting rights with SAP-style language options for English, Spanish, French and Dutch. This makes the region attractive for media contracts for broadcast rights, spectrum auctions and sports marketing. The Olympics have demonstrated that sports can be profitable “big business”, and a great source of jobs and economic activity. The CU will copy the Olympic model, and harness the potential in many other sporting endeavors, so as to make the region a better place to live, work and play.
2	CU Games
3	Fairgrounds as Sport Venues
4	Regulate Amateur, Professional & Academically-Aligned Leagues
5	Establish Sports Academies
6	“Super” Amateur Sport Association Promote All-Star tournaments (pre-season and post-season) for Amateur (School and Junior) Athletics Associations winners. This includes team sports (soccer, basketball), school sports (track/field) and individual sports (tennis, golf, etc.).
7	Regulator/Registrar of Scholar-Athletes – Assuage Abandonment
8	Sports Tourism The CU will promote tournaments and clinics to encourage advancement in certain sports. These tournaments are aimed at the foreign markets (US, Canada, Europe, Central and South America) so as to generate sports-tourism traffic.
9	*Professional Agents and Player Management Oversight (a la Bar/Lawyer Associations)*
10	*Impanel the CU Anti-Doping* Agency**

This Go Lean book presents that the organizational structure to deliver a Pandemic Playbook must be in place first – embedded at the onset of the CU Trade Federation – Day One / Step One. Then we will be ready to get “lucky” and avail ourselves of all the profits that Sports eco-system can deliver. We have detailed that profit-potential before; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries that focused on this industry-opportunity:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18392	Refuse to Lose – A Lesson from Sports
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14527	March Madness 2018 – The Business Model of NCAA Basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14160	The Business Model of Watching the SuperBowl … and Commercials
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12259	The Business Model of the College World Series
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11939	Bad Models: Rio Olympics & Athens Olympics; Same Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11287	Creating a Sports Business Legacy in the Pro-Surfing Eco-system
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10820	Miami Sports Eco-System: Dominican’s ‘Home Away from Home’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8272	Lebronomy Fulfilled – Economic Impact of the Return of the NBA Great
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6464	Sports Business Role Model – ‘WWE Network’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Business Role Model – espnW
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Business Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1943	The Future of Golf; Vital for Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players and Impact in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	Smart Business Model: The Art & Science of Temporary Stadiums
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Franchise values in NBA Basketball? A “Bubble” or Real? Appears Real!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	Among the 10 Things We Want from the US: Sports Professionalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Caribbean’s Olympics: A Dream or A Nightmare?

We want sports! We want profit; We want Good Governance. Most assuredly, we want a Pandemic Playbook so that we can cope with all changes: good, bad and ugly.

Welcome to the ugly of COVID-19.

It’s not too late, we can still reform and transform our Caribbean societal engines (economic, security and governance) to better respond-rebuild-recover from emergencies like this pandemic. This is how we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

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

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 accidence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

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

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

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

——————-

Appendix – COVID-19 testing ‘very likely’ when Royal Caribbean returns to cruising, executive says
By: Curtis Tate

Royal Caribbean is considering coronavirus testing as part of its plan to resume sailing, a company executive said during a quarterly earnings presentation Monday.

The company has paused its cruise operations since March and hopes to resume them in November, if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifts its no-sail order, which is set to expire at the end of September. The U.S. cruise industry has voluntarily extended its sailing suspension through Oct. 31. Though company executives gave no firm date for the resumption of cruises, one said testing would be key.

“It’s very likely that testing will occur,” said Michael Bayley, CEO of Royal Caribbean International.He offered no additional details, including whether testing would be for crew members and passengers or to which cruise lines testing would apply.

Royal Caribbean Group owns four cruise brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Silversea and Azamara.

Royal Caribbean canceled 1,545 sailings since March 13, including all of its sailings in the second quarter. The company posted a $1.3 billion loss for the quarter and expects to post a loss for the third quarter and for the year.

One tangible impact: Royal Caribbean Group was supposed to receive five new ships by the end of 2021 but now will take delivery of only three: Silver Moon in October, Odyssey of the Seas, in early 2021 and Silver Dawn late in 2021.

COVID-19 impacts: Cruise lines are shedding ships from their fleets. Here’s what it means for cruisers

Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas was supposed to make its debut next year as the world’s largest cruise ship, but its arrival is on hold indefinitely because of the pandemic.

The ship will be able to carry 6,000 passengers and 2,200 crew members.

Royal Caribbean Group’s fleet includes 62 ships, with another 16 on order.

Jason Liberty, the company’s chief financial officer, said it was looking at selling older ships in the fleet.

“We are evaluating opportunities to sell ships,” he said, while not specifying which ones.

The company reported bookings for 2021 comparable with years past, in a sign that demand for cruising could return. Bayley noted that younger people and loyalty customers were driving sales.

“I’m hopeful we’re going to see a lot of pent-up demand,” he said. “People certainly want to have a vacation next year.”

In the near term, Liberty said, the joint Healthy Sail Panel of Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is looking at every facet of safety, from whether ultraviolet lights can effectively kill the virus to how to improve meal service.

Some of the proposed changes might prove costly, such as whether to modify ships to promote social distancing. And such recommendations could smack into the evolving nature of how to best fight the coronavirus, including how soon a vaccine might be on the way.

The company could resume sailings in China and Australia before November, but executives made no commitments in the quarterly earnings presentation Monday.

Ultimately, the prevalence of the virus would determine when sailings can resume, Liberty said.

“It’s a real puzzle,” he said. “There are so many variables to consider.”

Contributing: Morgan Hines, USA TODAY

Source: USA Today – Posted August 10, 2020; retrieved August 26, 2020 from: https://www.fayobserver.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/08/10/royal-caribbean-cruises-likely-have-covid-19-testing-upon-return/3302471001/

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Pandemic Playbook – Worldwide Leadership: Plan ==> Actual

Posted on August 25, 2020 in Government, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a pit” – The Bible; Matthew 15:14

This is such graphic language – a word picture – that it is obvious what it means. Even still, the encyclopedic reference is as follows:

“The blind leading the blind” is an idiom and a metaphor in the form of a parallel phrase; it is used to describe a situation where a person who knows nothing is getting advice and help from another person who knows almost nothing. Wikipedia

The world is embattled with the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. There is the need for good leadership in contending with this crisis. (Yet still, the US President is symbolic of a “Blind Guide” leading the world into ruin. See this bad American example as portrayed in the Appendix D VIDEO below).

The leadership being lamented here is only the political leadership. Yes, good political leadership is definitely lacking.

But alas, this is a Public Health crisis. So how is the Public Health leadership in this crisis?

Answer: Good enough! The problem is the blind political leadership driving the Public Health officials.

On the surface, the world’s Public Health leadership appears to be technocratic (and “Spot On”). See more on the motives and momentum of the primary Public Health and infectious disease agency, the World Health Organization, in the Appendix A below. That’s on the global front; for a Caribbean focus, we have dictates from these two regional organizations:

The US’s Centers of Disease Control (CDC) – see details in Appendix B below
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – see details in Appendix C below.

Now more than ever, we need to understand these foregoing organizations – WHO, CDC and PAHO. These entities are responsible for any plan that “we” may have for pandemic protections. Yes, these players present their playbooks. In fact, these organizations have been addressed in previous blog-commentaries from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean; as in this one from May 23, 2014:

Painful and rapid spread of new virus – Chikungunya – in Caribbean
[The book] Go Lean … Caribbean therefore constitutes a change for the Caribbean. This is a roadmap to consolidate 30 member-states of 4 different languages and 5 colonial legacies (American, British, Dutch, French, Spanish) into a the [Caribbean Union] Trade Federation [(CU)] with the tools/techniques to bring immediate change to the region to benefit one and all member-states. This includes the monitoring/tracking/studying the origins of common and emerging viruses. This empowered CU agency will liaison with foreign entities with the same scope, like the Pan American Health Organization, US’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

There is the plan and there is the actual.

The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is creating havoc in many countries around the world: killings hundreds of thousands and disrupting economic engines. But there appears to only be ONE problem with this Crisis Management: Political Leadership stemming out of the US. In particular, the political leadership of the federal government under Donald Trump; and other countries following Trump’s lead, i.e. Brazil.

But some have refused to follow that blind guide; see this related story here that shows how the State of California opposed the political-directed policies issued by the politically-directed CDC when they recommended looser Coronavirus testing and travel protocols. See here:

Title: California officials oppose CDC over looser coronavirus testing and travel protocols
By: COLLEEN SHALBY, PHIL WILLON
New guidance on coronavirus testing and travel issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drew strong pushback from California officials Wednesday.

The CDC is no longer recommending a 14-day quarantine for travelers. After the government issued a mandatory quarantine for travelers arriving in the U.S. from Wuhan, China, in February, the guidance that travelers isolate for two weeks was adopted by several states and encouraged by local officials as a key tool in mitigating the spread of the novel coronavirus — especially among people who may be asymptomatic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said he disagrees with the CDC’s new guidance and insisted that it will not impact California.

“I don’t agree with the new CDC guidance. Period. Full stop,” he said. “We will not be influenced by that change.”

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said those traveling to places with high transmission rates should be mindful of the potential to contract the virus and expose others to it. She also reminded residents that L.A. County is a COVID-19 hot spot and traveling from the community could present a risk to outsiders.

“My message really is: Whether you’re flying or staying home, you need to be mindful that we have to reduce our transmission,” she said. “The way we do that is by reducing exposure to other people.”

The CDC also is no longer advising those without symptoms to be tested, even if they have been in contact with an infected person. Ferrer, however, said the county’s recommendation still stands: Anyone who has been exposed to someone with the virus should get tested and self-quarantine.

“This is particularly important if a public health official or doctor tells you to get tested,” she said.

Newsom said Wednesday that California had signed a contract with an East Coast medical diagnostics company to more than double the number of coronavirus tests that can be processed in the state, eventually expanding capacity to roughly a quarter of a million tests a day.

Under the $1.4-billion agreement, a new Santa Clarita lab will be able to provide testing results within two days, far quicker than the average five- to seven-day processing times offered by other labs.

The expanded testing capacity and quicker results will increase the ability of health officials to quickly isolate people who test positive for the virus and to track down and test those who came in contact with them, Newsom said, steps that are crucial to slowing the spread of COVID-19.

The new lab is expected to begin processing coronavirus tests in November. When the lab is at full capacity in March and processing as many as 150,000 tests per day, the cost per test is expected to be a little more than $30, Newsom said. Medicare and Medi-Cal pay about $100 per test, and the average overall cost varies from $150 to $200 per test, state officials said.

Reducing testing costs not only will save money for workers and their employers but also lower costs for Medi-Cal, the federally subsidized insurance program for low-income Californians, the governor said.

“This is exactly what the federal government should be doing,” Newsom said. “Had the federal government done this some time ago, you wouldn’t see average costs [per] test at $150 to $200 — costing the taxpayers, quite literally, tens of billions of dollars, costing employers billions and billions of dollars, costing the health plans billions of dollars as well.”

The news comes as California fights to keep its case count and hospitalization numbers down. The state’s 14-day average for positive tests is at 6.1%, and hospitalizations over that same period have decreased by 17%, Newsom said Wednesday.

In L.A. County, officials reported 58 additional COVID-19 deaths Wednesday and 1,642 additional cases. Those numbers are lower than what was reported just a month ago, but higher than Tuesday’s daily case count, which dipped below 1,000 for the first time since early June.

The drop in infections was reported the same day that the California Department of Public Health reported the county’s 14-day average case rate had dropped below 200 per 100,000 residents. That threshold would allow elementary schools to apply for waivers to hold in-person classes, but on Wednesday, Ferrer said the county is not ready to make that move.

Officials also reported that 1,200 pregnant women and girls between the ages of 14 and 52 have tested positive for the virus and two have died from complications. Of the 193 babies who were tested at birth, eight were positive. This marks the first time the county has reported positive infections among newborn babies.

The number of cases in L.A. County, which totals more than 233,000, surged in June after the county rapidly reopened various sectors of the economy following several months of closures. Activity related to Memorial Day weekend and informal gatherings also contributed to an increase in cases throughout the state.

In addition, mass protests over the death of George Floyd erupted during that time, although officials have said that those outdoor demonstrations did not contribute to the massive surge in new coronavirus infections. Still, it is impossible for officials to trace cases that originate in public spaces.

The statewide surge in cases continued after the July 4 weekend, followed by a reporting backlog error that sent daily infections into record territory.

Those numbers have just begun to decline in recent weeks, as has the number of hospitalizations in California.

The state’s seven-day average for positive coronavirus test results is 5.7%. That is below the country’s overall average, which according to Johns Hopkins University is 6.1%.

But maintaining that progress is not guaranteed if social distancing practices are relaxed, officials warn. In an effort to continue slowing the spread of the virus, some counties are offering to pay workers to stay home and isolate if they contract the virus.

Sacramento County health officials are working on a proposal to offer a stipend of about $12.50 per hour to workers who contract the virus but cannot work from home. The payout amounts to about $1,000 for two weeks.

Los Angeles County, which accounts for the bulk of the state’s more than 682,000 infections and nearly 12,500 deaths, has not introduced any wage-replacement plans similar to those in the Bay Area. But the county is offering residents who complete an interview with a contact tracer a $25 gift certificate.

Source: Posted and retrieved August 26, 2020 from: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-26/l-a-county-daily-covid-19-cases-dip-below-1-000-for-first-time-since-early-june

Related: How a rush to reopen drove Los Angeles County into a health crisis

This subject matter relates to Good Governance and the delivery of the implied Social Contract; which is defined as when …

“Citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights”.

This commentary starts a Teaching Series for the month of August 2020 on the subject of Pandemic Playbooks – the need for them and the deficiency there of here in the Caribbean. This is entry 1-of-6 from the movement behind the Go Lean book. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Pandemic Playbook: Worldwide Leadership – Plan ==> Actual
Pandemic Playbook: Caribbean Inadequacies – Missing the Bubble Opportunities
Pandemic Playbook: Bahamas Example – ‘Too Little Too Late’
Pandemic Playbook: Only at the Precipice – ENCORE
Pandemic Playbook: To Be or Not To Be – COVID Vaccine
Pandemic Playbook: Success – Looks like New Zealand

This need for a Pandemic Playbook is implied in this Go Lean roadmap to elevate Caribbean life. There is the need to reboot, reform and transform all societal engines including: economics, security and governance. The actuality of a pandemic and related health care deliveries impact all three of these societal engines. This is what is meant by the term New Guards.

The Go Lean book and roadmap provides a glimpse of a new Caribbean that is ready with these New Guards. These are not foreigners. These are fellow Caribbean brothers and sisters, representing the 30 member-states in the region. They are ready, willing and able to help deliver Good Governance.

The CU structure allows for an Emergency Management functionality within the Homeland Security Department. This CU version is modeled on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the US. See this sample as related in a previous blog-commentary …

Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
… that agency’s emergency response is based on small, decentralized teams trained in such areas as the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT), Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), and Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS).

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. We need an efficient Pandemic Playbook to contend with this kind of emergency in every community. In addition to all the directions for optimizing the societal engines, there is one advocacy in the book for fostering a better Emergency Management eco-system. This includes Disaster Planning, Response & Recovery. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 196 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Emergency Management

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (according to 2010 metrics). This treaty calls for a collective security agreement for the Caribbean member-states so as to prepare-respond to natural disasters, emergency incidents and assuage against systemic threats against the homeland. The CU employs the professional arts and sciences of Emergency Management to spread the costs, risks and premium base across the entire region and refers to more than just medical scenarios, but rather any field of discipline that can impact the continuity of a community or an individual. The CU also has the direct responsibility for emergencies in the Exclusive Economic Zone and Self Governing Entities.
2	Trauma Centers The CU envisions 6 strategically placed Level-1 trauma centers, and a series or lower level centers, placed throughout the region to service the entire population. The goal will be to ensure that every citizen is within a 1 hour transport from the closest trauma center. The trauma center may be physically located within a hospital campus, or stand-alone, but will be governed (and funded) by the CU and not the member-state’s public health system. (See Appendix ZM on Page 336).
3	Airlift / Sealift – Getting there by Helicopters, Airplanes and Boats
4	Mobile Surgical Centers and Tele-Medicine The CU will deploy specialized trailers that function as surgical operating theaters, recovery rooms and diagnostic laboratories. The mobile hospitals will include attendant functions for pharmaceuticals, power, and communications. The communications allow for tele-medicine tactics to engage specialized clinicians that may be remote. These trailers can be positioned at sites of emergency events to better respond after disasters or when normal infrastructure is compromised.
5	Epidemiology – Viral & Bacterial Rapid Response Due to the systemic threat, epidemic response and disease control will be coordinated at the CU Cabinet level, by the Department of Health. In the event of an outbreak, the CU will assume jurisdiction of the emergency “event” with the authority to commandeer local resources, quarantine populations and blockade transport to/from the affected area.
6	Mobile Command Centers
7	Intelligence Gathering & Analysis
8	Casualty Insurance Plans – Reinsurance “Sidecars”
9	Volunteer Fire – Rescue Brigades
10	ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library

This Go Lean book presents that the organizational structure to deliver on a Pandemic Playbook must be embedded in the Emergency Management apparatus of the CU Trade Federation on Day One / Step One of the ascension of this Go Lean roadmap. This is part of the Homeland Security mandate; this is Good Governance. Many more details have been presented in other previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20052	Natural Disasters: The Price of Paradise
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19409	Coronavirus: ‘Clear and Present’ Threat to Economic Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17500	Continuity of Business: Learning from Systems’ failures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15310	Industrial Reboot with Trauma Centers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13746	Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12949	Charity Management: Grow Up Already!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10771	Logical Addresses – ‘Life or Death’ Consequences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8943	Zika’s Drug Breakthrough – End-Game of an Playbook
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896	The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449	‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7327	Zika, the Virus – A 4-Letter Word
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4720	Lesson Learned – Mitigating SARS in Hong Kong
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4308	911 – Emergency Response: System in Crisis
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2397	Lesson Learned – Monitoring and Mitigating Ebola

We want Good Governance and we want a Pandemic Playbook so that we can “break glass in case of an emergency”.

It IS an emergency now!

So we must reform and transform our Caribbean governing engines and Homeland Security apparatus. We must be able to better respond-rebuild-recover from emergencies like natural disasters and pandemics.

This commitment would fulfill the delivery of the Social Contract. This is how we can make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work, heal and play. The people and institutions of the region are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap; this plan is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

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

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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

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

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

—————–

Appendix A – World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health.^[1] The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency’s governing structure and principles, states its main objective as “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”^[2] It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with six semi-autonomous regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.

The WHO was established by constitution on 7 April 1948,^[3] …

The WHO’s broad mandate includes advocating for universal healthcare, monitoring public health risks, coordinating responses to health emergencies, and promoting human health and well being.^[7] It provides technical assistance to countries, sets international health standards and guidelines, and collects data on global health issues through the World Health Survey. Its flagship publication, the World Health Report, provides expert assessments of global health topics and health statistics on all nations.^[8] The WHO also serves as a forum for summits and discussions on health issues.^[1]

The WHO has played a leading role in several public health achievements, most notably the eradication of smallpox, the near-eradication of polio, and the development of an Ebola vaccine. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer; healthy diet, nutrition, and food security; occupational health; and substance abuse.

…

2019–20 COVID-19 pandemic
The WHO faced criticism from the United States’ Trump administration while “guid[ing] the world in how to tackle the deadly” COVID-19 pandemic.^[199] The WHO created an Incident Management Support Team on 1 January 2020, one day after Chinese health authorities notified the organization of a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology.^{[199][200][201]} On 5 January the WHO notified all member states of the outbreak,^[202] and in subsequent days provided guidance to all countries on how to respond,^[202] and confirmed the first infection outside China.^[203] The organization warned of limited human-to-human transmission on 14 January, and confirmed human-to-human transmission one week later.^{[204][205][206]} On 30 January the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,^[207][208] considered a “call to action” and “last resort” measure for the international community.^[209] The WHO’s recommendations were followed by many countries including Germany, Singapore and South Korea, but not by the United States.^[199] The WHO subsequently established a program to deliver testing, protective, and medical supplies to low-income countries to help them manage the crisis.^[199]

While organizing the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and overseeing “more than 35 emergency operations” for cholera, measles and other epidemics internationally,^[199] the WHO has been criticized for praising China’s public health response to the crisis while seeking to maintain a “diplomatic balancing act” between China and the United States.^{[201][210][211][212]} Commentators including John Mackenzie of the WHO’s emergency committee and Anne Schuchat of the US CDC have stated that China’s official tally of cases and deaths may be an underestimation. David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in response that “China has been very transparent and open in sharing its data… and they opened up all of their files with the WHO.”^[213]

Opposition from the Trump Administration
On 14 April 2020, United States President Donald Trump pledged to halt United States funding to the WHO while reviewing its role in “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”^[214] The United States had paid half of its annual assessed fees to the WHO as of 31 March 2020; it would ordinarily pay its remaining fees in September 2020.^[215] World leaders and health experts largely condemned President Trump’s announcement, which came amid criticism of his response to the outbreak in the United States.^[216] WHO called the announcement “regrettable” and defended its actions in alerting the world to the emergence of COVID-19.^[217] Trump critics also said that such a suspension would be illegal, though legal experts speaking to Politifact said its legality could depend on the particular way in which the suspension was executed.^[215] On 8 May 2020, the United States blocked a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at promoting nonviolent international cooperation during the pandemic, and mentioning the WHO.^[218] On 18 May 2020, Trump threatened to permanently terminate all American funding of WHO and consider ending U.S. membership.^[219] On 29 May 2020, President Trump announced plans to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO,^[220] though it was unclear whether he had the authority to do so.^[221] On 7 July 2020, President Trump formally notified the UN of his intent to withdraw the United States from the WHO.^[222]

…

Source: Retrieved August 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization

—————–

Appendix B – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a national public health institute in the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services,^[2] and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.^[3]

Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally.^[4] The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease control and prevention. It especially focuses its attention on infectious disease, food borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention and educational activities designed to improve the health of United States citizens. The CDC also conducts research and provides information on non-infectious diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, and is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes.^[5]

…

COVID-19
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was discovered in the U.S. on January 20, 2020.^[84] But widespread COVID-19 testing in the United States was effectively stalled until February 28, when federal officials revised a faulty CDC test, and days afterward, when the Food and Drug Administration began loosening rules that had restricted other labs from developing tests.^[85] In February 2020, as the CDC’s early coronavirus test malfunctioned nationwide,^[86] CDC Director Robert R. Redfield reassured fellow officials on the White House Coronavirus Task Force that the problem would be quickly solved, according to White House officials. It took about three weeks to sort out the failed test kits, which may have been contaminated during their processing in a CDC lab. Later investigations by the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services found that the CDC had violated its own protocols in developing its tests.^[86][87]

In May 2020, The Atlantic reported that the CDC was conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests — tests that diagnose current coronavirus infections, and tests that measure whether someone has ever had the virus. The magazine said this distorted several important metrics, provided the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic, and overstated the country’s testing ability.^[88]

In July 2020, the Trump administration ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC and instead send all COVID-19 patient information to a database at the Department of Health and Human Services. Some health experts opposed the order and warned that the data might become politicized or withheld from the public.^[89] On July 15, the CDC alarmed health care groups by temporarily removing COVID-19 dashboards from its website. It restored the data a day later.^[90][91][92]

…

Source: Retrieved August 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention

—————–

Appendix C – Pan American Health Organization

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public health agency working to improve health and living standards of the people of the Americas. It is part of the United Nations system, serving as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization and as the health organization of the Inter-American System. It is known in Latin America as the OPS or OPAS (Spanish: Organización Panamericana de la Salud; Portuguese: Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde).

Description
PAHO has scientific and technical expertise at its headquarters, in its 27 country offices, and its three Pan American centers, all working with the countries of the Americas in dealing with priority health issues. The health authorities of PAHO’s Member States set PAHO’s technical and administrative policies through its Governing Bodies. PAHO Member States include all 35 countries in the Americas; Puerto Rico is an Associate Member. France, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are Participating States, and Portugal and Spain are Observer States.

The Organization’s essential mission is to strengthen national and local health systems and improve the health of the peoples of the Americas, in collaboration with Ministries of Health, other government and international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, universities, social security agencies, community groups, and many others.

PAHO promotes universal health coverage and universal access to health and strengthening of health systems based on primary health care strategies. It assists countries in fighting infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, dengue, HIV and tuberculosis as well as the region’s growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. PAHO engages in technical cooperation with ministries of health and facilitates coordination with other sectors to promote health in all policies.
…

History
The organization was founded in December 1902. It was originally called the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau.^[3]:125 In 1949, PAHO and WHO signed an agreement making PAHO the American Regional Office (AMRO) of WHO. Today the usual phrasing is “Regional Office for the Americas”.

…

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Health_Organization

—————–

APPENDIX D VIDEO – COVID-19: How Did The US Get It So Wrong? – https://youtu.be/ltJV3IMP-Dg

CNA Insider
America has the highest number of #COVID19 infections and deaths in the world. Why was its response to the global pandemic too late and too little? From President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, to the US Centre For Disease Control & Prevention’s failure to roll out testing earlier, and the lack of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) for healthcare workers, the programme #Insight looks at the issues.

The full episode: https://youtu.be/ZK3PYcnHZBQ

For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER! https://www.youtube.com/cnainsider

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Rise from the Ashes – War: “What is it good for?”

Posted on June 28, 2020 in Ethos, Planning, Social, Tactical

If only you could see what this city looked like before it was bombed in the war; and then compare it to now, the end product of restoring and rebuilding. Which city? It could be:

London
Berlin
Tokyo
Hiroshima
Saigon ==> Ho Chi Minh City
Sarajevo

The list could be extended to include one bombed-out city after another. Fortunately, that list will not include any Caribbean cities. This is fortunate for “no lost of life”, but unfortunate for no post-war restoration-rebuilding. Yes, the imagery of the mythical Phoenix Bird is best applied to a city that was bombed-out and then rebuilt after the war.

Nonetheless, we need that Phoenix Bird here in the Caribbean. We need to restore, rebuild and “rise from the ashes”.

Question: War – what is it good for?

Answer: Rebuilding after the war.

Consider this example of Dresden, Germany.

This is the continuation of the June 2020 Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean; this is entry 5 of 6. This movement presents a Teaching Series every month on a subject that is germane to Caribbean life. There is the accepted fact that it is OK to make changes – reform and transform – in response to any crisis; in fact there is the popular expression “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. Our focus this month is related to the current crisis – think Coronavirus COVID-19. We are looking at how-when to Rise from the Ashes from this and other crises. For this entry, we lament the absence of perhaps one of the greatest motivators for change, War.

The full catalog for this month’s series is listed as follows:

Rising from the Ashes – The Phoenix rises from the Pandemic
Rising from the Ashes – One person – Dead or Alive – can make a difference
Rising from the Ashes – Natural Disasters – The Price of Paradise
Rising from the Ashes – Political Revolutions – Calling ‘Balls and Strikes’
Rising from the Ashes – War – “What is it good for?” – ENCORE
Rising from the Ashes – Wrong Ethos could also rise – Cautionary tale of patriotic German Jews

There are other Agents of Change that we have had to contend with here in the Caribbean. The Go Lean book identified these 4 agents: Technology, Climate Change, Globalization and the Aging Diaspora. These crises – though not as impactful as a war – also allow us to make changes. We have presented this thesis in many other blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19694	Technology Assimilation: E-Learning Eco-system is finally mature
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19669	Technology Assimilation: Work From Home options bring opportunities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19568	BHAG – Need ‘Big Brother’ for Global Pandemics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19351	Preparing Alternate Energy to abate Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18817	Deficiencies in Food Security have created a Plan for our ‘Bread Basket’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18243	After Hurricane Dorian, Regionalism is no longer optional
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17878	Profiting from the Migration Crisis
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16368	Aging Diaspora – Finding Home … anywhere.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15935	Learning from the Master: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”

The crisis of an active war in the region would be earth-shattering here in the Caribbean; there would be good, bad and ugly consequences. The theme of lamenting the absence of war in the Caribbean had been published in a previous Go Lean blog-commentary. It is only apropos to Encore that submission – from July 21, 2019 – here and now:

—————-

Go Lean Commentary – What Went Wrong? ‘We’ never had our war!

War … what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing! – Song: Edwin Starr – Motown 1969; see Appendix below.

Well, not so fast.

This started just as a “catch phrase”, but now it has emerged as a fact in Economic History:

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

So what is war good for? Providing a crisis that can be exploited to reform and transform society.

That’s it; wrap it up; we can now summarize so many changes in world history as they manifested as a result of war. Consider these examples:

War Conflict	Take-a-way
Napoleonic Wars \| 1803 – 1815 Spanish New World assumed independence from Spain. This was true in North America (Mexico), Central America and South America. But the Caribbean territories did not abdicate from “Mama Espana” at that time.	Latin America Independence
American Civil War \| 1860 – 1865 The New World was premised on Slavery, exploiting the African race as a free labor source in all the Americas. This abhorrent institution would have definitely ended, one way or another. “The arc of history leans towards justice”. After the US Civil War – 625,000 dead White Men – no other wars were necessary in the New World; all Euro-influenced governments whittled slavery into extinction, one way or another.	Abolition & Emancipation
Great War / World War I 1914 – 1919 This war addressed the boiling point of class-ism in Europe – the Haves versus the Have-Nots – the Nobility System (Dukes, Counts, Bourgeoisie, etc.) did not survive the reconciliation that led to the cessation of conflicts. Communism emerged as a manifestation of the demand for equality.	Gender Equality; Worker Rights; Egalitarianism
World War II / Cold War \| 1939 – 1955 This war was a sequel to WW I; whatever remaining issues that were deferred in the WW I reconciliations were pushed forward for reckoning; think: Colonialism (in Africa, Asia and the Americas), Racial Supremacy, Human Rights assurances.	Human Rights; Decolonization; Majority Rule / Universal Suffrage
End of Cold War \| 1991 – 2016 The return to Nationalism in Europe did not provide governing solutions or the needed multi-racial reconciliations. That bill came due, as demonstrated with the Balkans Conflict (Bosnia, Serbia, etc.). A Migrant Crisis emerged for all States that refused to transform: think Middle East Islamic Fundamentalism, Sovereign Debt Crisis (Greece, etc.), and Brexit.	Economic Liberalization; Free Trade; Free Movement

In no shape or form are we rationalizing, justifying or excusing war. But, it is what it is!

Where there is conflict – blood on the streets – people tend to finally be motivated to remediate and mitigate the risks and threats for the conflict to ever rekindle. So this premise is true:

It is only at the precipice that people change.

This is why we can declare with such confidence that one of the things that went wrong in the Caribbean, is “we never had our war“. From the foregoing examples, all the reform and transformation that took place from these crises, did NOT benefit the Caribbean as we had “No War” here. (The Cuban Revolution ushered in Communism, but all the stewards of the Cuban people – culture, politics and commerce – simply fled; they left the island to the rebels, so the needed reform on societal values never took place – Cuba is still in “Freeze-Frame” from 1959).

This commentary continues the July series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This submission, 2-of-6 on the theme “What Went Wrong?” focuses on Caribbean history and why we still have many of the same defects that other societies – think North America and Europe yes, but even India and China – have already remediated. The full catalog:

What Went Wrong? Asking ‘Why’ is Important
What Went Wrong? ‘We’ never had our war!
What Went Wrong? ‘7 to 1’ – Caribbean ‘Less Than’
What Went Wrong? ‘Be our Guest’ – The Rules of Hospitality
What Went Wrong? Failing the Lessons from Infrastructure 101
What Went Wrong? Losing the Best; Nation-building with the Rest

In this series, reference is made to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines of the Caribbean member-states. We do not want war! But we want to make the progress that is possible when society reforms and transforms. And we want to do this without a war. The movement behind the Go Lean book asserts that this progress is possible. See how this theme was developed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16477	Transforming Hindus versus Women – What it means for us?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15580	The Cause of Caribbean Disunity: Religion’s Role – False Friend
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14633	Despite Embedded ‘Bad Nature’, Women Have Nurtured Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14378	Legislating Morality – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13063	Gender Equity without a ‘Battle of the Sexes’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13882	Managing ‘Change’ in California – Calm and Smooth Evolutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Learning from Modern Europe – Evolution without Revolution

Most of the Caribbean profess the religious affiliation with Christianity. The Founder of the Church, Jesus Christ, taught his followers an important lesson about manifestation versus faith. See here relating the story of Doubting Thomas:

A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the torture stake.

The Holy Scriptures relates, from the Gospel account of John 20: 24 – 29 NWT:

… ²⁴ But Thomas,+ one of the Twelve, who was called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples were telling him: “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them: “Unless I see in his hands the print* of the nails and stick my finger into the print of the nails and stick my hand into his side,+ I will never believe it.”
²⁶ Well, eight days later his disciples were again indoors, and [this time] Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and he stood in their midst and said: “May you have peace.”+ ²⁷ Next he said to Thomas: “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop doubting* but believe.” ²⁸ In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe. While it is only at the precipice that people change, how much better it would be for Caribbean society to change (reform and transform) without being at the precipice, without enduring the pangs of war. It is the assertion here that despite the heavy-lifting, “we” can succeed in optimizing Caribbean society … without war.

Is this possible? Can we reboot our society? Can we ‘weed out’ the bad ethos – i.e. rent-seeking and domestic violence – in our communities and adopt new more positive ethos? Can we implement the strategies and tactics we need to optimize our society, without first going to the brink of self-destruction?

Yes, we can!

This is the urging of the book Go Lean…Caribbean and the resultant roadmap. We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. Let’s get busy and go to work. This roadmap is conceivable, believe and achievable. We can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – Edwin Starr – War (What is it good for) – https://youtu.be/ztZI2aLQ9Sw

Matze 1987
Published on Aug 4, 2011 – Edwin Star – War

Lyrics:
War…huh…yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh ha haa ha
War…huh…yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutley nothing…say it again y’all
War..huh…look out…
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing…listen to me ohhhhh

WAR! I despise, ‘cos it means destruction of innocent lives,
War means tears to thousands of mother’s eyes,
When their sons gone to fight and lose their lives.

I said WAR!…huh…good God y’all,
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing…say it again
War! Huh…What is it good for
Absolutely nothing…listen to me

WAR! It ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker,
War. Friend only to the undertaker. Ohhh!
War is an enemy to all mankind,
The thought of war blows my mind.
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction then destruction…who wants to die? Ohhh

WAR! good God y’all huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing…say it say it SAY IT!
WAR!…uh huh yeah huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing…listen to me

WAR! It ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker,
War! It’s got one friend that’s the undertaker.
Ohhhh! War has shattered many a young man’s dream,
Made him disabled, bitter and mean,
Life is much too short and precious to spend fighting wars these days.
War can’t give life, it can only take it away!

Ohhh WAR! huh…good God y’all What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing…say it again War!…huh…woh oh oh Lord
What is it good for? Absolutely nothing…listen to me

War! It ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker,
War. Friend only to the undertaker…woo
Peace lovin’ understand then tell me,
Is there no place for them today?
They say we must fight to keep our freedom,
But Lord knows there’s got to be a better way.

Ohhhhhhh WAR! huh…good God y’all…
What is it good for?…you tell me!
Say it say it say it saaaay it!
War! good God now…huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it…NOTHING

Music in this video – Listen ad-free with YouTube Premium

Song: War
Artist: Edwin Starr
Album: Can You Dig It? The 70’s Soul Experience
Licensed to YouTube by: UMG (on behalf of Rhino); UMPI, AMRA, CMRRA, Sony ATV Publishing, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, SOLAR Music Rights Management, LatinAutor – SonyATV, LatinAutor, EMI Music Publishing, UMPG Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing, and 13 Music Rights Societies

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Good Leadership: Example – Mitigating Crime

Posted on May 31, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Implementation, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Why is leadership so important?

Think of society as a vessel or a vehicle; only one person “steers the ship” or drives the bus. The direction and speed of the vessel-vehicle is determined by the leadership; so too its safety. This is the actuality of the “Ship of State”. Yes, we put a lot of responsibilities and privileges in the hands of our societal leaders, so we had better choose well. We had better select those with Good Leadership skills, practices and intentions as our lives may depend on it.

In fact, this is the origins of civilization and society. City-States built walls to protect their occupants; kings were the warriors or commanders-in-chief protecting their people. Security was the only consideration for Good Leadership at that time; economic stewardship and efficient governance are all more-modern evolutions.

As related in a previous blog-commentary, the emergence of the implied Social Contract codified the expectations of all parties involved in society. Despite the forms of government or versions of constitutions, the principles are all similar in the expectation of citizens versus their governments. That Social Contract is summarized as follows:

Citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights.

This is a matter of public safety and security. Good Leadership ensures that the mutual deliveries of the Social Contract are fulfilled. Good Leadership, therefore, should mitigate crime in the jurisdictions of their homeland. (See the feature article from the Caribbean member-state of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Appendix below). While citizens may love their homeland, there must be the assurance that the homeland loves (and protects) their citizens back.

“Love their citizens back …”

This has long been a problem in many countries. There is blatant discrimination and unequal justice in many communities that have yet to reconcile their dysfunctional racial realities – think the United States of America. The primary responsibility for delivering public safety – for mitigating crime – is the local police, but for many American communities, the police do not “serve and protect”; they are the threat to peace and security. This commentary have long reported on “Cop on Black” atrocities in America; but this is also a problem in other countries like Canada, UK, France and the Netherlands.

Do you see that pattern?

Those countries are the exact destinations for many of the Caribbean Diaspora. The Black-and-Brown of the Caribbean had fled their homeland in search of refuge but instead have found a more threatening climate in their new homes. See the VIDEO in the Appendix below where the Black populations – and those that love them – are protesting. If only, these ones were able to prosper where planted in their ancestral homelands and did not have to leave in the first place.

This is the quest of the new Caribbean governance as presented in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean; the book posits that an embrace of Good Leadership can allow for these communities to reform and transform, allowing more success in the mitigation and remediation of crime.

This is the completion of the Teaching Series on Good Leadership from the movement behind the Go Lean book; this is entry 6 of 6 for the month of May 2020. This submission asserts that Good Leadership in the administration of a Caribbean regional security force and police force can have immediate effect on public safety and justice institutions – we can mitigate crime. The full catalog for this month’s series is listed as follows:

Good Leadership – Inaction could be deadly
Good Leadership – Caring builds trust; trust builds caring
Good Leadership – Agile: Next Generation of leadership and project delivery
Good Leadership – Hypocrisy cancels out Law-and-Order
Good Leadership – Example – “Leader of the Free World”
Good Leadership – Example – For Mitigating Crime

The 30 member-states of the Caribbean need to reform and transform the Homeland Security deliveries in the region to better fulfill the Social Contract. We do not want our good citizens forced to leave to find refuge abroad. That refuge is elusive there in those foreign abodes, so the “best bet” is to do the work here to elevate society. What exactly can be done to mitigate crime in the Caribbean region?

Plenty!

There are many strategies, tactics and implementations. In fact, we have exhausted this topic … in the Go Lean book and in previous blog-commentaries. See this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14424	Title: Repairing the Breach: Crime – Need, Greed, Justice & Honor “Black men and boys” in the US amount to 6.5 percent of the total US population but 40.2 percent of the prison population. Surely, there are some special issues associated with this special interest group, but “Yes, we can” reduce crime among this special sub-population. While this is an American drama, 29 of the 30 Caribbean member-states feature a majority Black-and-Brown demographic, so there is relevance for us.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13476	Title: Future Focused – Policing the Police People flee their Caribbean homelands for many different reasons, including deficiencies in security measures. There is the need to Police the Police. This will mean giving help and support to policing authorities, but also accountability too. There must be “good” checks-and-balances.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485	Title: A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Street Crimes To elevate Caribbean society there must be a focus on the region’s security and governing engines to provide justice assurances. Street violence stems from 3 considerations: 1. Need, 2. Greed, and 3. Justice. The Go Lean roadmap addresses jobs, to lower the “need” factor. Plus, the emergence of new economic drivers will bring “bad actors” who would seek to exploit the opportunities for greed, so there is an intense focus on White Collar crime mitigations. Lastly, the last factor “justice” addresses street riots, civil unrest and other outbursts against perceived injustices. So the “Justice Institutions” – in the new Caribbean – must be optimized to ensure accountability, fairness, equality, law-and-order for all.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7179	Title: Crime Specialist Urging: ‘Change Leaders in Crime Fight’ Remediating and mitigating crime is both an “Art” and a “Science” so we have to rely on professionals and Subject Matter Experts – the Police – to do this job efficiently and effectively. These ones need to learn and abide by best-practices. The chain-of-command is essential for law enforcement, so change the head – leaders – and the body will follow.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6693	Title: Ten Puerto Rico Police Accused of Criminal Network An exposed case of corruption by police officials in PR have demonstrated that this community is not so elevated in their societal engines, an expectation due to their US territorial status. American territories (PR & USVI) need this Go Lean roadmap just like the rest of the Caribbean region.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5307	Title: 8th Violent Crime Warning to Bahamas Tourists The stewards of the new Caribbean economic eco-systems, need to pay more than the usual attention to Travel Alerts about crime in the region. We must be On Guard to mitigate and remediate threats with anti-crime initiatives, even “policing the Police”.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Title: Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight Crime has proceeded to cast such a “dark cloud” on Jamaica that the country is near the assessment of a “Failed-State”. The World Bank funded grants to help Jamaica in 3 ways: 1. Improved services, 2. Basic infrastructure and 3. Targeted crime & violence interventions.

The focus is for Homeland Security, not just for mitigating crime. All threats (foreign and domestic) against Caribbean society must be addressed. This includes elevating the effectiveness and efficiency of First Responders for all of these Bad Actors:

Natural Disasters (Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Flooding, etc.)
Industrial Accidents
Pandemics

That last one – pandemics – is all the rage right now. There are no Ands, Ifs or Buts, with the current Coronavirus-COVID-19 crisis, Good Leadership would do a better job of managing such a crisis. We also have to contend with policing the Police.

Also notice too that the Go Lean roadmap calls for the mitigating the eventual ‘Abuse of Power’. Since “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, there is the need to monitor, mitigate and manage the risks of bad behavior among law enforcement, security personnel and elected leaders – this is the cause for complaint in the US right now (Appendix below).

This is an important consideration for us in the Caribbean considering our prior history with the Pirates of the Caribbean. That was an example of a prevalence of a lawless society and a blatant abuse of power. This was detailed in the previous entry of this series – 4 of 6 – for May 2020 – Good Leadership #4: Hypocrisy cancels out Law-and-Order – it stressed how important optimizing justice institutions to ensure law-and-order for all. See this excerpt here:

For Good Leadership, those at the top must avoid hypocrisy, or hypocritical standards.

This is right, no one should be “above the law”; when there is the manifestation of Bad Actors that operate “above the law” or “without law”, then chaos ensues in society. This is an issue of justice, fairness, mercy and law-and-order. This is the historicity of our regional homeland; remember the Pirates of the Caribbean.

No doubt, the Caribbean region needs Good Leadership to mitigate crime in the homeland. We must appoint leaders to “serve and protect” our residents and trading partners – think tourists and Direct Foreign Investors. We need to do better at this. We need to dissuade our own people from fleeing to find refuge and we need to invite others to come from afar to enjoy our hospitality. This will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to forge and benefit from Good Leadership. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———————

Appendix – Title: Governor’s statement on addressing crime in Turks and Caicos
Sub-title: Governor’s statement on addressing crime in Turks & Caicos Islands delivered during 10 September joint press conference.

Let me start, as the Governor, by welcoming you. For those listening to us on the radio we are in the Premier’s Office and I’m joined by the Premier and the recently appointed Commissioner of Police. We also have with us the Deputy Governor, Deputy Premier, and the Executive Leadership team of the Police Force.

We are here to describe and take questions about the recent spike in the murder rate on the islands.

Let me first start with the most important group we want to acknowledge; the victims. Their lives taken, their futures stolen. Their families, their friends hurt beyond imagination. Those who were their parents, their partners, their sweethearts, their brothers, their sisters, their children. Those who were once at their school or who shared a work place or who just thoroughly enjoyed their company or their humour. Those that loved them intensely in life and those who had no idea how much they thought of them until they were gone.

I’m very aware that a life taken away – suddenly, unexpectedly and violently – is a blow very hard to deal with. There’s an immediate overwhelming heart-stopping shock to be replaced over time by a feeling of sadness that remains and returns when least expected. No opportunity for a final goodbye, no opportunity to perhaps put something right or say something that needed to be said.

The cold statistic of 10 murders doesn’t start to explain the impact this has on those very close to the person who has lost their life, but also on a community. And on an island, which is one extended community, a violent attack on one member feels like an attack on us all. I speak therefore for all of us when I say we want to bring those who did this, to your loved ones, and to our community, to justice.

Beyond gaining justice for those we have lost, you quite rightly want to know what we are going to do about this to prevent further loss, and that’s the purpose of this press conference.

I promised when I was sworn in that I was going to be clear, and in being ‘clear’ I was going to be ‘straight’. So what we are not going to do is down-play the seriousness nor are we going to offer you the illusion of a quick fix.

Anyone suggesting there is one, hasn’t looked at a whole range of comparative scenarios from around the region or from around the world as to how serious crime has to be tackled across government and society.

I said when appointing the new local Deputy Commissioner, last month, that when we come to talking about ‘the police and crime’ we have reached the end of a conversation rather than having a much needed conversation about its causes. It’s going to take time, and it’s going to take far more than just ‘the police’ to develop a society that’s at ease with itself and where serious crime is a genuine aberration.

The important march on Sunday, led by our church leaders, supported by the Honourable Premier and Honourable Leader of the Opposition, which placed an emphasis on society and community, was an excellent example that these leaders, religious and secular, understand that.

In being clear and in being straight we are also not going to engage in hyperbole or stoke emotions. What our collective intention is, in a leadership role, is to inform you with facts. What’s the issue? What’s being done?

I’m first going to say something about the leadership, not only of this issue, but our general approach to leading the country at times such as this, and then something about what the facts are telling us. The Commissioner is then going to talk about the immediate policing response that he and his Executive Team have led. Most importantly the Premier is going to talk to the wider societal issues and her government´s continued support to the police as we move forward. We will then take questions.

Let’s start at the top. The most important thing we, as a national leadership team can do, at this time, is lead. The symbolism of the three of us presenting together should not be lost on you, nor on the criminals. We have been working on this, in the background, as part of the National Security Strategy since I arrived and we had expected to explain this change of approach, when we rolled that out. But today we have the opportunity to give you a glimpse of how we are going to lead national and internal security going forward.

The world is now too complex for there to be institutional stovepipes and we intend to lead in a joined up way in the expectation that others will match our behaviours and work across institutional boundaries to deliver results.

Beyond that simple thought: those on the front line delivering operational impact; those paying for it; those who are held responsible to the electorate; those who can propose policy and deliver legislation, and; those who hold the Constitutional lead, including in extremis the power to call on emergency powers, or on international support, have to be working in sympathy.

Being blunt, if we can’t get it together at the top, what hope below. Some have called this a crisis (given what I’ve seen in my life this isn’t, I assure you, a crisis). But if it is, it’s also an opportunity to make this three way relationship meaningful. The three of us have seized that opportunity. It’s now the new normal. Key point: every resource and power available to us can, as we wish, now be focused rapidly when and where we want it to be because we are joined up.

So what’s the problem we are seeking to solve? I’ve already described 10 murders. That’s 10 too many; justice needs to be done and will be done. Beyond that, what else are the facts telling us.

The first is, is that the emotions the public are feeling, are grounded in truth. I’m going to give you the facts as to why we should as a society be concerned and focused. What we should not be, as a society is panicked or afraid. In this regard what is not helpful are misleading accounts on social media of phantom shootings and non-existent attacks that distract police from dealing with issues where there is genuinely life at risk.

If you are spreading a story on social media about an attack that’s supposedly occurring but that you’ve not witnessed, please pause and think. Are you helping make society better and safer. Gossip and rumour are toxic at the best of times but when they promote unnecessary fear, when what we need is strength and resilience, they become part of the problem. Please be part of the solution. Please deal in known facts.

I want to first of all explain one fact that I know you are less interested in but one that is none-the-less accurate and important. Year-on-year the overall (and I stress the word here overall) crime statistics have been falling. Over five years overall crime is down 30%. I’ve been with our police more since my arrival than I have been with my own team. We have an increasingly good force. The statistics tell us that away from the most serious crime where there are really deep non-policing factors at play, our police have been getting better at doing their job and part of this is down to investments made in them.

But I also know that, at this moment, this is not the figure that you are interested in. What you are interested in are the levels of serious crime. On this issue the figures tell us an interesting story. Over the last five years they initially rose to peak in 2016/17 at 426 serious crimes that year to then fall back, in line with other falls in crime rate, to 314 last year.

So what’s happened this year. If we look at the April to August figures and compare them to last year, there is a sharp increase in serious crime. If you break this down further it’s not ‘murder’ (the very visible and appalling tip of the ice-burg) that shows a significant increase but instead that which is less easy for the press or public to see: ‘firearms offences’.

Murder, itself, shows a relatively small rise but the more general firearms offences have increased from 26 last year to 62 this year. That’s very significant.

Some of these firearms offences are linked to robbery, it’s those that we know are causing widespread public concern, but a significant number are indeed ‘retaliation’, not so much linked to gangs or turf, but to perceived arguments and disrespect amongst groups. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but it’s a truth the three of us need to share with you, that much of this problem is not imported, it’s home grown. Its not ‘the other’, it’s ‘us’.

It’s also worth saying that we believe we are dealing with a very small number of criminals – who are increasingly becoming known to us – and when arrested and charged – because there is evidence that can be put before the court – will reduce, possibly seriously reduce, the problem we have right now.

Having explained the local picture I now want to say something about how this impacts on our tourist industry as it’s not just local but international commentators that are following this. The way murder rates are calculated globally is by death per 100,000. In a country as small as ours just one murder starts to impact on this ratio. Just one bad individual can start to change the way our Islands are presented globally.

The facts are that in 5 years we have lost only two tourists to murder. One at a resort, one in a private residence. That is two too many. Everything I said at the start of this conference about the devastating shock to family and friends I want to reemphasize, again. The shock is exacerbated because these were our guests in our country, away from their family and their friends and they came because they knew they were coming to a world class, amazingly relaxed and tranquil destination, that have people returning year-on-year, who in many cases see it as their second spiritual home, because they love these islands and her people. It is, and it remains, one of the most perfect destinations in the world.

The facts regarding tourist safety are we have 1.8 million tourists arriving with us by air or sea every year. A tourist is statistically extraordinarily safe; almost certainly safer than in their home country. It’s important, as we face down the problem we have, we don’t unintentionally signal that this island is anything other than amazingly safe for our visitors and what a superb job our tourist industry do in ensuring their guests have an extraordinary time with them and with us.

Finally TCI: we are bigger, we are better and we are stronger than allowing a small number of bad men, to bring fear into our amazing country. The stoicism we show in times of natural disaster is admirable; let’s show it now. As you hear the Commissioner and Premier speak let’s all of us assume ‘agency’, not just in observing the problem, but being a part of the wider societal solution.

As I hand over to our Commissioner, I end where I began, we are determined to bring those who are working so hard to undermine our society to justice. Our thoughts – indeed our motivation – come from us understanding the deep hurt that these men did to the victims and those close to their victims – and if this ever was to your mind a crisis, it’s now become a realised opportunity. You have an unshakable national team that intends to impose itself on this and any future national security problem. This is therefore an important moment for the country in more than one sense. Commissioner, over to you.

Published 18 September 2019

Source: Posted September 18, 2019; retrieved May 31, 2020 from: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/governors-statement-on-addressing-crime-in-turks-and-caicos

———————

Appendix VIDEO – Protests over George Floyd’s death spread across the United States … and the World – (Redfish)

– https://youtu.be/QK6zJo3o8l8

Fábio Duarte Persiani
Posted May 31, 2020 –

Category: News & Politics

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‘Missing Solar’ – Go Green … finally – Encore

Posted on March 3, 2020 in Implementation, Industries, Strategy, Tactical

The sun-drenched tropical Bahamas has inadequate infrastructure to provide electricity efficiently and effectively. Then when storms come – they are in Hurricane Alley – the delivery challenges become even more overwhelming.

This is a familiar assertion for the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. On May 15, 2014, this commentary proclaimed to the region that it was time to ‘Go Green’. That previous blog made an economic appeal, as opposed to environmental. Needless to say, the Bahamas did not heed that sage advice. Well, they are listening now. This week, the US-based media-television-network CBS reported, in their titular news magazine show 60 Minutes, on the progress that this island-nation is making to deploy solar-panels-based Micro-Grids.

Better late than never …

Had these systems been in place since 2014, the restoration after 2019’s Category 5 Hurricane Dorian would have been less painful. See the VIDEO here of the 60 Minutes report:

VIDEO – Bahamas installing solar power after storms – https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bahamas-hurricanes-power-grid-solar-60-minutes-2020-03-01/

60 Minutes
Posted March 1, 2020 – A tiny country in “Hurricane Alley” is trying to be an example to the world after Category 5 storms demolished parts of its electrical grid. Bill Whitaker reports on the Bahamas’ adoption of solar energy.
Click on PLAY Button to watch; expect commercial advertising before and during.

Is it too little too late now? Let’s hope not.

There is one more Big Issue that the Bahamas Government will have to deal with, as reported in the VIDEO:

The Bahamian Government pays $400 million dollars on diesel fuel to keep its power plants operating and they pass that cost on to the consumers.

The Finance-Treasury-Revenue departments in this country will have to prepare for new revenue streams beyond Fuel Surcharges. But alas, since 2014, this country has implemented Value-Add Tax regime. So it is easier to tweak the revenue streams.

So … go on Bahamas, install your Solar Micro-Grids … at government establishments, commercial enterprises and even residential homes. Yes, we can.

This is an appropriate time to Encore that previous blog-commentary from May 15, 2014 – 6 years ago; (better late than never). Now that this is March 2020, there is the opportunity to “look back” at the Bahamas in the wake of the issues raised by the 60 Minutes story: the Go Green movement is not so new; this common-sense best-practice was not so common in the Bahamas specifically or the Caribbean as a whole. Now, we must not miss our chance to reform and transform.

This entry is 2-of-3 in that “Look Back“. The other entries are cataloged as follows:

60 Minutes Story – Bahamas Self-Made Energy Crisis
60 Minutes Story – Go Green … finally
60 Minutes Story – Moral Authority to “Name, Blame & Shame” the Big Polluters

See the the May 2014 Encore here-now:

———————

Go Lean Commentary – Go Green … Caribbean

Go ‘Green’ …

Get it? A simple play on words; Green instead of Lean. The word Green is more than just a color; it is a concept, a commitment and a cause. This is the same with ‘Lean’; for the purpose of this effort, ‘lean’ is more than just a description, it’s a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb. It is also a concept, commitment and cause in which the entire Caribbean region is urged to embrace; or better stated: “lean in”.

What is the motivation behind the ‘Green’ movement? Love for the Planet; many proponents feel that man’s industrial footprint has damaged the planet and the atmosphere, causing climate change, due to the abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Early in the book, Go Lean…Caribbean, the pressing need to be aware of climate change is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 11), with these words, (the first of many “causes of complaints”):

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.

Stop yawning!

For many, an advocacy to save the planet is a bore. But if we are not mindful of these issues we could face serious consequences.

Now a new motivation has emerged: saving money. Since energy costs has skyrocketed beyond the rate of inflation, adapting to more clean/green energy options has proven to be more cost effective.

Power generation from the sun or wind (free & renewable sources) is far cheaper than generation based on fossil fuels. (Even the fossil fuel of natural gas is cheaper than oil or coal).

The motivation behind the Caribbean “Lean” movement is also love, love of the homeland. This point is detailed in the book Go Lean… Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The following two news stories relate to this effort to optimize “green” energy options in the region:

1. Op-Ed Title: Green Energy Solutions Could Save the Caribbean $200 Million

By: Jun Zhang, Op-Ed Contributor
(04/11/2014) HIGH ENERGY costs are the Achilles heel of the Caribbean.
More than 97 percent of this region’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels and many islands devote a hefty portion of their GDP to fuel imports.

On some Caribbean islands, electricity bills can soar up to six times higher than in the United States, which creates a burden for many local businesses. At the same time, these islands are vulnerable to the environmental impacts associated with fossil-fuels, including air pollution, rising sea levels, and coral bleaching.

Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and supporting cleaner, more efficient energy production is critical to helping island economies grow sustainably. But many companies face hurdles in accessing credit to invest in clean energy.

That’s where the banking sector can play an important role.

The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector, is developing a regional programme to help local financial institutions provide the credit needed for companies to adopt more energy efficient practices and utilize cleaner energy sources.

This in turn can help reduce costs – and environmental footprints -for Caribbean hotels and other businesses.

At a recent seminar in Kingston, IFC presented a market analysis of sustainable energy finance opportunities in Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Grenada, and St. Lucia.

It found that energy demands in the Caribbean are expected to double by 2027. Continued dependence on fossil fuels is likely to exacerbate pollution and other environmental impacts, while diverting significant resources from these economies. But there are upsides as well.

According to the analysis, incorporating energy efficiency measures across these five countries over the next few years could save approximately US$200 million. For example, solar water heaters offer a ready solution to water heating in the Caribbean. Barbados has already installed more than 50,000 solar water heaters, saving the country some US$6.5 million a year on oil imports.

Caribbean countries could also benefit from water efficiency measures. Right now, anywhere from 25 to 65 percent of clean water is lost in inefficient water distribution systems, which also results in lost energy due to unnecessary pumping.

Some entrepreneurs say the tide is beginning to turn, but the financial sector needs to catch up.

“Businesses are already starting to shift to more energy efficient technologies,” said Andre Escalante, founder of Energy Dynamics, a Trinidad based company that helps hotels and other businesses adopt new energy-saving technologies. “However, financial institutions in the region are still reluctant to provide credits to implement new technologies that they may not be familiar with.”

IFC intends to close this knowledge gap by advising local financial institutions to help them meet the financing needs of sustainable energy projects. IFC also plans to work with energy service companies and equipment vendors to help them understand how to best structure projects for financing.

In the Dominican Republic, IFC helped Banco BHD become the first financial institution in the country to offer a credit line to finance sustainable energy projects. Over two years, BHD provided US$24 million in financing for projects that are bringing more cost-efficient energy solutions to the Dominican Republic, from natural gas conversion to solar energy.

“We’ve seen first-hand how sustainability adds value, be it by helping hotels cut their energy costs or by financing solar energy solutions for businesses,” said Steven Puig, General Manager of Banco BHD. “In fact, BHD intends to implement energy efficiency measures and install solar panels on each of its 43 stand-alone bank branches. So far, with IFC’s support, four offices have done this, which resulted in US$43,000 in savings each year as well as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Sustainability presents challenges for businesses, but also wide-ranging, evolving opportunities — especially as the cost of renewable energy technologies goes down. The private sector is well suited to innovate and leverage new technologies to turn challenges into opportunities.

(Jun Zhang is IFC’s Senior Manager for the Caribbean. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector).

————

2. Title: Solar Car-Charging Station Opens in Grand Cayman

By: Alexander Britell
(05/05/2014) It may be the Caribbean’s most abundant resource, but in a region where energy costs are oppressive, solar energy isn’t used nearly enough.

That’s starting to change, though, and it got a significant boost last week with the opening of the Caribbean’s first-ever solar-powered car charging station.

The station is viewed to be one of the first standalone, public solar car-charging stations in the Caribbean, a place for electric-powered cars to come and top off their energy supplies.

“We started about a year ago and now it’s finally up and operational,” said John Felder, CEO of Cayman Automotive, which partnered with Philadelphia-based U-Go Stations on the project. “I don’t know of any solar panel charge stations for electric cars.”

While the stations won’t be used for complete charges, an hour spent charging at the station will provide about 20 percent of an electric car’s power supply.

Felder, who is the leading distributor of electric cars in the Caribbean, said the region’s electric car movement was already expanding.

“I’m now in the Bahamas, in Jamaica, in Bermuda,” he said. “The Aruban government called me last week and they want me to move to start doing electric cars there.”

Indeed, Aruba has been at the forefront of the regional green energy movement, with plans to have 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2020.

Barbados opened its first solar car-charging station in 2013 at the Wildey Business Park.

The new Cayman station, which is located at Governors Square, is one of six electric charging stations on the island.

“I can see in the next 10 years that 30 to 40 percent of the cars on the roads will be electric vehicles,” Felder said.

Something that could help that measure regional is the lowering of import duties on 100 percent electric cars, Felder said.

Cayman’s government lowered its duty from 42 percent to 10 percent, which is now the third-lowest in the region, although many islands lag behind in that regard.

“The government is promoting [electric] and that’s why they reduced the duty to 10 percent,” he said.

The electric movement on Cayman got an similarly big boost earlier this year when Grand Cayman’s Budget Rent-a-Car announced plans to offer 100 percent EV vehicles on the island.

Caribbean Journal News Source (Articles retrieved 05/14/2014) a. http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/04/11/op-ed-green-energy-solutions-could-save-the-caribbean-200-million/ b. http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/05/05/solar-car-charging-station-opens-in-grand-cayman/

Photo Credits:
a. Jennifer Hicks, Forbes.com Technology Contributor: Field with six 850 kW turbines in Cuba’s Holguín Province
b. Cayman Automotive: The first ever public, commercial solar car charging station in Grand Cayman

This Go Lean/CU roadmap recognizes that modern life has expanded the definition of basic needs to now include food, clothing, shelter and energy. And thusly the book proposes many solutions for the region to optimize energy …

generation
distribution
consumption

No “stone is left unturned”. Go Lean posits that the average costs of energy can be decreased from an average of US$0.35/kWh to US$0.088/kWh in the course of the 5-year term of this roadmap; (Page 100). A 75% savings is not a yawn, this should keep you alert!

The two foregoing articles relate to new ‘green’ power generation initiatives in different Caribbean member-states.

These initiatives took some effort on the part of the community and governmental institutions. We commend and applaud their success and executions thus far. But there is more heavy-lifting to do. Help is on the way! The Go Lean roadmap details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the progress in the wide fields of energy generation, distribution and consumption. The following list applies:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Regional Taxi Commissions	Page 25
Community Ethos – Non-Government Organizations	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
Anecdote – Pipeline Transport – Strategies, Tactics & Implementations	Page 43
Strategy – Harness the power of the sun/winds	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 82
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Energy Commission	Page 82
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Energy Permits	Page 93
Anecdote – Caribbean Energy Grid Implementation	Page 100
Implementation – Ways to Develop Pipeline Industry	Page 107
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage	Page 113
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Monopolies	Page 202

Energy needs are undeniable. The world is struggling with this issue.

Fulfilling those needs is easier said than done; and thus a great opportunity for the lean, agile operations envisioned for the CU technocracy. “It’s good to be green!”

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people, business, institutions and governments, to lean-in for the optimizations and opportunities described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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‘Missing Solar’ – Inadequacies Exposed to the World – Encore

Posted on March 2, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Locations, Tactical

The Bahamas has inadequate infrastructure to contend with the realities of modern life. This is all too familiar to the people in the Bahamas.

This is also familiar to the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. On August 15, 2019, this commentary scolded the stakeholders in the Bahamas for their inexcusable inefficiency and ineffectiveness with their infrastructure and Public Works. Now last night, the US-based media-television-network company CBS exposed these inadequacies for all the world to see in their titular news magazine show 60 Minutes.

Eat Crow Bahamas!

What’s more, the actuality of Hurricane Dorian came along and made the bad Bahamas energy delivery even worse. See the VIDEO here of the 60 Minutes report:

VIDEO – Bahamas installing solar power after storms – https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bahamas-hurricanes-power-grid-solar-60-minutes-2020-03-01/

60 Minutes
Posted March 1, 2020 – A tiny country in “Hurricane Alley” is trying to be an example to the world after Category 5 storms demolished parts of its electrical grid. Bill Whitaker reports on the Bahamas’ adoption of solar energy.
Click on PLAY Button to watch; expect commercial advertising before and during.

That report revealed that:

The Bahamian Government pays $400 million dollars on diesel fuel to keep its power plants operating and pass that cost on to the consumers.
“They pay 3 to 4 times the rate that people pay in the mainland US”.

In addition, in another Go Lean commentary, it was reported that the World Bank revealed that 61 percent of college-educated citizens of the Bahamas have fled this homeland for foreign destinations. Is there any surprise? This failure to deliver basic services in an efficient and effective manner is a contributing Push factor why people leave.

There is no mystery! Now the Bahamas is trying to “play catch-up” and deploy Solar Micro-Grids. Yippee!!

This is an appropriate time to Encore that previous blog-commentary from August 15, 2019 – during the ‘Dog Days of Summer‘; (remember this was 2 weeks before Category 5 Hurricane Dorian made landfall). Now that this is March 2020, there is the opportunity to look back with 20/20 Perfect Hindsight Vision at the issues raised by the 60 Minutes story – there are many. This entry is 1-of-3 in that “Look Back“. The other entries are cataloged as follows:

60 Minutes Story – Bahamas Self-Made Energy Crisis
60 Minutes Story – Go Green … finally
60 Minutes Story – Moral Authority to “Name, Blame & Shame” the Big Polluters

See the first Encore here-now:

———————

Go Lean Commentary – Nassau’s 2019 Self-Made Energy Crisis

It is seriously Hot-Hot-Hot out there …

So there is no intent here to be “cold and callous” … (callous = ‘feeling no emotion’).

But the Bahamas’s capital city – Nassau – is having an energy crisis right now:

The local power generation utility (Bahamas Power & Light or BPL) is not producing enough electricity to meet the needs of the community, so they have to load-share and force black-outs/brown-outs around the island to try and facilitate some delivery some time to all their customer base. They do not want to show favoritism to one group over another, so they are leveraging the load-sharing tactic on everybody. So now instead of some people being happy and some being angry, they have obtained universality …

… everybody is angry!

———-

VIDEO – B.P.L. Load Shedding Update – https://youtu.be/fW8JGGnlvzQ

ZNSNetwork
Published on May 15, 2019

Category: People & Blogs

Additionally, see this portrayal in this news article here (and the Appendix VIDEO below):

Title: BPL causing ‘chaos’
By: Jasper Ward, The Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter

Super Value food stores are taking a significant hit as a result of protracted power cuts, according to its owner Rupert Roberts.

Roberts said about six Super Value locations are impacted by outages daily and the company has spent around $100,000 recently on replacing equipment damaged by the outages.

He described the outages as “a nuisance” and said they create “chaos”.

“This BEC (Bahamas Electricity Corporation) crisis is more than a crisis, it’s chaos,” Roberts said at the Nassau Street store.

“It’s costing us $250,000 a year from burning up our equipment.”

He said, “I suppose our biggest concern is burning up equipment.

“…[We] burn up a $10,000 or $20,000 air conditioning [unit and] we’re always burning up compressors. We’re using up spares so fast and we’re doing emergency imports.

“Fortunately, we’re able to get them in within three or four days without flying them in. But I noticed on Saturday we had a diary case down because we’re waiting on the compressor that burned out. That’s the biggest problem.”

Roberts said it will cost about $10,000 to replace a compressor in the dairy case at the Nassau Street location. He said it is unlikely that case will be operational before Saturday.

Roberts said dairy sales were up 14 percent before the case was damaged.

Since it was damaged, sales have gone down 17 percent, he said.

Roberts said the company has twice the amount of equipment needed “because of the serious problem” of the outages.

Although the food store chain is facing challenges with the outages, Roberts said the company is “managing quite well”.

“We’ve been in this business over 50 years and we’ve had power problems for the last 50 years,” he said.

“So, we learned how to cope. We don’t run out of fuel. Years ago, when I first started in the industry, we had generators because of hurricanes but for the past 25 years we’ve had to have generators because of power outages.”

For nearly two months, communities on New Providence have experienced hours-long blackouts as part of Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) load shedding exercise.

Over the last few weeks, BPL has conducted nearly four-hour-long load shedding.

On Sunday, BPL Chief Executive Officer Whitney Heastie said he could not guarantee an end to load shedding exercises in the immediate future, describing BPL as being “on a cliff”.

Heastie said BPL needs 250 megawatts of generation in order to meet the summer demand.

However, it is currently running on 210 megawatts, including 105 megawatts of rental generation.

Heastie said the 40-megawatt shortfall has led to load shedding across New Providence.

Source: Posted by The Nassau Guardian daily newspaper on August 13, 2019; retrieved August 14, 2019 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/08/13/bpl-causing-chaos/

The need to explain that our statement is not “cold and callous” is due to the fact that the appearance is that “we” are ‘kicking the people when they are down’ when we make this assertion:

This energy crisis for Nassau is Self-Made!!

Wait, what?!

This is a matter of infrastructure and Nassau has had an inadequate infrastructure for a while. In fact, since the 1970’s residents on this island of New Providence (NP) have been encouraged to buy bottled-water and not consume the ‘tap’ water.

All of this is evident of the lacking municipal infrastructure. In fact, this is reminiscent of the US City of Flint, Michigan. Their infrastructure has become defective and the people there has to resort to bottled water. In Flint, that problem has now persisted for 4 years. In Nassau, it has been 40 years. (See an excerpt of our 2016 blog-commentary on the Flint crisis in the Appendix below).

Yep, self-made!

This is a BIGGER issue than water or electricity; this is an issue of the Social Contract.

The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 170) defines the Social Contract as the informal arrangement where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. This is why the State, in this case, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is allowed to operate monopolies for the water and power utilities. But any failures in these Social Contract deliveries causes repercussions and consequences. For example people leave and abandon their homeland. This relevance was detailed in a previous Go Lean commentary from July 28, 2015:

The issue of Caribbean citizens abandoning their homelands is one of the more dire threats to societal life in the region. Why do they do it?

“Push and Pull” reasons!

Push
Conditions at home drive Caribbean citizens to take flight and find refuge elsewhere. Many times these conditions are economic (jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities), security and governance related, but there are other reasons too; consider discriminations due to ethnic diversity or other lifestyle choices.

Lastly, there is the new threat of Climate Change. While this is a threat for the whole world, the Caribbean is on the frontline. Though there is some debate as to the causes of climate change, there is no question as to its outcome: temperatures are rising, droughts prevail, and most devastating, hurricanes are now more threatening. A Caribbean elevation plan must address the causes of climate change and most assuredly its consequences. …

Now, the anecdotal experience is that there is a need to mitigate excessive heat in the region for an even longer season. How do we mitigate excessive heat?

Air conditioning!

But this cure may at times be worse than the disease.

Air conditioning requires even greater energy consumption, (the Caribbean has among the highest energy costs in the Western Hemisphere); the Go Lean book posits that the average costs of energy can be decreased from an average of US$0.35/kWh to US$0.088/kWh in the course of the 5-year term of this roadmap; (Page 100).

In addition, the release of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) in the air-conditioning process is a contributor of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The status quo needs remediation!

The Bahamas should have remediated these infrastructural problems years ago – the price is too high to allow it to linger. In addition to the societal abandonment threat; there are life-and-death issues associated with convalescing citizens needing continuous power supply – see photo here:

That’s the problem, now what is the solution?

In addition to the voluminous number of blog-commentaries on infrastructure – see this recent submission from July 26, 2019 – the Go Lean book presented strategies, tactics and implementations that must be pursued, not just for the Bahamas, but for the whole Caribbean region – all 30 member-states. In fact, the book presents one advocacy (Page 176) specifically focused on Public Works, entitled: “10 Ways to Impact Public Works“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is chartered to unify the Caribbean region into one Single Market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby re-engineering the economic engines in and on behalf of the region, including a currency & monetary union. This new eco-system allows for the design, funding and construction of Public Works and Infrastructural projects. The federal agency within the CU’s Department of the Interior has the scope for the Caribbean much like the Corps of Engineers has for the US. (Plus the CU will collaborate with the US Corps for projects related to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). There are a number of inter-state projects that must be coordinated on the federal level. There will also be projects that are “Too Big for One State” that will be facilitated by the CU. In addition, all CU efforts must comply with the Art in Public Places mandate, so sculptures and statutes will be embedded in projects or the project itself can be a work of art (bridges, water towers, building architecture). For existing projects that fail due to financial shortfalls, the CU will accommodate dissolution or reorganization in the federal courts, bringing balance to the process to all stakeholders.
2	Union Atlantic Turnpike
3	Pipelines and PCP (Pneumatic Capsule Pipeline)
4	Regional Power Grid The CU will facilitate the installation of a regional power grid, and power sharing between member-states, with underwater and above-ground high-intensity wiring to alternate energy plants: wind/tidal turbines, solar panel & natural gas.
5	Self-Governing Entities (SGE)
6	Enterprise Zones
7	Empowerment Zones
8	Monopolies The UN grants the CU the monopoly rights for an Exclusive Economic Zone, so the focus must be on quality delivery. The CU plan is to liberalize management of monopolies, with tools like ratings/rankings against best practices. Plus technological accommodations for ICT allows for cross-competition from different modes (satellite, cable, phone).
9	Cooperatives The CU will task utility cooperatives with the delivery of some public utilities such as Air Chillers; Refrigerated Warehouses to its members. This strategy shares the cost of the “Works” installation across the full co-op membership.
10	Capital Markets A single market and currency union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).

The Go Lean book doubles-down on the concept of leveraging across a larger population base so that BIGGER infrastructure projects can be facilitated in the region – on land or in the waters – see Photo here. Imagine large arrays of solar panels, wind turbines, tidal generators, geo-thermal energy captured at the volcanic hot zones, and even Natural Gas as a cleaner-cheaper fossil fuel. These energy options are realistic and should be available to us now in the Caribbean, so they should be explored and deployed. This, a regional power grid, is the energy prime directive for this Go Lean movement.

This theme – exploiting alternative options for the economic, security and governing empowerments in the region – aligns with many previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	‘We’ have repeatedly failed the lessons from ‘Infrastructure 101’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17280	Way Forward – For Energy: ‘Trade’ Winds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13985	EU Assists Barbados in Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12994	The Science of ‘Power Restoration’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12466	12 Caribbean Member-states have ‘Volcanic Energy’ to Exploit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10367	The Science of Sustenance – Green Batteries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5155	Green Energy Solution: Tesla unveils super-battery to power homes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4897	US Backs LNG Distribution for Caribbean Energy Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=915	Go ‘Green’ … Caribbean

Make no mistake, energy is a basic need!

The failure for a community to have continuous supply of energy is an energy crisis. (This means you Bahamas).

Enough already!

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders to prepare for the empowerments of Green-Energy solutions. It is past-time for a regional power grid:

generation – Green options (solar, wind turbines, tidal, geo-thermal and natural gas)
distribution – Underwater cables to connect individual islands
consumption – efficient battery back-ups for home deployments.

These changes are coming … one way or another.

For you government revenue institutions who may be overly dependent of fuel taxes and surcharges – you are hereby put on notice:

Changes are afoot. We will succeed; we will make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

About the Book

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

Appendix VIDEO – Another B.P.L. Blackout – https://youtu.be/fOT0gfvSchM

ZNSNetwork
Published on Jul 2, 2019

Category: People & Blogs

——————–

Appendix – Excerpts from previous Commentary: Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale – January 19, 2016

[The City of] Flint serves as a “cautionary tale” for other communities near “Failed City/Failed State” status. From this perspective, this community may be a valuable asset to the rest of the world and especially to the Caribbean.

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here in Detroit to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan areas, including Flint. (Previous commentaries featured the positive role model of the City of Ann Arbor).

What happened here?

According to the Timeline in the Appendix, Flint, MI suffered this fate as a chain reaction to its Failed-State status. Outside stakeholders – Emergency Managers – came into the equation to execute a recovery plan with focus only on the Bottom-Line. The consideration for people – the Greater Good – came second, if at all. They switched water sources, unwisely!

The assertion of the Go Lean book is that the Caribbean region can benefit from lessons learned from Good, Bad and Ugly governance. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean book and related commentaries call on citizens of the Caribbean member-states to lean-in to the empowerments described in the roadmap for elevation. This will require a constant vigil to ensure the Greater Good as opposed to personal gains.

…

See VIDEO here of the story in the national media …

VIDEO – Citizens’ Anger Continues Over Toxic Water in Flint, Michigan – http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/citizens-anger-continues-toxic-water-flint-michigan-36348795 –

…

This tragic story – cautionary tale of Flint – is an analysis of failure in the societal engines of economics, security and governance. These 3 facets are presented in the book Go Lean … Caribbean as the three-fold cord for societal harmony; for any society anywhere. The Caribbean wants societal harmony; we must therefore work to optimize all these three engines. As exhibited by Flint, this is easier said than done. This heavy-lifting is described in the book as both an art and a science.

The focus in this commentary is a continuation in the study of the societal engine of governance; previously, there was a series on economics and one on security. This commentary though, focuses on the bad eventually of Social Contract failures. The Social Contract refers to the unspoken expectations between citizens and the State. In many cases, State laws limit ownership of all mineral rights to the State; so citizens will be dependent on State systems to supply water. In the case of Flint, the City’s Water and Sewage Department has a monopoly; this supply is the only option for residents!

The Go Lean book describes “bad actors” wreaking havoc on the peace and security of the community. The book relates though that “bad actors” are not always human; they include bad events like natural disasters and industrial spills. Plus, actual “bad actors” may have started out with altruistic motives, good intentions. This is why the book and accompanying blogs design the organization structures for the new Caribbean with checks-and-balances, mandating a collaborative process, because sometimes even a well-intentioned individual may not have all the insight, hindsight and foresight necessary to pursue the Greater Good. This the defect of the Michigan Emergency Manager structure; it assigns too much power to just one person, bypassing the benefits of a collaborative process. This is one reason why this review is important: power corrupts…everyone … everywhere.

…

We must do better, than Flint! (Flint must do better; too many lives are involved).

We know that “bad actors and bad incidences” will always occur, even in government institutions, so we must be “on guard” against abusive influences and encroachments to Failed-State status. The Go Lean roadmap calls for engagement and participation from everyone, the people (citizens), institutions and government officials alike. We encouraged all with benevolent motives to lean-in to this roadmap, to get involved to effect a turnaround for the Caribbean Failed-States.

Our Caribbean stakeholders deserve the best … from their leaders. 🙂

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Cursed in Paradise – ‘Enriquillo’ Fault-line

Posted on January 29, 2020 in Government, Planning, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean is the “greatest address on the planet … “

We have said this repeatedly; the Creator has blessed this region with such beauty.

Yet, we must confess, considering a religious argument: “The Gods must be crazy” … putting such a beautiful place in the middle of a dangerous Earthquake Fault-line. This refers to the Enriquillo Fault-line across the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean archipelago – see Photo here:

This is not just a theory; this is actuality. We have this news headline now: “7.7 Earthquake north of Jamaica”. So, crediting Godly devotion again, maybe the earthquake activity is some kind of Divine Retribution?

Retribution of what?

Well, just like the Curse of Montezuma or Curse of the Bambino, there were some egregious atrocities that maybe had to be prosecuted-reconciled-remediated for justice from some higher authority (God). Therefore, the thesis is that there is a “curse on this landmass for retribution against the ‘powers that be’ for the inflictions against the indigenous people and their leader Enriquillo”. See those details here on the Enriquillo namesake and the encyclopedic reference of the Fault-line in the Appendix below:

Reference: Enriquillo
Good relations between Christopher Columbus and the indigenous Taíno of the large island Columbus called Hispaniola did not last more than a few days. The Taínos were forced into terrible conditions as laborers in gold mining operations, badly housed in the mountains, poorly fed, extremely overworked, and forced to live in close quarters with the Spaniards.^[5] Additionally, due to taking men away from the villages, the cycle of food production was disrupted, causing widespread malnutrition.^[5] This malnutrition further aided the Taínos’ vulnerability to deadly new types of diseases introduced by the foreigners.^[5] After Columbus tortured and killed many in his quest for gold, he turned to slavery and sugar cane plantations as a way to profit from his voyages.

Several revolts followed in the first half of the 16th century, the most famous began in 1519. Enriquillo, one of the few remaining caciques, or indigenous chiefs, started the revolt with a large number of Taínos from the mountain range of Bahoruco. The Tainos were able to continue the rebellion because of their better knowledge of the region.^[6] As the Spaniards were not able to control the rebellion, a treaty was signed granting to the Native population among others the right of Freedom and of Possession. It had little consequences, however, as by this time the Native population was rapidly declining due to European diseases.

Enriquillo, also known as “Enrique” by the Spaniards, was a Taíno cacique [(Tribal Chief)] who rebelled against the Spaniards between 1519 and 1533. Enriquillo’s rebellion is the best known rebellion of the early Caribbean period. He is also considered a hero in the modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti for his resistance in favor of the indigenous peoples.^[1] Dominican friar Bartolome de Las Casas, who documented and rallied against Spanish abuse of the indigenous, wrote sympathetically of Enriquillo.^[2]

His father, his aunt Anacaona, and eighty other regional chieftains were killed by Nicolás de Ovando while attending supposed “peace talks” with the Spanish in Jaragua. During the talks, Spanish soldiers ambushed the chieftains, also known as caciques, set the meeting house on fire, and then proceeded to kill anyone who fled the flames (causing his father’s death). Enriquillo, an orphan, was later raised in a Santo Domingo monastery and given the name of “Enrico” ^[3]. One of his mentors was Bartolomé de Las Casas. De Las Casas was a Spanish Roman Catholic Priest focused on the rights of Native Americans. ^[4]

Enriquillo also had a wife, called Mencía, later with the noble title Doña due to Enriquillo’s high standing and relations with the Spaniards. She was raped by a Spaniard named Valenzuela. When Enriquillo tried to take the issue to the Spanish courts, nothing could be done, since it was Doña Mencia’s word against the Spaniard’s word. This, according to some writers, was the tipping point for Enriquillo which led to his revolt in the Bahoruco mountains.
Source: Retrieved January 29, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriquillo

Theory, thesis, religious inference – Yada Yada!

It is what it is – these earthquakes are real! We must simply prepare. This is quest of the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean; the book stated (Page 23):

c-7. “Crap” Happens
Economic security is tied to the community quest to reboot the Caribbean region to ensure a better place to live, work and play. To ensure economic security, the economic engines must be protected to ensure their continuous operations despite natural or man-made deterrents. Bad things do happen to good people, so we cannot be caught unprepared. We must institute the process and provisions to respond, react, restore and recover. Any and everyone may need to dial “911”.

The Caribbean community ethos is to consider the facts and realities:

climate change cannot be dismissed – tropical storms are now more common and more ferocious;

there are two geologic fault-lines that run through the Caribbean region;

there is an active volcano on Montserrat.

It is not a matter of “if” but “when” emergencies will strike. The security principle therefore is to be prepared for all incidents, big and small, that involve all aspects of society: islands, institutions, companies, families and individuals.

As related in the foregoing headline – 7.7 Earthquake north of Jamaica – this is of serious concern. This seismic activity had its epicenter in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, away from land, but spurring the threat of a tsunami in one place after another. Everyone is On Alert. See this actuality depicted in this news story here:

Title: Mag 7.7 quake hits between Cuba and Jamaica, but no injuries
Sub-title: A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake has struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba
By: Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press
HAVANA – A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba on Tuesday, shaking a vast area from Mexico to Florida and beyond, but there were no reports of casualties or heavy damage.

The quake was centered 139 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 140 kilometers (87 miles) west-southwest of Niquero, Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It hit at 2:10 p.m. (1910 GMT) and the epicenter was a relatively shallow 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the surface.

Dr. Enrique Arango Arias, head of Cuba’s National Seismological Service, told state media that there had been no serious damage or injuries reported.

Gov. Carlos Joaquín González of Mexico’s Quintana Roo, which is home to Cancun, Tulum and other popular beach resorts, said the earthquake was felt in multiple parts of the low-lying Caribbean state but there were no early reports of damage or injuries.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned that the quake could generate waves 1 to 3 feet above normal in Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Mexico and Belize, but issued a later message saying the danger had passed.

The initial tremor was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, including one measured at magnitude 6.1.

The quake was felt strongly in Santiago, the largest city in eastern Cuba, said Belkis Guerrero, who works in a Roman Catholic cultural center in the center of Santiago

“We were all sitting and we felt the chairs move,” she said. “We heard the noise of everything moving around.”

She said there was no apparent damage in the heart of the colonial city.

“It felt very strong but it doesn’t look like anything happened,’’ she told The Associated Press.

It was also felt a little farther east at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on the southeastern coast of the island. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said J. Overton, a spokesman for the installation, which has a total population of about 6,000 people.

Several South Florida buildings were evacuated as a precaution, according to city of Miami and Miami-Dade County officials. No injuries or road closures were reported. No shaking was felt at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami Gardens, which will host the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The quake also hit the Cayman Islands, leaving cracked roads and what appeared to be sewage spilling from cracked mains. There were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or more severe damage, said Kevin Morales, editor-in-chief of the Cayman Compass newspaper.

The islands experience so few earthquakes that newsroom staff were puzzled when it hit, he said.

“It was just like a big dump truck was rolling past,” Morales said. “Then it continued and got more intense.”

Dr. Stenette Davis, a psychiatrist at a Cayman Islands hospital, said she saw manhole covers blown off by the force of the quake, and sewage exploding into the street, but no more serious damage.

Claude Diedrick, 71, who owns a fencing business in Montego Bay, said he was sitting in his vehicle reading when the earth began to sway.

“It felt to me like I was on a bridge and like there were two or three heavy trucks and the bridge was rocking but there were no trucks,” he said.

He said he had seen no damage around his home in northern Jamaica.

Mexico’s National Seismological Service reported that the quake was felt in five states including as far away as Veracruz, on the country’s Gulf Coast.

————— Associated Press writer Kate Chappell in Kingston, Jamaica, contributed to this report.

Source: Posted & Retrieved January 28, 2020 from: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/powerful-earthquake-hits-cuba-jamaica-68592066

Considering the geological science of earthquakes, we know there are main shocks and after-shocks. Some geologists also credit pre-shocks, where minor seismic activities come as a prelude to main shocks. See more on the “Science of Earthquakes” in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – What is an earthquake? – https://abcn.ws/2M4FtKM

An earthquake is caused when two blocks of earth slip past each other on a fault plane, according to the US Geological Survey.

The Richter Scale is exponential between the numbers 3 and 8, so 7.7 is very strong … and dangerous.

There truly have been pre-shocks leading up to this “7.7 Earthquake north of Jamaica”; consider this related story:

2020 Puerto Rico Earthquakes
At the end of December 2019 and in early January 2020, the southwestern part of the island of Puerto Rico was struck by an earthquake swarm,^[1] including six that were of magnitude 5 or greater.^[2] The largest and most damaging of this sequence occurred on January 7 at 04:24 AST (08:24 UTC) and had a magnitude of 6.4 M_w and a maximum felt intensity of VII (Very strong) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.^[3] At least one person was killed and several others were injured.^[4][5]

A 5.8 M_w  earthquake the previous day caused the destruction of a natural arch, a tourist attraction at Punta Ventana in Guayanilla.^[6] A 5.9 M_w  aftershock on Saturday, January 11, damaged many structures, including several historical buildings as well as modern high-rises in the city of Ponce.^[7]

Power was lost Island-wide immediately after the quake, and was increasingly restored over a period of a week. Damage to homes was extensive and, by 14 January, more than 8,000 people were homeless and camping outdoors in various types of shelters, with 40,000 others camping outside their homes, just in the city of Ponce alone.^[8]

Needless to say, the Enriquillo Fault-line has been very active in these recent days. To all Caribbean stakeholders, we urge:

Be afraid; be very afraid.

This is the same fault-line that devastated Haiti in January 2010 – almost 10 years exactly – plus many other times in the past. The Go Lean movement and organization originated in response to that unmitigated disaster. See this salient reference to it in the Go Lean book (Page 115):

The Bottom Line on the Haiti’s Earthquakes

As of 2010, the following major earthquakes have been recorded in Haiti, along the Enriquillo or Septentrional-Oriente faults:

1564: Quake destroyed Concepción de la Vega and Santiago de los Caballeros.
1701: On November 9, severe destruction occurred and “part of the area along the north shore of the Tiburon Peninsula from Logane to Petit Goave sank into the sea”.
1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake (18 October): According to French historian Moreau de Saint-Méry, “only one masonry building had not collapsed” in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city.
1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake (3 June): The city was leveled in this magnitude 7.5 quake, killing over 200 people.
1783: A strong quake partially destroyed the church in Santiago.
1842 Cap-Haitien earthquake (7 May): An earthquake destroyed the city of Cap-Haïtien and other towns in the north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic; this earthquake also destroyed the Sans-Souci Palace. 10,000 people were killed. It has been estimated that its magnitude was 8.1.
1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (4 August): This 8.0-magnitude quake in Samaná also shook Haiti horrifically, producing a tsunami that killed 1,600 people.
2010 Haiti earthquake (12 January):. The epicenter of this magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake was near Léogâne, approximately 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 8.1 miles. The United States Geological Survey recorded a series of at least 33 aftershocks, 14 of which were between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9. The International Red Cross estimated that about three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reports that over 316,000 people had been identified as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless.

Based on this observation, one can hypothesize the theory of: “An accursed land, indeed”!

Yet still, the Go Lean promoters assert – in a previous blog-commentary – that we do not want our people abandoning home, seeking refuge elsewhere. We can reform and transform the homeland to better prepare for the eventualities of Mother Nature. See that message here:

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean is standing up, stepping up and speaking up:

“… Here I am, send me” – The Bible; Isaiah 6:8 (New International Version: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”)

The basic premise of the economic analysis in the Go Lean book is that we need our population to stay, remain and return to the Caribbean; the more people we have in the market the better.

What is it that we can do to reform and transform for earthquakes? The Go Lean book relates (Page 76), in introducing the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as a technocracy to plan and respond to natural disasters. See this excerpt here:

B4 – Emergency Management
This area is perhaps one of the most important functions of the CU. The Emergency Management Department will coordinate the planning, response, rebuilding and recovery before, during and after natural disasters and other emergency events. This is the risk management arm of the CU Trade Federation. As such, the scope of Emergency Management will also include education, mentoring, monitoring, mitigation, licensing and coordination of all volunteer activities.

The scope of this department also includes a number of proactive initiatives: (1). establishing and administering volunteer fire/rescue departments for sparsely populated areas; and (2). installing/maintaining emergency notification systems. In ancient cultures there is the practice of ringing a bell, a church bell or one at the town square, to alert the community of an imminent threat. A lot of western democracies embrace the same tactic with more modern technologies, such as audible alarms/sirens.

The imminent threat includes tornado landfall warning, tsunami, mudslide, volcano eruption, etc. The CU will extend this practice further by installing a standard audible siren system for any/all emergency events. A great lesson learned from the US Midwestern city of Omaha-Nebraska is the schedule for siren testing, the first Wednesday every month at 11:00am.

A best practice for Emergency Management is electronic notification. This includes an Emergency Broadcasting/Alert system for TV and radio. Plus now the latest advance is the use of telephone/internet and contact center technologies, allowing features like Reverse 911 – automated/robo calls to every active phone in a location – and text message blasting to every cell phone. With the embrace of www.myCaribbean.gov, the CU can target an alert message to any & every email address, social media screen names, or provide Pop-up Screens for internet browsing sessions for all IP addresses in the strike area.

As such, the scope of natural emergencies covered by this agency will cover more than hurricanes. As such, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, flooding, forest fires, and droughts will also be monitored, managed and responded to. (These have all been experienced recently in the Caribbean).

Emergencies also include the man-made variety as in industrial (oil spills, factory accidents, chemical spills), explosions, terroristic attacks and prison riots. The purpose of the Trade Federation is to enhance the economic engines of the region. While the #1 economic driver in the region is tourism, any poorly managed episode of “man-made” emergencies will have devastating effects on tourist bookings. Therefore, the CU must respond quickly, forcefully and professionally to contain the physical and image damage that can occur from these incidents.

Though not exclusive, this agency will coordinate its specialized services, skill-sets and occupations like Paramedic, EMT, Search-and-Rescue, Canine (K-9) with other governing (law enforcement) entities. Regional training will therefore be coordinated, licensed, and certified by this CU Emergency Management Department.

This Emergency Management agency will also coordinate the training and management of animal responders, in conjunction with the other federal agencies of Justice, Agriculture, Interior (Parks). The animals will include bomb sniffing dogs, cadaver dogs, drug dogs and mounted police horses.

There is also an economic/financial scope for this department. As the effort for a comprehensive property-casualty fund to cover the entire Caribbean region will also be coordinated by this agency. The classic solution is a large pool of premium payers and claims filed by the affected area. Beyond this model, there are also advanced products like re-issuance side-cars for market assimilation. The public can then invest and profit from the threat/realization of regional risks. This derivative product is a bet, a gamble, but in the end, the result is an insurance fund of last resort, much like the Joint Underwriters Agency (JUA) in Florida.

The Go Lean movement has addressed the subject of Earthquakes and Emergency Management on many occasions. See this sample of the many previous blog-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18182	Disaster Relief: Helping, Not Hurting
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17373	A Marshall Plan for Haiti – Finally
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15996	Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15267	Industrial Reboot – Prefab (Earthquake Tolerant) Housing 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13974	The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2614	Modeling the ‘Great ShakeOut’ Earthquake Drill
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=87	6.5M Earthquake Shakes Eastern Caribbean

“Here I am send me”? That sounds similar to the mantra “To Change the World, Start With Me”!

While not subscribing to any religious dogma, “it is what it is”, the End of Days Prophecies in the Bible seem to have validity – Matthew 24: 3, 7:

³What will be the sign … of the Last Days?
⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

So we must simply be more resilient and responsive to earthquakes – and tsunamis. There is no reason to expect any less activity.

So let’s get busy … let’s prepare our homes, families, communities, nations and region for the eventuality of this Enriquillo Fault-line (and other geologic weak-points that are undeniable in our homeland).

Most importantly, let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap – this is the Way Forward for Caribbean Disaster Preparation and Response – and finally make our region, each of the 30 Caribbean member-states, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

ii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our lands constitutes some extreme seismic activity, it is our responsibility and ours alone to provide, protect and promote our society to coexist, prepare and recover from the realities of nature’s occurrences.

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

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

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. …

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

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

——————

Appendix – Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault Zone

The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone (EPGFZ or EPGZ) is a system of active coaxial left lateral-moving strike slip faults which runs along the southern side of the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located.^[1] The EPGFZ is named for Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic where the fault zone emerges, and extends across the southern portion of Hispaniola through the Caribbean to the region of the Plantain Garden River in Jamaica.

Geology
The EPGFZ shares approximately half of the relative motion between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates with the Septentrional-Oriente fault zone which runs along the northern side of Hispaniola. Both faults merge into the Cayman Trench to the west. The fault accommodates about 20.6±1.66 millimeters of lateral motion per year (mm/yr).^[2] Additionally, a component of compression is present as the North American Plate pushes toward the southwest. This results in vertical deformation manifest in the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola. Some researchers believe that the EPGFZ and the Septentrional-Orient fault zone bound a microplate, dubbed the Gonâve Microplate, a 190,000 km² (73,000 sq mi) area of the northern Caribbean Plate that is in the process of shearing off the Caribbean Plate and accreting to the North America Plate.^[3]

[Prominent] Earthquakes

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck southeastern coast of Jamaica in 1692, almost destroying Port Royal
An earthquake struck along the southern coast of Hispaniola in 1751.^[4]
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince in 1770.
The 1907 Kingston earthquake damaged every building in Kingston, Jamaica.^[1]
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred near Port-au-Prince, Haiti as a result of seismic activity along blind thrust faults associated with this fault zone on January 12, 2010.^[5][6]

Other historical large earthquakes in 1860, 1761, 1684, 1673, and 1618 are also likely attributed to the EPGFZ, though none of these have been confirmed in the field as associated with this fault.^[7]

Source: Retrieved January 29, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriquillo%E2%80%93Plantain_Garden_fault_zone

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Remembering Auschwitz – Still Relevant

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

Go Lean Commentary

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

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

“The cat was out the bag”.

See a summary and highlights of Auschwitz here:

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

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

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

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

Table I – Auschwitz Death Estimates

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

Jews 95,000 865,000 960,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never Again lasted “for a minute”!

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

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

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

Table II – White’s ranking of atrocities

Rank Event Place Start year End year Death toll

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

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

88 French Indochina War French Indochina 1945 1954 393,000

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

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

30 Korean War Korea 1950 1953 3,000,000

30 North Korea North Korea 1948 3,000,000

69 Algerian War of Independence Algeria 1954 1962 525,000

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

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

81 Suharto’s purge Indonesia 1965 1966 400,000

46 Biafran War Nigeria 1966 1970 1,000,000

40 Bengali Genocide Bangladesh 1971 1971 1,500,000

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

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

91 Postwar Vietnam Vietnam 1975 1992 365,000

39 Democratic Kampuchea Cambodia 1975 1979 1,670,000

55 Mozambican Civil War Mozambique 1975 1992 800,000

70 Angolan Civil War Angola 1975 1994 500,000

70 Ugandan Bush War Uganda 1979 1986 500,000

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

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

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

94 Sanctions against Iraq Iraq 1990 2003 350,000

70 Anarchy in Somalia Somalia 1991 500,000

53 Rwandan genocide Rwanda 1994 1994 937,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bottom Line on the Failed States Index

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

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

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

10 Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Ninth & Tenth Amendments

Posted on November 27, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Let’s separate …

… let’s take all the assets-powers-responsibilities and divvy them up between the one party and the other. (Sounds like a Country-Western Break-up song, right? See sample in the Appendix VIDEO below). But, in this case, let’s do this separation, not so that we can go our separate ways, but rather let’s do this separation so that we can come together:

You bring the brawn, I bring the brains … let’s make lots of money
You bring the bread, I bring the meat … let’s make a sandwich
You bring the seafood, I bring the okra … let’s make a gumbo

This is the reality of a confederation or a confederacy. According to the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 63), which serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), this confederation tactic is the best hope to reform-and-transform the failing Caribbean to finally have a hope for prosperity:

A federation, by definition is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-autonomous states or regions united by a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of powers between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the states. For the Caribbean, the branding is a Trade Federation, thereby highlighting the limited scope of the entity’s governance. Its prime directive is to enable the economic engines of the region, and thereafter protect their security interests.

The Caribbean Union Trade Federation will be coextensive with the member-states of the CU. This indicates that the governmental units of the state governments will share the same boundaries of the Trade Federation. Jurisdiction of the two entities will therefore co-exist for the governance of the region. The tactical plan is to specify a separation-of-powers between the entity of the technocratic CU versus the governmental entities of the member-states (and their municipal authorities).

Our best example of a confederacy – and the Separation of Power – in antiquity was the nascent United States of America (1776 – 1789). The best example of confederacy in modern times is the European Union. These entities did exactly what this commentary is advocating:

Separate the assets-powers-responsibilities so that the different parties perform different duties to execute the governing demands of the implied Social Contract … with the consent of the governed.

(Implied Social Contract = citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights).

As related, we publish a series of teaching commentaries every month – as a supplement to the Go Lean book. This month, we are examining the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. The issue of confederation is a valid consideration in this month’s teaching subject on the perceived ‘masterpiece’ of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights – the first 10 Amendments that were proposed-ratified right at the start of the accession of the new Constitutional Republic (1791). In earlier commentaries of this series, we detailed the anti-tyranny provisions and criminal proceedings of the Bill of Rights; now we look at the Separation of Powers provisions, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the US Constitution. These provide the legal premise as follows:

Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other [rights] retained by the people.^[93]

The Ninth Amendment declares that there are additional fundamental rights that exist outside the Constitution. The rights enumerated in the Constitution are not an explicit and exhaustive list of individual rights. It was rarely mentioned in Supreme Court decisions before the second half of the 20th century, when it was cited by several of the justices in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). The Court in that case voided a statute prohibiting use of contraceptives as an infringement of the right of marital privacy.^[116] This right was, in turn, the foundation upon which the Supreme Court built decisions in several landmark cases, including, Roe v. Wade (1973), which overturned a Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which invalidated a Pennsylvania law that required spousal awareness prior to obtaining an abortion.

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.^[93]

The Tenth Amendment reinforces the principles of separation of powers and federalism by providing that powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or the people. The amendment provides no new powers or rights to the states, but rather preserves their authority in all matters not specifically granted to the federal government.^[117]

Congress has sometimes circumvented the Tenth Amendment by invoking the Commerce Clause in Article One^[118] or by threatening to withhold funding for a federal program from non-cooperative States, as in South Dakota v. Dole (1987).
Source: Retrieved November 26, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

The historicity of the US shows that they did not always appreciate the concept of Separation of Powers. Though the Bill of Rights was fully ratified in 1791, these provisions had no bearing on the States, until starting around the 1860’s with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yes, for at least 70 years – and even longer in some cases – the country had a divergent sets of constitutional rights: some at the federal level and totally different ones at the State level. See this point as pronounced here from the same encyclopedic reference as above:

Although Madison’s [- the original author -] proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.^[3]

So there you have it; the masterpiece of a legal framework that was the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights was not so perfect a masterpiece after all. However, the beauty of the US Constitution History is not its start; it’s the journey, and the finish.

This is where and how the Caribbean can forge a better legal legacy – we can make our own masterpiece now at the start of our federal government, and not have to endure the same long train of abuses to get to this destination. We can do better in our Caribbean homeland; this is the quest of the Go Lean movement to reform and transform Caribbean society. The revelation of an ugly history for the Bill of Rights is the purpose of this November 2019 blog series. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

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

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for a Separation of Powers provisions. We do not need jurisdictional confusion between federal authorities and those of the member-states; they need to separate, yes, so as to come together for an integrated solution. See how this is presented visually in this photo here – a facsimile of Page 71 of the Go Lean book:

(Click on photo to Enlarge)

In this photo, notice all the “Exclusive = Yes” federal departments. This means, according to the verbiage in the book, as related in 1 example regarding the separated-exclusive Depository Insurance & Regulatory Authority:

The scope and jurisdiction of this Agency is exclusive in the region for Caribbean dollar activity.

This structure is repeated, again and again in the book; of the 51 identified federal agencies, 28 are chartered as exclusive authority or jurisdiction. This is good for regional governance; this means local member-states do NOT have to maintain duplicate agencies to do the same functions that can be technocratically delivered at the federal level. Consider these further examples – again, not the exhaustive list:

Securities Exchange Regulatory Authority	Coast Guard / Naval Authority
Witness Protection (WitSec)	Trade / Anti-Trust Regulatory Commission
Patents, Standards and Copyrights Authority	Postal Services
Communications & Media Authority	Aviation Administration & Promotions
Student Loan Funding	Medical Licenses & Standards

This foregoing information is from 1 page of the Go Lean book, while in fact there are 370 pages of turn-by-turn directions on how to reform and transform the economic, security and governing engines for the Caribbean region and their member-states. This roadmap includes the new community ethos (attitudes and values) that must be adopted; plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deliver the obligations of the Social Contract. In fact, this is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 222, entitled:

10 Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, and thus creates an economic zone of over $800 Billion (c. 2010). The sheer size of this single economy allows for more government efficiencies and effectiveness, as should be expected by citizens of a modern democracy. This expectation is pegged to the implied Social Contract where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. The CU ascension creates another layer of government hierarchy for the region, but the implication is the same: there is a Social Contract of deliverables and responsibilities that the CU must execute, in the sphere of economic empowerment and homeland security.
2	Economics of Colonies … The CU Social Contract calls for a re-boot in which this region will not just consume, but also create/produce.
3	Non-Profitable Endeavors [18th Century] economist Adam Smith, recommended further that governments not impede the wheels of commerce, (laissez-faire), rather concentrate more on endeavors not financially feasible for private enterprises, like early childhood education, standing armies, public safety, etc. … The CU proposes public-domain services that can expand the economics (income/jobs) for the region, such as the prison industrial complex, student loans for tertiary education and licenses for private security/1^st response services.
4	Security of Colonies History has shown that there must be security solutions or “bad actors” will exploit successful economic engines for illicit gains. This was the case with the Pirates of the Caribbean plundering the booty of Spanish treasure-laden ships, and also the Outlaws of the Old West robbing the yields of prospectors from the Gold Rushes (i.e. California, Alaska). The CU assuages regional terroristic threats and prosecutes economic crimes.
5	Infrastructure Roads, bridges, sewer systems, and other infrastructure projects cannot always function as profit centers, many times these endeavors must be invested in for the sake of the greater good, without the rationale of profit. This expectation is economically unrealistic for smaller states, but with the scale of the entire CU, viable solutions can be put in place.
6	Medical / Heath Endeavors
7	Education Optimizations
8	Failed State Indices Movements
9	Technology and Efficiency The CU will foster the art and science of technology deployments. This includes the embrace of advanced project management and lean organizational initiatives (Six Sigma, Agile, PMI, CMM, etc.), resulting in efficient deliveries.
10	Canadian Provincial Governments Model

The reasons for Caribbean Push and Pull are tied to deficiencies in the economic and security engines; think jobs or crime. But governance is important too. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the deployment of optimized administrative systems will help Caribbean governments to govern better … and at a lower cost.

This theme – improving governing mechanics and systems – has been related in many previous Go Lean commentaries. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18524	e-Money Solutions for the Caribbean Dollar – Now One Step Closer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	Learning from Previous Failures for Infrastructure Developments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17500	Continuity of Business: Learning from System Failures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward – For Independence: Territory Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – Federal vs Member-State
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858	A Regional Network – A Mandate for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075	e-Government 3.0 – Systems for Improved Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13999	First Steps – Deputize the CU for Regional Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10771	Logical Addresses – ‘Life or Death’ Consequences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6965	Secrecy, corruption and conflicts of interest pervade state governments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1112	The problem with Bad Governance is not Money; its Bad Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	Better Governance – Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent

Yes, we can be Better Than America; but it is not easy; it involves some heavy-lifting that many times America itself did not want to do. Just think, all the reasonable accommodations they subsequently made to “live and let live”. We take it for granted today, but for previous generations, this was a “tall order”. This is how we can be better … now, by fully embracing the mandate for a pluralistic democracy, now.

Imagine: Civil Rights without a Civil War; Gender Equity without a Battle of the Sexes.

This is how we can do better than America’s Bill of Rights. We can just give people their rights, with no tyranny attached. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Appendix VIDEO – Collin Raye – Make Sure You’ve Got It All (1998) – https://youtu.be/SDsOHyMZr5U

Published on Nov 7, 2011 – From the Collin Raye album ‘The Walls Came Down’. Written by Bill Anderson and Steve Wariner. No copyright infringement is intended.

Category: Music
Song: Make Sure You’ve Got It All
Artist: Collin Raye
Album: The Walls Came Down
Licensed to YouTube by: SME (on behalf of Epic/Nashville); Sony ATV Publishing, CMRRA, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., SOLAR Music Rights Management, WAMA, Inc., UMPG Publishing, and 2 Music Rights Societies

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