Tactical – Page 8 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Category: Tactical

Go ‘Green’ … Caribbean

Posted on May 15, 2014 in Implementation, Industries, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

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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Book Review: ‘Citizenville – Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government’

Posted on May 13, 2014 in Government, Implementation, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“Government is functioning on the cutting edge of … 1973”.

These words jump off the page in the new book by the California Lieutenant Governor (former Mayor of San Francisco) Gavin Newsom, Citizenville – How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government. He asserts that government is not making optimal use of modern technology, and so he proposes some creative and engaging solutions.

These proposals are also valid in a consideration of Caribbean governance.

This subject matter aligns with the publication Go Lean … Caribbean, which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate Caribbean society and culture. The CU has 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The same as the Citizenville book catalogs a list of private-sector technology platforms that could improve how the public sector works, the Go Lean roadmap lists a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster a technocracy for Caribbean administration. This technocracy is the super-national entity, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. This federal government is described as a “lean” modus operandi.

The same as Citizenville assesses the US federal-state-county-city governmental structures as being deficient for the challenge of the newly connected American society, the Go Lean roadmap assesses that the Caribbean is deficient for its mandates under the assumed social contract (between government and citizens). This contract calls for the governments to be a proxy for public safety and economic opportunities. The Caribbean failings are so acute that many citizens have abandoned their homeland and migrated to North America and European locales. The loss of these citizens’ contributions (their time, talents and treasuries) make administering to the remainder of the population difficult – as many times the emigrated ones represent the professional classes – a brain drain. The Go Lean roadmap calls for a total reboot of Caribbean systems of commerce and governance. The book provides 380 pages as details for this roadmap.

Book Review: By Beth Simone Noveck

Subject: ‘Citizenville – How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government’ By Gavin Newsom with Lisa Dickey (The Penguin Press; 249 pages)

When I started work in the White House in 2009, I had been brought in to help implement the Obama administration’s commitment to making government more transparent, participatory and collaborative. At the time, the federal government, like governments worldwide, was anything but open. The White House didn’t have a blog, Twitter accounts or a social media site. To make matters worse, we were running Windows 2000.

As a colleague described the situation: “We have a nearly obsolete infrastructure, so a lot of things have to be done ‘by hand.’ Don’t think Google server farm. Think gerbil on a wheel.”

Things have gotten better since those early days, but they’re not yet good enough. Approval rates for government are at an all-time low. We need more open, innovative government to connect with citizens and win their trust. But it can be hard to know how to talk about government innovation in a way that is exciting and inspiring. Through lively stories and engaging quotes from famous digerati and less-famous policy entrepreneurs, Gavin Newsom’s new book, “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,” does just that.

Co-authored by Lisa Dickey, “Citizenville” focuses on the fact that government is not making optimal use of modern technology, and proposes some creative, engaging solutions. Dickey and California’s lieutenant governor declare that “government right now is functioning on the cutting edge – of 1973.”

Upgrading the operating system of our democracy and making town hall as easy to navigate as Twitter has real potential for improving people’s everyday lives. “Citizenville” offers both an impassioned plea for more tech-enabled government and a tour d’horizon of the ways some governments have begun using technology to good effect. Newsom and Dickey catalog an impressive list of private-sector tech platforms that could improve how we work in the public sector. The overall effect is breathless and dizzying (and often disconnected), but ultimately powerful.

First, there’s YouTube. We can use social media to broadcast and democratize town hall meetings and make government more interactive in how it communicates with citizens, changing the relationship between government and the governed.

Next come Google and other information-based platforms. When we open up the information government holds and make it available to the public, innovators of all kinds can create empowering applications. When the federal government released data on hospitals, big [data] companies like Google and Microsoft upgraded their search engines to provide potentially lifesaving information on patient satisfaction and infection rates through user search. And a small entrepreneur, Stamen Design, used local crime data to build the Crimespotting map that enables Oakland residents to understand (and hopefully reduce) crime in their neighborhoods.

Newsom and Dickey celebrate Salesforce, the cloud-computing giant that helped San Francisco track the impact of its homelessness programs and deliver better and cheaper services. Using up-to-the-minute data, San Francisco was able to find housing and shelter for many of its homeless. “The democratizing influence of the cloud,” the authors posit, “leads to a stronger, more stable commonwealth.”

Inspired by the Apple App Store, Newsom and Dickey suggest that government could reduce corrupt procurement practices, bring down costs and foster entrepreneurship by inviting those outside of government to develop tools and solutions instead of relying only on bureaucracy to procure goods and services.

For example, they write about Donors Choose, an organization that pairs classrooms and teachers with those willing to purchase much-needed school supplies. Much more than a Match.com for education, this kind of partnership website also gets people engaged in their communities.

The company at the center of the book is Zynga, creator of “FarmVille.” In the game, players work with their friends to tend farms and animals to advance to the next level. It’s addictive – much more engaging, Newsom and Dickey suggest, than participating in the dull life of our democracy. If more of government involved play and prizes, Citizenville would be just as engaging as “FarmVille.”

“We could combine the fun of a game with the social good of solving real problems,” write Newsom and Dickey. If people are willing to spend real money on virtual tractors, then why wouldn’t they clean up the local park if their efforts were recognized and rewarded using new technology?

But the authors of “Citizenville” don’t acknowledge that getting to this kind of decentralized, participatory, tech-enabled democracy is a long and uncertain path. In “FarmVille,” residents are motivated because they can decide how to spend their virtual dollars. But after you finish cleaning up the local park in Citizenville, what can you really do? Other than a brief aside on citizen-budgeting experiments, “Citizenville” does not explain how technology can empower people to make consequential decisions about how to solve our collective problems. It doesn’t address who will participate and why, and who will be left out.

A classic bureaucratic model won’t drive the new participatory technology: If Zynga were to create a department of agriculture for the purpose of fostering virtual agricultural productivity, everyone would quit! Whether in “FarmVille” or Wikipedia, people collaborate online to tackle challenges and for peer approval. In our

real-world communities, people often pitch in where government is absent. (Think barn-raising.) But in a world where real people pay real taxes, we don’t yet know why most people, when invited to spend time and effort to solve public problems, won’t just say, “That’s the government’s job, not mine.”

There are two different challenges to achieving greater self-governance. First, we have to create incentives for people to engage more. Second, we have to create incentives for government to let them do it. Zynga wants players to create their own farms because the company gets rich if they do. Newsom and Dickey suggest that if we make self-government fun, people will sign up. Maybe. But we also need to make enabling self-government a positive for the majority of politicians and civil servants who currently lack the incentive.

Although “Citizenville” is a fast-paced and engaging read, it’s telling that the book includes almost no voices and views of real people. We never hear from San Franciscans about whether the city is a better place to live since the adoption of tech-enabled innovation. We are left wanting but not knowing how to make Citizenville work in reality.

“Citizenville” might not give us the evidence that its proposed solutions will work. But it surely gives us the faith that open government – namely, more participatory, decentralized and agile institutions, enabled and supported by advances in technology – could lead to better solutions for citizens and more legitimate democracy. And, thankfully, if we are looking for a politician who claims he knows how to get out of the way and catalyze bottom-up democracy, we know where to find him.

Beth Simone Noveck led the White House Open Government Initiative and served as the nation’s first U.S. deputy chief technology officer. She is a visiting professor at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the MIT Media Lab and a professor of law at New York Law School. E-mail: books@sfchronicle.com

Website Sister-Site of the San Francisco Chronicle – Book Review – Posted 4, 2013; Retrieved 05-13-2014 –http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Citizenville-by-Gavin-Newsom-4321331.php

The Go Lean roadmap first accepts this mission to re-structure facets of Caribbean governance with these pronouncements at the outset of book, in the Declaration of Interdependence, as follows (Page 12):

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.

xiv. Whereas government services cannot be delivered without the appropriate funding mechanisms, “new guards” must be incorporated to assess, accrue, calculate and collect revenues, fees and other income sources for the Federation and member-states. The Federation can spur government revenues directly through cross-border services and indirectly by fostering industries and economic activities not possible without this Union.

For the source book, the name Citizenville stems from the online game Farmville, from San Francisco-area based software giant Zynga. This technology company’s strategies and tactics are considered for re-architecting the delivery of government services, or self-government as described in Citizenville. Other California-based technology firms are also chronicled, studied and modeled in this book: YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and SalesForce.com.

Go Lean…Caribbean also trumpets a call to the world of technology to impact Caribbean life. This roadmap advocates the launch of a social media site – www.myCaribbean.gov – for all Caribbean stakeholders (residents, Diaspora, students, business entities, and even visitors). This can create a universe of over 160 million unique profiles. The Go Lean roadmap is to deliver many government services via electronic modes, including public safety fulfillments. (Imagine Reverse 911 phone calls to alert all people in the path of an imminent hurricane).

The following lists other details from Go Lean…Caribbean that parallels the advocacies of the source book Citizenville:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – CU Customers – Member-State Governments	Page 51
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Executive Branch	Page 72
Anecdote – Turning Around the CARICOM construct	Page 92
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government	Page 93
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Revenue Sources … for Administration	Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Manage Federal Civil Service	Page 173
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217

Citizenville is a convincing argument that open government with participatory, agile institutions, enabled by advanced technology – can work. The Go Lean roadmap concurs!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits are too alluring to ignore: dawn of a new economy and new opportunities. Finally, a strong incentive for the Diaspora to consider repatriation, to preserve the Caribbean culture for the Caribbean youth … and future generations.

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!!!

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Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy

Posted on May 9, 2014 in Economics, Implementation, Planning, Social, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

More fallout from the year 2008…

This is a consistent theme in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book posits that the events of that year were a crisis for the Caribbean, North America and the world economy as a whole. What’s worst is the Caribbean is still reeling from those events.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”

… so states the book quoting noted Economist Paul Romer. The opportunity therefore exists to forge change in the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, in response to this crisis.

The below news-story (or click on VIDEO icon below) shows that the rest of the world, those with astute eyes/ears to look, listen and learn, will be using this crisis to prepare for change. This is the advocacy of the Go Lean book, to position the region at the corner of preparation and opportunity, so as to benefit from change. The issue from the article is more pressing for the Caribbean than the rest of North America; this is because the region has a very high emigration rate (brain drain). This point is crystalized with this quotation:

We tend to think economic growth comes from working harder and smarter. But economists attribute up to a third of it to more people joining the workforce each year than leaving it. The result is more producing, earning and spending.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a super-national institution with federal powers to forge change in the Caribbean community. One mission is incentivizing the return of the far-flung Caribbean Diaspora. Another mission is to dissuade further human flight/brain drain. The numbers don’t lie: we need population growth not population contraction.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nancy Strumwasser, a high school teacher from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, always thought she’d have two children. But the layoffs that swept over the U.S. economy around the time her son was born six years ago helped change her mind. Though she and her husband, a market researcher, managed to keep their jobs, she fears they won’t be so fortunate next time.

“After we had a kid in 2009, I thought, ‘This is not happening again,'” says Strumwasser, 41, adding, “I never really felt comfortable about jobs, how solid they can be.”

The 2008 financial crisis did more than wipe out billions in wealth and millions of jobs. It also sent birth rates tumbling around the world as couples found themselves too short of money or too fearful about their finances to have children. Six years later, birth rates haven’t bounced back.

For those who fear an overcrowded planet, this is good news. For the economy, not so good.

We tend to think economic growth comes from working harder and smarter. But economists attribute up to a third of it to more people joining the workforce each year than leaving it. The result is more producing, earning and spending.

Now this secret fuel of the economy, rarely missing and little noticed, is running out.

“For the first time since World War II, we’re no longer getting a tailwind,” says Russ Koesterich, chief investment strategist at BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager. “You’re going to create fewer jobs. … All else equal, wage growth will be slower.”

Births are falling in China, Japan, the United States, Germany, Italy and nearly all other European countries. Studies have shown that births drop when unemployment rises, such as during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Birth rates have fallen the most in some regions that were hardest hit by the financial crisis.

In the United States, three-quarters of people surveyed by Gallup last year said the main reason couples weren’t having more children was a lack of money or fear of the economy.

The trend emerges as a gauge of future economic health — the growth in the pool of potential workers, ages 20-64 — is signaling trouble ahead. This labor pool had expanded for decades, thanks to the vast generation of baby boomers. Now the boomers are retiring, and there are barely enough new workers to replace them, let alone add to their numbers.

Growth in the working-age population has halted in developed countries overall. Even in France and the United Kingdom, with relatively healthy birth rates, growth in the labor pool has slowed dramatically. In Japan, Germany and Italy, the labor pool is shrinking.

“It’s like health — you only realize it exists until you don’t have it,” says Alejandro Macarron Larumbe of Demographic Renaissance, a think tank in Madrid.

The drop in birth rates is rooted in the 1960s, when many women entered the workforce for the first time and couples decided to have smaller families. Births did begin rising in many countries in the new millennium. But then the financial crisis struck. Stocks and home values plummeted, blowing a hole in household finances, and tens of millions of people lost jobs. Many couples delayed having children or decided to have none at all.

Couples in the world’s five biggest developed economies — the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom — had 350,000 fewer babies in 2012 than in 2008, a drop of nearly 5 percent. The United Nations forecasts that women in those countries will have an average 1.7 children in their lifetimes. Demographers say the fertility rate needs to reach 2.1 just to replace people dying and keep populations constant.

The effects on economies, personal wealth and living standards are far reaching:

— A return to “normal” growth is unlikely: Economic growth of 3 percent a year in developed countries, the average over four decades, had been considered a natural rate of expansion, sure to return once damage from the global downturn faded. But many economists argue that that pace can’t be sustained without a surge of new workers. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the U.S. economy will grow 3 percent or so in each of the next three years, then slow to an average 2.3 percent for next eight years. The main reason: Not enough new workers.

— Reduced pay and lifestyles: Slower economic growth will limit wage gains and make it difficult for middle-class families to raise their living standards, and for those in poverty to escape it. One measure of living standards is already signaling trouble: Gross domestic product per capita — the value of goods and services a country produces per person — fell 1 percent in the five biggest developed countries from the start of 2008 through 2012, according to the World Bank.

— A drag on household wealth: Slower economic growth means companies will generate lower profits, thereby weighing down stock prices. And the share of people in the population at the age when they tend to invest in stocks and homes is set to fall, too. All else equal, that implies stagnant or lower values. Homes are the biggest source of wealth for most middle-class families.

___

AP researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai and AP writers Frank Jordans in Berlin, Colleen Barry in Milan and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Huffington Post – Online News – May 8, 2014 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/birth-rate-economy_n_5281597.html

The CU recognizes that the numbers must work in favor of societal progress. The next steps after Look-Listen-Learn is to Lend-a-hand and then Lead. (This is referred to as the 5 L Progression). So to lend-a-hand, the Go Lean roadmap advocates that population leveling can be accomplished with a regional integration. There are many social safety nets that depend of this actuarial exercise. Consider unemployment and pensions: for unemployment, workers pay into a fund and the temporarily unemployed file claims against that fund. Likewise with pensions: young workers pay into a fund, and the older-retired workers draw claims against that fund.

The CU is structured to lead … for the economic elevation of the region of 42 million people in the 30 member-states. The Go Lean roadmap provides the details for the creation of 2.2 million new jobs and GDP growth to accumulate to $800 Billion. This commission to lead is at the root of the Go Lean effort, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

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

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

According to the foregoing article, America needs to have more babies. While this disposition varies from country to country, the Caribbean needs to furnish the environment for families to make their own family-planning decisions based on their own personal motivations, not economic realities. Broken economies can (and will) be fixed! Love for the Caribbean homeland should therefore be the primary motivation for the CU effort. From the cradle-to-the-grave, we need love to be the principal motivation, not fear or economic metrics, for making the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

Taking the lead for this goal takes real work, heavy-lifting on the part of the stewards of the Caribbean economy. This is the charter for the CU, as started in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13), a direct quotation from the US Declaration of Independence, as follows:

… that to secure these rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. … [It] is the right of the people to … institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

The following details from the book Go Lean … Caribbean are the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies prescribed to manifest the elevation of Caribbean economy, society and life:

Who We Are – SFE Foundation	Page 8
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – new Economic Principles	Page 21
Community Ethos – new Security Principles	Page 22
Community Ethos – new Governing Principles	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Repatriating Caribbean Diaspora	Page 47
Strategy – Non-Government Organizations	Page 48
Strategy – Agents of Change – Aging Diaspora	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Implementation – Assemble all Member-States	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration	Page 174
Advocacy – Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Retirement	Page 221
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class	Page 223
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care	Page 225

The Go Lean roadmap is a product of 2008. From this fallout, this plan was composed, by individuals intimate with the details of the crisis … and its causes.

The goal is to learn from the Year 2008 and spread new benefits across the Caribbean region. This roadmap identifies where we are as a region currently, where we want to go, and most importantly, how we plan to get there (turn-by-turn directions). It is time for us to move now to that place, that corner of opportunity and preparation.

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One currency, divergent economies

Posted on May 9, 2014 in Economics, Implementation, Planning, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

The global financial crisis is not over. Some countries, like in Europe, are doing better while some places are not. This quotation from the foregoing article stands out in significance:

Whereas joblessness has fallen in Germany, from 10.1% to 5.1%, it has soared in Spain, from 11.1% to 25.3%.

The experiences have also been similar in the United States. In 2008, California’s unemployment rate exceeded 10%, while Nebraska enjoyed a 4% rate. Why do some member-states dive, some survive and others thrive? This is the scope of the social science of economics. But it is not a perfect science. A joke lampooning the folly of economists states that “an economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today”.

By: Staff Reporting.

One thing that the European Central Bank (ECB) does not lack is advice on tackling low inflation. This week the OECD added its voice to that of the IMF in April in urging prompt action, calling for a cut in the bank’s main lending rate, from the already low 0.25% reached in November to zero. The ECB’s governing council, meeting on May 8th (after The Economist had gone to press), was not expected to respond to this plea any more than it did to the IMF’s.

The difficulty facing the 24-strong council is highlighted by the euro zone’s differing labour-market trajectories over the past decade (a period during which it expanded from 12 to 18 countries). Whereas joblessness has fallen in Germany, from 10.1% to 5.1%, it has soared in Spain, from 11.1% to 25.3%.

High unemployment has contributed to the onset of deflation in parts of southern Europe. But even in northern countries inflation is low, and though it has risen in the euro zone as a whole from 0.5% in March to 0.7% in April, that is still a long way off the ECB’s target of close to 2%. The main reasons why the council prefers to wait and see are that the recovery is strengthening and bond investors are falling over themselves to lend to southern Europe, even without any further policy stimulus.

The Economist Magazine – Online Edition – May 10th, 2014 http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21601878-one- currency-divergent-economies

Europe’s and the US experience is different than that of the Caribbean. For us, it’s some countries are doing bad, others worse.

The best practice for effective stewards of an economy is the recovery, to bounce back quickly. In the US, the economy lost $11 Trillion in the 2008 Great Recession, but recovered $13.5 Trillion back a few years later, by December 2012 (Page 69).

Europe has the safety net of the economies-of-scale of 508 million people and a GDP of $15 Trillion in 28 member-states in the EU; (the Eurozone subset is 18 states, 333 million people and $13.1 Trillion GDP). The US has 50 states and 320 million people. Shocks and dips can therefore be absorbed and leveraged across the entire region .The EU is still the #1 economy in the world; the US is #2.

The Caribbean has no safety-net, no shock absorption, and no integration. This is the quest of the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it urges the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. The book serves as a roadmap for this goal, with turn-by-turn directions to integrate the 30 member-states of the region and forge an $800 Billion economy.

This is a big idea for the small Caribbean!

At the outset, the roadmap identified an urgent need to contend with, since the Caribbean is still in the throes of the financial crisis (commenced in 2008). This is pronounced in this clause in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

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

The Go Lean roadmap signals change for the region. It introduces new measures, new opportunities and new recoveries. Economies will rise and fall; the recovery is key. Prices will inflate and deflate; as depicted in the foregoing article, there are curative measures to manage these indices. The roadmap calls for the establishment of the allied Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to manage the monetary affairs of this region. The book describes the breath-and-width of the CCB, modeled in many ways after the ECB.

The foregoing news article is short (3 paragraphs), but like most topics in economics, a quick phrase on the surface connotes a deep field of study underneath. This field of study in this article is inflation and deflation.

In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange and unit of account within the economy. [a] Deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). [b]

Stewardship of the economy was envisioned and pronounced in the roadmap’s Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

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

The role of central banking and commercial banking is pivotal to the CU roadmap. The Caribbean Central Bank will manage the monetary policy and reserves of the Caribbean Dollar single currency – shepherding inflation, deflation and foreign currency matters for the region. On the other hand, commercial banks operate with the simultaneous goal of providing credit/holding deposits for the public and maximizing shareholder value for their investors. A conflict of these two goals can endanger the macro-economy. The CU/CCB structure, a cooperative among existing member-state central banks, constitutes a new administration for the regional economy’s monetary and currency concerns.

If there is the need to spur or suppress inflation/deflation, the CCB will have the required tools. As depicted in the foregoing article, this can affect unemployment and the general performance of local economies.

We therefore need good stewards or shepherds.

The CU roadmap drives change among the economic, security and governing engines. These solutions are as new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies; as follows:

Community Ethos – Money Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – CU Vision and Mission	Page 45
Strategy – Recruiting Foreign Direct Investors	Page 48
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – $800 Billion Economy – How and When	Page 67
Tactical – Recovering from Economic Bubbles	Page 69
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Central Bank	Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Planning – Ways to Model the EU	Page 119
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies	Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Control Inflation	Page 153
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Foreign Exchange	Page 154
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Battles in the War on Poverty	Page 222
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class	Page 223
Appendix – Optimizing Remittances	Page 270

We must protect Caribbean value, monetarily and culturally, from past investments and for future prospects.

Shepherding the economy is no simple task. It requires the best practices of skilled technocrats…and a measure of luck. It’s time to get lucky! The CU roadmap equals preparation. That’s how luck is created, by preparation meeting opportunity.

References:

a. Paul H. Walgenbach, Norman E. Dittrich and Ernest I. Hanson, (1973), Financial Accounting, New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc. Page 429.

b. Robert J. Barro and Vittorio Grilli (1994), European Macroeconomics, chap. 8, p. 142. ISBN 0-333-57764-7

Download the Book- Go Lean…Caribbean Now!!!

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Trucks and Trains Play Well Together

Posted on May 9, 2014 in Government, Industries, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) – this refers to the dichotomy of modern living. Many people want all the convenience that modern industrial development brings to their communities, but they do not want it … in their back yards. The point is alluded to in the foregoing news article, as a strategic success for forging business opportunities while neutralizing the NIMBY opposition. In this case the strategy is to locate multiple industrial infrastructural projects (rail-yard-truck intermodal) – normally noise pollutants to neighbors – at the airport, the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) – 1 – rail, 2 – trucks and 3 – air all in the same vicinity, This proved to be a smart move, neutralizing oppositions.

This strategic development corresponds with the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This publication serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), another smart move. There is no doubt that Trade and Transport goes hand-in-hand, so this issue is of utmost importance to this roadmap. Since, most of the CU is comprised of islands (and 3 coastal states), there is the need to add a 4th mode to the CU intermodal consideration: sea.

The prime directive of the CU is to optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean region. In the roadmap, this directive aligns with the Union Atlantic Turnpike, a virtual consolidation of all the above transportation modes, and the investments to build and optimize them. The biggest change of the CU transportation approach is the deployment of multi-functional ferry-boats. Now imagine one destination (one backyard) with intermodal exchange for air, rail, ferry, and trucks. Imagine too, the amount of cargo (including mail), passengers, jobs, and economic activity on the move. Now multiply that imagination for all 30 member-states, serving a Caribbean single market of 42 million people. The resultant growth to the region is undeniable.

By: Gina Carroll Howard

Trucks, trains, and planes mean hours of fun for children. But for Charlotte USA, they mean business.

Norfolk Southern Corporation is betting that road and rail cargo transport will play an increasing role in the Charlotte region’s economy.

Since intermodal facilities can take a decade or more to build, the railroad looks for cities that are ripe for significant growth. Charlotte fits that profile, thanks to its progressive nature and pro-business culture — not to mention its prime location in the middle of the railroad’s Crescent Corridor.

Norfolk Southern recently relocated its local intermodal operation from a landlocked 40-acre site with encroaching residential growth to 200 acres at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). With its main line running right past the airport and easy highway access for trucks, the location in the world’s second-largest hub is ideal. As planes taxi, take off, and land nearby, about 200,000 cargo containers will transfer annually between trucks and trains. And that’s just the beginning.

“From Charlotte, we can move domestic and international traffic from anywhere in the U.S.,” says Jeff Heller, Norfolk Southern vice president of intermodal and automotive marketing.

“The Charlotte region has a huge consumer base. It’s a magnet that pulls trade into the area. This new facility is a showcase and can be front and center in business development. It’s modern and has access to both coasts and all major manufacturing and distribution centers in the country. It helps reinforce Charlotte’s reputation as a viable manufacturing and distribution center.”

It also helps the Charlotte airport retain its low-cost status.

“Norfolk Southern’s lease provides the airport with a secondary revenue source that directly offsets airport operating costs,” says Brent Cagle, interim aviation director. “This is a tremendous benefit to our airline partners and ultimately to the passengers they serve.”

Cagle believes that complementary companies will locate distribution centers on surrounding properties that the airport has acquired. These leases would provide the airport with another secondary revenue source.

The airport/railroad relationship is a symbiotic one that benefits CLT, Norfolk Southern, and Charlotte USA. Both Cagle and Heller agree that the two operations are highly compatible.

“With the airport site, we’re not creating any more noise or lights than already are there,” Heller notes.

And Cagle predicts that Norfolk Southern’s intermodal facility and Charlotte Douglas International Airport “will be great neighbors.” It sounds like they’ll play well together.

US Airways Inflight Magazine – April 2014 http://charlotteusa.com/news-media/blog/trucks-and-trains-play-well-together-/

The Go Lean roadmap quantifies the economic growth, from this and other industrial initiatives, and counts 2.2 million new jobs and the elevation to an $800 Billion regional economy.

As the foregoing article highlights, as children play with trucks, trains, and airplanes, the CU treats these (and ships/boats) as serious business. This commitment is codified in the roadmap, with details of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; as follows:

Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Separation of Powers – Transportation Dept.	Page 84
Implementation – Consolidating Mail Service	Page 108
Implementation – Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Planning – Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce	Page 129
Government – Impact Public Works & the Turnpike	Page 175
Industries – Ways to Improve Transportation	Page 205
Appendix – Model of a Marine Highway System	Page 280

Welcome to a new Caribbean, that’s on the move. Go Lean!

Download the Book- Go Lean…Caribbean Now!!!

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Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls

Posted on May 8, 2014 in Government, Planning, Social, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Abducting little girls from a boarding school in the middle of the night is just criminal! There is nothing religious or political about this action.

This is not just terrorism – in the classic sense – this is simply felonious behavior. This is evidenced further by the fact that the perpetrators have promised to sell the girls into slavery. The word “sell” has the connotation of obtaining money for this action. This is criminal and should therefore be condemned by every civilized society in the world.

Failure to marshal against these crimes is just failure – indicative of a Failed-State. Nigeria has a bad image of deceitful practices. So it is only appropriate to ask: is this truly a case of abduction, or could it all be one big Nigerian scam? Despite the obvious “cry wolf” reference, we must side with the innocent victims here. But, as is cited to in the foregoing news article, there are many people who feel that Nigeria hasn’t done enough for these girls. Only now that other countries have stepped up to assist/oversee has the government become more accountable.

Another group of victims in this drama are the peace-loving Islamic adherents. The actions of Boko Haram are casting dispersions on the whole religion. This terrorist group is not practicing the true teachings of Islam; in fact these actions are condemned as criminal even in the Muslim world.

AP*; Photo by: Manuel Balce Ceneta

The abduction three weeks ago of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram is now generating worldwide attention and condemnation. Muslim leaders in various countries have criticized Boko Haram’s leader for using Islamic teachings as his justification for threatening to sell the girls into slavery. Others have focused on what they view as a slow response by Nigeria’s government to the crisis. The British and French governments announced Wednesday that they would send teams of experts to complement the U.S. team heading to Nigeria to help with the search for the girls, and Nigeria’s president said China has also offered assistance.

Some of the reactions to the crisis:

— EGYPT: Muslim religious officials strongly condemned Boko Haram. Religious Endowments Minister Mohammed Mohktar Gomaa said “the actions by Boko Haram are pure terrorism, with no relation to Islam, especially the kidnapping of the girls. These are criminal, terrorist acts.” According to the state news agency MENA, he said “these disasters come from cloaking political issues in the robes of religion and from peddling religion for secular interests, something we warn incessantly against.”

The sheik of the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, one of Sunni Islam’s most prestigious institutions, demanded the group release the girls, saying it “bears responsibility for any harm suffered by these girls.” The group’s actions “completely contradict Islam and its principles of tolerance,” Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb said.

— PAKISTAN: Dawn, an English language newspaper in Pakistan, published an opinion piece that takes Nigeria to task for not moving against Boko Haram. “The popular upsurge in Nigeria in the wake of the latest unspeakable atrocity provides some scope for hoping that the state will finally act decisively to obliterate the growing menace,” wrote columnist Mahir Ali. “Naturally, the lives and welfare of the abducted girls must be an absolute priority. Looking back a few years hence, it would also provide a degree of satisfaction to be able to pinpoint the moment when Boko Haram sealed its own fate by going much too far.”

— INDONESIA: In the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, the Jakarta Post published an editorial Wednesday condemning the Boko Haram leader for “wrongly” citing Islamic teaching as his excuse for selling the abducted girls into slavery. Recalling the Taliban’s shooting of 15-year-old Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai in 2012 because of her outspokenness in defense of girls’ right to an education, the editorial said: “Malala’s message needs to be conveyed to all people who use their power to block children’s access to education. It is saddening that religion is misused to terrorize people and to kill the future leaders of the world.”

The newspaper also criticized Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, noting that “only after international condemnation and street demonstrations poured in did President Jonathan tell his nation that he would take all necessary actions to return the young women to their parents and schools, while also acknowledging that the whereabouts of the abductees remained unknown.”

— SWEDEN: In an editorial posted on the left-wing news website politism.se, blogger Nikita Feiz criticized the international community for its slow response and asked why the situation hadn’t triggered as loud a reaction as when Malala was shot in Pakistan. “Looking at the situation in Nigeria, Malala appears like a false promise from the West that it would stand up for girls’ rights to attend school without fear of being subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse,” she said. “It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that the West’s assurance to act for girls’ rights suddenly isn’t as natural when it comes to girls’ rights in a country in Africa.”

A Swedish women’s network called StreetGaris is planning a demonstration outside the Foreign Ministry on Friday to demand more action from the international community. Participants are encouraged to wear a head wrap or red clothes in solidarity with the girls and their relatives.

— UNITED STATES: The U.S. government is sending to Nigeria a team of technical experts, including American military and law enforcement personnel skilled in intelligence, investigations, hostage negotiating, information sharing and victim assistance, as well as officials with expertise in other areas — but not U.S. armed forces.

“In the short term our goal is obviously is to help the international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies,” President Barack Obama told NBC on Tuesday. “But we’re also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organizations like this that … can cause such havoc in people’s day-to-day lives.”

In an editorial, The New York Times faulted the Nigerian government for not aggressively responding to the abductions. “Mr. Jonathan, who leads a corrupt government that has little credibility, initially played down the group’s threat and claimed security forces were in control,” the newspaper said. “It wasn’t until Sunday, more than two weeks after the kidnappings, that he called a meeting of government officials, including the leader of the girls’ school, to discuss the incident.”

— BRITAIN: Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said Britain will send a small team of experts to complement the U.S. team being sent by Obama. The announcement was made Wednesday after Cameron spoke to the Nigerian president. The team will be sent as soon as possible and will include specialists from several departments. Experts have said special forces may be sent to the region. The issue has heated up in recent days with protests over the weekend outside the Nigerian Embassy in London and an increasing number of newspaper editorials calling for action to rescue the girls.

— FRANCE: Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told lawmakers on Wednesday that France is ready to send a “specialized team … to help with the search and rescue” of the kidnapped girls. “In the face of such an appalling act, France, like other democratic nations, must react,” Fabius said. “This crime will not go unpunished.” Fabius gave no details of the team, except to say it’s among those already in the region. France has soldiers in Niger, Cameroon and Mali, where it is fighting Islamic insurgents, as well as in Central African Republic.

— CHINA: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, arriving Wednesday in Nigeria for a state visit, did not specifically mention the abductions in a transcript of a joint press conference with Nigeria’s president, instead making only a general reference to the “need to work together to oppose and fight terrorism.” In his remarks, Jonathan said China “promised to assist Nigeria in our fight against terror especially in our commitment and effort to rescue the girls that were taken away from a secondary school.” He did not offer specifics.

— BRAZIL: The foreign ministry issued a statement Tuesday condemning the abductions. “In conveying the feelings of solidarity to the families of the victims and to the people and the Government of Nigeria, the Brazilian Government reiterates its strong condemnation of all acts of terrorism,” the statement said.

—-

* Associated Press correspondents Lee Keath in Cairo, Michelle Faul in Lagos, Nigeria, Gregory Katz in London, Malin Rising in Stockholm, Masha Macpherson in Paris and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo, Brazil contributed to this report.

Associated Press – Online News – May 7, 2014 http://news.yahoo.com/muslim-officials-condemn-abductions-girls-160020053.html

This book Go Lean … Caribbean is a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), so as to elevate the delivery of economic and security solutions in the Caribbean. One specific mission is to manage against encroachments of the Failed-State index.

At the outset, the roadmap identified an urgent need to mitigate against organized crime & terrorism, and to ensure human rights protection. This is pronounced in this clause in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12)

xxi. 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.

The Go Lean roadmap projects that the CU will facilitate monitoring and accountability of regional law enforcement and homeland security institutions. This type of behavior will not be tolerated in the Caribbean. This CU effort will be coordinated in conjunction with and on behalf of the Caribbean member-states.

On that note, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation, if it was already in existence, would vociferously condemn the abduction of the Nigerian girls. Hence the CU would be added to the long list of condemnations in the foregoing article. But these would not be hollow words, but would be accompanied by the required actions to ensure that such a disposition could not thrive in the CU region. This commitment is detailed as these community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates:

Community Ethos – Public Protection over Privacy	Page 23
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation	Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering	Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Placate & Pacify International Monitors	Page 48
Separation of Powers – Homeland Security	Page 75
Separation of Powers – Justice Department	Page 77
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices	Page 134
Advocacy – Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime	Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights	Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227

In contrast with the events in Nigeria, local crimes against women, young or old will not be tolerated in the CU. Everyone, regardless of gender, will be guaranteed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (and education for that matter). This will be standard, whether the world is watching or not.

However, we want the world to watch. We want to show how we feverishly protect our people, with assurance that the Caribbean is the world’s best address to live, work, learn and play.

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

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Lessons Learned from the American Airlines merger

Posted on May 7, 2014 in Industries, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary – Lessons on Delivery Arts & Sciences

Tourism is the number one economic driver in the Caribbean region. But the eco-system has cracks …

More and more tourists are travelling to the Caribbean…by cruise ships. Less and less are travelling to the region by airplane. Therefore no air-flights, no hotels, no restaurants, no taxi cabs, no job multipliers, and no full economic “chain-link”.

The 2008 financial crisis placed a heavy strain on the US’s largest carrier: American Airlines. On July 2, 2008, American announced furloughs of up to 950 flight attendants, in addition to the furlough of 20 MD-80 aircraft. American’s hub at Luiz Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR) was truncated from 38 to 18 daily inbound flights. The holding company, AMR Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 29, 2011, and the airline made cuts in July 2012 due to the grounding of several aircraft associated with its bankruptcy and lack of pilots due to retirements. American Eagle, the regional carrier, (the Caribbean’s largest), was to retire 35 to 40 regional jets as well as its entire Saab turboprop fleet. [b] American Eagle PR ceased operation in March 2013. This status created dysfunction for the entire Eastern Caribbean region.

This dysfunction has created the urgency for permanent change. This is a prime directive of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, to optimize the region’s economic engines, including enhancements for Caribbean tourism, cruise and “long stay” visitors.

The delivery story continues…

By summer 2012, American Airlines considered merging with another airline as part of a restructuring plan.

On February 14, 2013, AMR Corporation and US Airways Group officially announced that the two companies would merge to form the largest airline (and airline holding company) in the world, with bondholders of American Airlines parent AMR owning 72% of the new company and US Airways shareholders owning the remaining 28%. The combined airline would carry the American Airlines name and branding, while US Airways’ management team, including CEO Doug Parker, would retain most operational management positions, and the headquarters would be consolidated at American’s current headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. The merger would create the world’s largest airline, which, along with United and Delta Air Lines, would control three-quarters of the US market. US Federal Bankruptcy judge Sean Lane approved the merger in March 2013.

The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in August 2013 seeking to block the merger, arguing that it would mean less competition and higher prices. On November 12, the airlines reached a settlement (eliminating certain routes and hubs) with the US Justice Department to settle the lawsuit and allow the merger to be finalized. Thus restoring the public “trusts”.

AMR and US Airways Group completed the merger on December 9, 2013, with the new holding company American Airlines Group, Inc. being listed on NASDAQ that day. [b]

In a January 2014 letter [a] to frequent flyers of both airlines, it was announced: “It’s an exciting time at American Airlines, and we’re kicking off the new year with you — our most loyal customers in mind. For now, we’ll continue to maintain our separate loyalty programs — Dividend Miles and AAdvantage® — with rules and benefits of each program still applying, but rest assured your mileage balance and elite status are safe, secure and will continue to be honored”.

There remains a lot of work to do as both airlines are combined, and since the close of the merger, the two airlines have been working to deliver the first phases of enhanced benefits to their customers … and communities. Here are some highlights:

1. Pick “low-hanging fruit”

Earning and redeeming miles – Members can now earn and redeem Dividend Miles (US Airways) when flying on American or US Airways with their Dividend Miles number. All miles and segments earned when flying on either airline will count toward elite status qualification in the program of your choice.

Elite benefits – Elite members of each airline can now enjoy select reciprocal benefits when flying on either airline, including First and Business Class check-in, complimentary checked bags, priority security and boarding, and many more.

More lounge access – In addition to the US Airways Clubs, club members can now access 35 Admirals Club® locations in major airports worldwide.

2. Intermediate goals and plans

On March 30, US Airways exited the competing Star Alliance. The initiation with the oneworld® alliance started on March 31, giving customers opportunities to access the widest array of destinations around the globe. More and more benefits will emerge as the merger (and the oneworld alliance) consummates. Coming soon, customers will enjoy access to an enhanced network through the American/US Airways code-share, allowing for the seamlessly booking of travel on either airline.

3. Long-term objectives

The actual integration of the airlines under a single air operator’s certificate will not be completed until a much later date. The combined airline will carry the American Airlines name and branding, and will maintain the existing US Airways hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington DC for a period of at least five years under the terms of a settlement with the US Department of Justice.

4. End Game

The resultant single-branded airline will operate an extensive international and domestic network, with scheduled flights throughout North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Asia. Its route network will center around the five American “cornerstone” hubs in Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago; plus some US Airways hubs.

oneworld Alliance

What exactly is an airline alliance? It’s an agreement among multiple airlines to streamline, make customers travel experience more seamless. The oneworld alliance is particularly good at this. So much so that it’s been named the Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler magazine’s 2013 Reader Survey for the fourth year in a row. A passenger can be checked (boarding passes and luggage) right through to the final destination when traveling on oneworld carriers. Other benefits include airport lounge access, priority check-in and priority boarding, and of course, a large number of destination choices.

The new alliance means more ways to get to top destinations. Here are the summary options…by the numbers:

981 destinations served

151 countries

14,244 daily departures

3,283 aircrafts in the fleet

474,825 million passengers flown annually

The oneworld Alliance Member Airlines:

Airline Base Country / Region

Airberlin Germany – Central Europe

American Airlines USA – North America

British Airways United Kingdom, Western Europe

Cathay Pacific Airways Hong Kong (China), Far East Asia

Finnair Finland – North Europe

Iberia Spain / Portugal – Southern Europe

Japan Airlines Japan – Far East Asia

LAN Airlines Chile/Peru – South America

Malaysia Airlines Malaysia – Southeast Asia

Qantas Australia – Austra-Asia

Qatar Airways Middle East

Royal Jordanian Middle East

S7 Airlines Russia – Siberia

TAM Airlines Brazil – South America

US Airways USA – North America

Go Lean Commentary … cont’d

Considering one specific country, there is now something wrong in Barbados. [d] In July 2013, Barbados recorded the lowest number of long stay visitors (47,953) during the same period for 13 consecutive years. This is thusly expected to affect the traffic for the annual festival of Crop Over (a traditional harvest celebration connected with Barbados sugar cane plantation culture) [e] for 2014. Long stay visitors usually travel by airplane. This is the issue; there is a supply problem with air travel in the Eastern Caribbean and there is a demand problem. The end result: airline dysfunction and higher prices.

The issue of declining tourism spending is tied to dysfunction in the airline industry. Has the Crop Over event become less attractive or is the blame on the higher airfares that has resulted due to the airline (American Airlines) dysfunction? The analytical conclusion is the problem is with the airline industry.

The 2008 Financial Crisis continues to wreak havoc on the economy of the Caribbean. This is a consistent theme in the book Go Lean … Caribbean; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an alliance of 30 Caribbean member-states.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for regulating and promoting the Caribbean’s aviation industry. We need American Airline and US Airways to deliver on their merger, and then deliver on facilitating air passengers to the Caribbean region.

This is how the CU will optimize the region’s economic engines. This is change!

The Go Lean book presents a series of community ethos that must be adapted to forge this change. In addition, there are these specific strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to apply:

Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Impacting the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Customers – Visitors	Page 47
Strategy – Competitive Analysis – Event Patrons	Page 55
Strategy – Core Competence – Tourism	Page 58
Strategy – Anecdote – Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Assoc.	Page 60
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Commerce – Tourism Promotion	Page 78
Tactical – Aviation Administration & Promotion	Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives	Page 116
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Planning – Lessons from Egypt	Page 143
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California	Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Promote World-Heritage-Sites	Page 248

There are lessons from the evolution and delivery of the American Airlines / US Airways merger in considering the quest for Caribbean optimization:

• When possible, Caribbean solutions should come from the Caribbean.

• When not possible, Caribbean solutions should be serviced by alternate sources, with no one player holding more than 50% of market share.

• Many Caribbean islands have close proximity, so there must always be alternative transportation modes, like ferry-boats.

• Do not “bite the hand that feeds you”; the Caribbean region must protect the engines that drive the economy.

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We cannot afford another American corporate giant, (i.e. Lehman Brothers) mishandling their public trusts. The Caribbean can – and must – be less elastic to American woes.

The Caribbean should be less of an American parasite and more of a protégé.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

————————-

References:

a. Andrew Nocella, American Airlines Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. AAdvantage Frequent Flyer Status Email. Retrieved January 5, 2014.

b. Wikipedia treatment on American Airlines. Retrieved May 6, 2014 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines

c. Titcombe, Tara. “The World at your fingertips”. US Airways Magazine. Retrieved May 6, 2014 from: http://tjt0325no2pencil.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/aprilfeature_oneworld_final.pdf

d. “Commentary: Tourism Matters: A better analysis is needed”. Caribbean News Now Online Magazine. Retrieved May 6, 2014 from: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Commentary%3A-Tourism-Matters%3A-A-better-analysis-is-needed-20985.html

e. Wikipedia treatment on American Airlines. Retrieved May 6, 2014 from: https https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_Over

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2008, Aviation, Image, Miami, Power, Sales, Tourism, Transform

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A Lesson in History – America’s War on the Caribbean

Posted on May 6, 2014 in Ethos, Government, Implementation, Locations, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“Never kill yourself for someone who is willing to watch you die” – Inspired Expression.

The United States of America fought an actual war, for 10 weeks, in the Caribbean theater in 1898. This was the war against the Spanish Empire, or more commonly known as the Spanish American War.

This is a lesson from an actual history:

These events transpired during the decline of the Spanish Empire. After centuries of vast colonial expansion, at this point, only a few of its vast territories remained. Revolts against Spanish rule had occurred for some years, in the Caribbean territories (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico), especially in Cuba. There had been war scares before. But in the late 1890s, American public opinion became agitated by an anti-Spanish propaganda; led by influential journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, who used yellow journalism to criticize Spanish administration of Cuba.

Then there was the mysterious sinking of the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, which was believed to be and reported as a sabotage attack by Spanish forces. This created political pressure, from Congress and certain industrialists, to push the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war he had hoped to avoid.^[a]

The US Constitution (Article 1 Section 8) forbids that the country can NOT go to war unless provoked. With the sinking of the USS Maine, the government had its constitutional provocation.

Compromise was sought by Spain, but rejected by the United States which sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding it surrender control of Cuba. Consequently war was formally declared, first by Madrid, then by Washington on April 25, 1898.^[a]

The ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, but the main issue that emerged was that of Cuban independence. American naval power proved decisive, allowing US expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already brought to its knees by nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. With two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more modern fleet recalled home to protect Spain’s coasts, Madrid sued for peace.^[b] As a result, today, Cuba and the Dominican Republic enjoy independence, and Puerto Rico is an American territory, by choice – after many public referendums on the question of independence.

What was the motivation for this war?

Earlier, in 1823, US President James Monroe enunciated the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that the United States would not tolerate further efforts by European governments to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas; however, Spain’s colony in Cuba was exempted. Before the Civil War Southern interests attempted to have the US purchase Cuba and make it new slave territory. The proposal failed, and subsequently the national attention shifted to the build-up towards the Civil War.^[c]

But the “dye had been cast”. Cuba attracted America’s attention; little note was made of the Philippines, Guam, or Puerto Rico. The Spanish Government regarded Cuba as a province of Spain rather than a colony, and depended on it for prestige and trade. It would only be extracted with a war.

In 1976, the US Navy’s own historian (Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’s published book How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed) declared that the sinking of the USS Maine — the justification for America’s entry into the Spanish-American War — was probably caused by an internal explosion of coal, rather than an attack by Spanish forces.^[d]
Sources: See Citations in the Appendix below.

What is the lesson here for the Caribbean and today’s effort to integrate and unify the Caribbean economy? First, there are these principles, that should not be ignored, if we truly want progress/success:

In 1918 US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson is purported to have said: “The first casualty when war comes is truth”.
“War is a racket” – Smedley Butler, one of the most highly-decorated military men of all time, and the man who prevented a coup against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Bible declares that: “For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest” – Luke 8:17

There will be no chance for success in the Caribbean region if this effort goes against American security/foreign policy interest. This is a consistent theme in the book Go Lean … Caribbean, it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); it asserts that the economy of the Caribbean is inextricably linked to the security of the Caribbean. The roadmap therefore proposes an accompanying Security Pact to accompany the CU treaty’s economic empowerment efforts. The plan is to cooperate, collaborate and confer with American counterparts, not oppose them. In fact, two American territories (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) are included in this CU roadmap.

To establish a better American-Caribbean partnership, the Go Lean book presents a series of community ethos that must be adapted to forge this change. In addition, there are these specific strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to apply:

Community Ethos – new Economic Principles	Page 21
Community Ethos – new Security Principles	Page 22
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Manage Reconciliations	Page 25
Community Ethos – Impacting the Greater Good	Page 34
Strategy – Customers – Public and Governments	Page 47
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Homeland Security – Naval Operations	Page 75
Tactical – Homeland Security – Militias	Page 75
Implementation – Assemble – US Overseas Territory	Page 96
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up	Page 102
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Improve Mail Service	Page 108
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives	Page 116
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence	Page 120
Planning – Ways to Model the EU	Page 130
Planning – Lessons Learned from the W.I. Federation	Page 135
Planning – Lessons from the US Constitution	Page 145
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering	Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California	Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba	Page 236
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Dominican Republic	Page 237
Advocacy – Ways to Impact US Territories	Page 244

After this consideration, the conclusions are straight forward:

The Caribbean should take the lead for our best self-determination. We must do the heavy-lifting. We can always count on America to pursue what’s in America’s best interest, and this may not always align with Caribbean objectives. So we must take our own lead for our own self-interest.
American priorities change with presidential administrations.

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. At this time, there is no American agenda or contrarian policy that may dissuade us – but that’s only today. We need to act fast before a new American crisis emerges, (or one is created artificially).

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

————-

Appendix References

a. Beede, Benjamin R., ed. (1994), The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-8240-5624-7. An encyclopedia. Pages 120; 148.

b. Dyal, Donald H; Carpenter, Brian B.; Thomas, Mark A. (1996), Historical Dictionary of the Spanish American War, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-28852-6. Pages 108 – 109.

c. Wikipedia treatment on the Spanish American Way. Retrieved May 5, 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_American_War

d. “The Destruction of USS Maine”. Department of the Navy — Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved May 5, 2014 from: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq71-1.htm

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Civil Rights, Cuba, History, Image, Power, Terrorism

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Open the Time Capsule: The Great Recession of 2008

Posted on May 5, 2014 in Economics, Planning, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Picture this: one week after the greatest threats to the global financial system, since the Great Depression. You cut out and store – for safe keeping in a “virtual time capsule”, (see Appendix A) – a newspaper commentary and subsequent review/analysis of that crisis. It’s time now to open that capsule! Why so early? Why only after 6 years? So that this analysis would serve as a course correction. Those placing the time-capsule, hoped for a different result.

This is the scenario depicted in the foregoing news article. It was published on September 23 in 2008; 8 days after Lehman Brothers filed the largest Bankruptcy in world history – signaling the peak of the financial crisis, the precipice of a total system failure. The book Go Lean … Caribbean is based on that premise, declaring that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, quoting noted Economist Paul Romer’s assessment that the Great Recession would be a crisis for the modern world. The book posits that the Caribbean, with its parasite economy, is still in that crisis – no noticeable recovery.

A joke lampooning economists declares “that an economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today”.

So now, this review/analysis of a 6 year old newspaper editorial from a Guest Columnist, the focus of which was to an audience in the Bahamas; (but this is equally representative of the entire Caribbean):

It is the assessment by the publishers of Go Lean that the foregoing analysis was spot on!

It describes the new normal, a term cementing the truths that the economic realities that suddenly emerged in 2008 would thereafter remain as the norm. This has proven to be the case. The foregoing writer lamented that his government appeared to be using the same set of tools to fix a new vehicle with all different parts, and they pondered why the vehicle would not repair (recover) and get going. The writer concluded that the stewards of the economy needed to prepare a 20 year plan to navigate his country among the new realities facing the world. But he doubted that such a plan would emerge.

By: Craig Butler

I know what you must be thinking. ‘The new normal’, what in heaven’s name is he talking about? Well, the other day I was in Florida listening to talk radio.

There was a director from the International Monetary Fund, an economics professor, and a few others. They were talking about the global economy and what the future holds. The professor was the one who used the ‘new normal’ phrase and he did so in reference to the high prices that we are experiencing worldwide.

He said that, as he did not expect a significant strengthening of the dollar any time soon; coupled with the fact that the price of oil was likely to remain high and the war in Iraq was ongoing, he believed that the current high prices are going to be the norm.

Most of the panelists agreed that some experts have given folks a false sense of security by suggesting that prices will come back down once the price of oil drops. But all on the panel were of the view that the price of oil will never again be under $90 to $100 per barrel.

This was partly based on the weak dollar and partly on our dependency on fossil fuels and the lack of resolve shown by politicians to fully develop alternatives. They also noted that the oil lobby was one of the most powerful in Washington, which was a leading factor in the stalled development of renewable energy.

And the price of breadbasket items and other basics has not been helped by climatic change, which has led to falls in wheat and rice production over the last few years. Add to this the diversion of corn for use as a fuel (ethanol), and we have the new normal.

My views tend to be conservative so my first reaction was that these are some leftwing liberal nuts talking. However, on reflection much of what was said is correct.

Why should we expect to see a reduction in the price of oil? Producers are making so much money it’s not realistic to think they would relinquish that. And the high price affects so many other industries that have had to pass on these increases to the consumer. Just look at the airlines. And all the solutions being put forward to wean us off our dependency on oil will take at least five years to have any kind of impact.

The panel went on to say that there will be a widening of the income gap – something we are already seeing in the Bahamas. Many people who I know in the middle class are struggling so much that they can now be classified as the working poor.

I say that because they are now living from pay cheque to pay cheque. All their savings have been depleted; and things that they once could afford are out of the question now.

Think about it – how many of the people you know around you have their houses in foreclosure; have lost their car to the bank; have had to take their children out of private school; or have been unable to take a vacation this year?

Look in the newspaper this week and I’m sure one of the leading commercial banks will have a double page ad featuring distressed properties. The other week two banks had ads back to back.

I have written before about misguided priorities and how, despite all that is going on, we still prefer the materialistic rather than seek what is important.

I remember from my youth a song by Eddie Minnis called the ‘Finance Man’. I loved that song, and the words to one of the verses bears repeating: ‘See him there he poor as me and you but he driving round in Malibu. His car sleeps in the road at night, Lord you know that just ain’t right, He is living in the hands of the finance man…’

I apologize to brother Eddie if I did the lyrics an injustice. But it demonstrates how we have lived on credit for a long time. We have maintained a lifestyle well beyond our means without a thought as to what might happen in hard times.

As a lawyer I can see first hand what has happened to many in the middle class. You see, it was important for them to have the grand house with the two European cars parked in the garage, kids in the best schools and all the trappings that went along with it. And I will be the first to say that there is nothing wrong with wanting to attain your desires.

However, the bank loans were in many instances predicated on both the husband and wife maintaining $50,000 a year salaries, as well as some creative financing to help the couple get the loan.

Now that many offshore companies have closed or downsized, one of those pay cheques has disappeared and so has the dream, because the severance package is not going to last long and there is a distinct shortage of similar jobs available.

So what we are facing here is now being experienced all over the world. The radio panel noted that there will have to be a reclassification of the status of many people as the poor are going to be poorer, the middle class are going to be the new poor and only the very rich will be able to sustain themselves.

Dark days are ahead, and this means we need our politicians to get their collective heads out of their rear ends and devise a comprehensive plan for the next 25 years that takes all of the current factors into consideration and ensures our viability.

But there I go dreaming again – most of the time they can hardly get out of their own way let alone see past the next general election. So lets wait for the eventual anarchy that is to follow.

*****

Craig Butler studied law at the University of Wolverhampton, England, and at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica. He also has a degree in economics from Rollins College in Florida. Mr Butler’s column runs in the Nassau Guardian, the Bahamas, on Mondays and he also hosts a weekly political talk show on Bahamas’ Island FM.

He is the grandson of Sir Milo Butler, the first governor-general of an independent Bahamas. He blogs at Bahamapundit and can be reached at cfmilobutler@hotmail.com.

The New Black Magazine – Online Source – Tuesday, September 23, 2008 –http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=1596

Flash forward 6 years later; lo and behold, the book Go Lean … Caribbean is proffered as that plan, a roadmap to navigate today’s troubling economic waters and offer solutions. The book calls for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a super-national administration, for the 30 member-states that constitute the Caribbean region. The book posits that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state to tackle alone. That rather, there needs to be a methodical leveraging of the 42 million people that populate these island/coastal states. With such numbers come economies-of-scale, and the benefits of these 3 prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines so as to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.

• Establishment of a security apparatus (with prosecutorial powers for economic crimes) so as to mitigate the eventual emergence of “bad actors”.

• Improve Caribbean governance.

These prime directives recognize that the change the region needs starts first with re-thinking community ethos and economic engines. Early in the book, an economic interdependence is pronounced, (Declaration of Interdependence – Page 13) with these statements:

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

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

The book identifies a number of new community ethos to forge change in the region and to harvest the benefits of the new global marketplace. From the ethos, comes the solutions – for example, sharing!

Six years ago, the columnist in the foregoing article could only envision his country, Bahamas, seeking solutions alone. This roadmap, on the other hand, seeks solutions as a confederated region, a group of partners. This will mean speaking with one voice, acting together as the CU; the 30 member-states will have far greater weight and influence than acting individually. Benefits will flow from this economies-of-scale, like a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to negotiate value and savings.

The CU roadmap drives change among the economic, security and governing engines. These solutions are as new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; as follows:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations – GPO’s	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a permanent union	Page 63
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change – GPO’s	Page 101
Implementation – Foreign Policy Start-up Initiatives	Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage	Page 113
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade – GPO’s	Page 128
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Control Inflation	Page 153
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage ForEx	Page 154
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Battles in the War on Poverty	Page 222
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class	Page 223

Change has come to the Caribbean; the world is different. It’s not the world before 2008, but rather a new world shaped by 2008. This is illustrated as a moving freight train. It cannot – must not – be stopped. Everyone must get “on board”, or get “run over”.

Appendix A: How to Create a Time Capsule

A time capsule can be as simple as a shoe box full of items reserved (or even forgotten) somewhere. Other time capsules may need to last a very long time, in which case a strong stainless steel container is recommended, with a proper seal. Keep in mind that creating a capsule for unveiling at some future date is really a two sided adventure involving both you and those who will uncover it once again. Make sure that the items you select will add the element of surprise and discovery for those who open this curious treasure chest of history. Learn how to make a time capsule that will be sure to please and surprise whoever opens it. (http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Time-Capsule; retrieved May 5, 2014).

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!!!

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2008, Banks, Crony-Capitalism, Power, Tourism

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Why not … a profit center?

Posted on May 3, 2014 in Ethos, Government, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Most Caribbean countries have embassies, consular offices and/or trade mission offices in world capitals. These are normally cost centers, where the governments have to maintain the cost burden for these facilities. But why do they have to be cost centers, why not profit centers?

Why not … a profit center? As in one integrated, consolidated center on behalf of all the Caribbean member-states – a classic “cooperative” model. This strategy meets a basic requirement of retail design: traffic. All the embassy, consular and trade mission activities would create impactful retail traffic demands.

This vision comes into focus as a result of the emergence of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), and the news article^[c] below. The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. The roadmap fully anticipated integrating and consolidating Trade Mission Offices (Page 116) to advance the causes of the Caribbean people in foreign countries; eight (8) cities are specified in details.

The resultant facility, and accompanying eco-system, would fulfill a CU mandate, global outreach to expand Caribbean trade within the source country, city and regional area.

From the outset of the roadmap, the intent to leverage Trade Mission Offices was pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13), as follows:

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. … The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

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

The roadmap also urges the urban design approach for mixed-use developments; (Page 234). This dictates a structure designed as retail (ground floor), mezzanine for offices, and higher levels/floors for residences (apartments, condominiums, and hotels). See a sample site in a US Midwestern city here – Photos & VIDEO:

VIDEO Midtown Crossing Commercial – https://youtu.be/3Ua3FjWLfKk

A model of a successful mixed-use development is the Omaha-Nebraska Midtown Crossing^[a].

Consider New York City; it is one of 8 mission cities envisioned. This map below and the Appendix Table lists all the addresses of the Caribbean embassies, consulates, and outreach offices in New York City^[b] – all within a 5 mile radius. Imagine if all those facilities were in one property – a mixed-use development.

Imagine too, a climate-controlled atrium with Caribbean fauna & flora; a food court showcasing cuisines from all the participating Caribbean countries, (up to 30); art galleries, convention/banquet facilities, exhibit halls, night clubs, performing arts theaters and maybe even an indoor entertainment center (for instance, modeling the legacy of Caribbean Pirates). This vision would generate multiple streams of revenue – a profit center as opposed to 30 cost centers.

This vision would benefit a lot of Caribbean stakeholders with support and outreach services – those desiring to live, work, learn, heal and play in the Caribbean. These stakeholders include:

Visitors
Caribbean Citizens (travelling abroad)
Diaspora
Foreign Direct Investors
Students

There is the need for this manifestation right now in London, England (another designated Trade Mission Office – Page 116 ); as depicted in this referenced news story^[c]:

LONDON, England (May 1, 2014) — Overseas Territory representatives from the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla met with United Kingdom business networking specialists, CaribDirect International Business Network (CIBN) in London last week, as the first networking session focusing on trade and investment gathers momentum.

These discussions, held at the offices of the Bermuda representative, focused on introducing the CaribDirect International Business Network (CIBN) concept; outlining its broad scope; revealing the economic and political opportunities available for the Caribbean Overseas Territories (OTs); and examining practical ways to work together for the benefit of the dependent territories of the Caribbean.

CIBN is an agency designed to facilitate and connect entrepreneurs and business people in the UK with Caribbean government and business representatives for trade and investment.

Representatives attending the meeting were Cayman Islands’ deputy director Charles Parchment, Montserrat director Janice Panton, BVI London Office director Kedrick Malone, Bermuda director Kimberley Durrant, CaribDirect director of policy Ron Belgrave and CaribDirect multi-media CEO David Roberts.

If only this profit center concept existed now … in London … and in New York.

The CU roadmap is designed to bring change to the Caribbean region. This commentary demonstrates that a lean, nimble organization structure can also be “at the corner of preparation and opportunity” and that opportunity can be made in turning a cost center into a profit center. This structure can optimize the Caribbean’s economic, security and governing engines – no matter the location. If the Trade Mission Offices were constituted as profit centers, the following details from the book Go Lean…Caribbean would manifest, with impacted community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; listed as follows:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 37
Strategy – Repatriating Caribbean Diaspora	Page 47
Strategy – Inviting Foreign Direct Investments	Page 48
Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department	Page 80
Tactical – Design Requirements for the Capital District	Page 110
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives	Page 116
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Advocacy – Lessons from New York City	Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living	Page 234

The Go Lean roadmap will make the outreach, and foreign support, for Caribbean stakeholders more efficient and effective. This plan would impact and change the Caribbean and the foreign world we reach out to.

All Caribbean stakeholders – citizens, businesses and governments alike – are urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

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

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Appendix – References

a. http://www.midtowncrossing.com/about/default.aspx
b. http://michaelbenjamin2012.com/2012/06/21/caribbean-region-consulates-in-nyc/
c. http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Caribbean-overseas-territories-meet-with-UK-networking-specialists-20934.html

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Appendix – TABLE – Caribbean States Mission Offices – New York City

Member-State	Address
Anguilla	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-0277
Antigua & Barbuda	610 Fifth Avenue, Ste 311, New York, NY 10020 Phone: 212-541-4117
Aruba	666 Third Avenue, 19th floor, New York, NY 10017 Phone 877-388-2443
Bahamas	231 East 46^th Street, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-421-6420
Barbados	820 Second Avenue, 5^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-551-4325
Belize	675 Third Avenue, Ste 1911, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-593-0999
Bermuda	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
British Virgin Islands	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
Cayman Islands	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
Cuba	315 Lexington Ave 38th Street New York, NY 10016 Ph. 212-689-7215
Dominica	800 Second Ave, Ste 400H, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-949-0853
Dominican Republic	1500 Broadway, Ste 410, New York, NY 10036 Phone: 212-768-2480
Grenada	800 Second Ave, Ste 400K, New York, NY 10017 Phone 212-599-0301
Guadeloupe	45 W 34th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10001 Phone 877-203-2551
Guyana	370 Seventh Avenue, 4^th Fl, New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-947-5110
Haiti	271 Madison Avenue, 17^th Fl, New York, NY 10016 Phone: 212-967-9767
Jamaica	767 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-935-9000
Martinique	444 Madison Avenue, 16^th Fl, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-838-6887
Monserrat	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-0200
Netherland Antilles:Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Eustatius, Saba	1 Rockefeller Plaza 11th Floor, New York, NY 10020 212-246-1429
Puerto Rico	666 5th Avenue # 15l, New York, NY, 10103-1599. Phone: 212-333-0300
St. Barthelemy	934 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10021 Phone: 212-606-3601
St. Kitts & Nevis	414 East 75^th Street, New York, NY 10103 – 212-535-5521
St. Lucia	800 Second Avenue, 9^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 – 212-697-9360
St. Maarten	675 Third Avenue, Ste 1807, New York, NY 10017 – 800-786-2278
St. Vincent & The Grenadines	801 Second Avenue, 21^st Fl, New York, NY – 212-687-4490
Suriname	1 UN Plaza, 26^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 – 212-826-0660
Trinidad & Tobago	125 Maiden Lane, Unit 4A, 4^th Fl, New York, NY 10038 Ph. 212-682-7272
Turks & Caicos Island	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
US Virgin Islands	45 W 34th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10001 Phone 877-203-2551

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