Category: Economics

Keep the Change: Mono-Industrial Economy Exhaustion

Posted on April 26, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

We have all seen-heard the common expressions of exhaustion:

I am sick and tired of being ‘sick and tired’.

Grow up Already, and take care of your own business.

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I am changing the things I cannot accept.

From the very beginning we, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, set-out to correct this blatant flaw in our societal design – Page 3, Paragraph 2:

Many people love their homelands and yet still begrudgingly leave; this is due mainly to the lack of economic opportunities. The Caribbean has tried, strenuously, over the decades, to diversify their economy away from the mono-industrial trappings of tourism, and yet tourism is still the primary driver of the economy. Prudence dictates that the Caribbean nations expand and optimize their tourism products, but also look for other opportunities for economic expansion. The requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state. Rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

Enough already! We are exhausted from all this deficiency.

Thanks to the Coronavirus – COVID-19 crisis, the world is re-thinking mono-industrial trappings. It is not good to “put all the eggs in one basket”. See this dramatization in the Appendix VIDEO below.

If you are dependent on tourism, be On Guard, with no COVID-19 vaccine or treatment, travel restrictions and social distancing will be the new normal for a long time still – maybe 18 months. This means 2022 before a return to 2019 levels of economic output.

Those dependent on tourism are hereby being forced to accept changes and make adjustments.

They are being forced to make a change, not just temporarily to get past this crisis, but rather permanent change to fix the “cracks in the foundation”. They want to Keep the Change and complete the diversification pledge.

This is also the narrative for another industry and another country, that of Saudi Arabia. Right now; their society is mono-industrial – oil – but they want to be less vulnerable to the volatility of oil prices and oil revenues. So they want to contemplate other ways to diversify their economy. They want to Keep the Change; see the Appendix below. Their ‘Will to Change’ is strong as they have been Oil Rich for a long time.

Movie Quotes: Trading Places (1983)
“The best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people” – Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy)

The price of oil dropped to $11.26 a barrel (55 ga1lons) earlier this month; this was the absolute lowest in recent history. Oil revenues cratered for all such Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

How about us in the Caribbean?

While we do have some OPEC members in our region – 2 of 30 – the vast majority of the Caribbean depend on a different mono-industrial engine: tourism. Likewise, most of our countries too, have failed to deliver any diversification to the industrial offering.

The problem is the mono-industrial engine.

The solution is diversification.

How do we go about manifesting this change, Keeping this Change?

(Saudi Arabia is out of scope for the movement behind the Go Lean book).

The Go Lean book presented strategies, tactics and implementations to pursue this goal. The diversification mission was stated as follows (Page 45):

Build and foster local economic engines. This will diversify the economy, while still enhancing the tourism product, and create a perpetual eco-system for job creation. Whereas certain provisions are impractical for a small-population-market, once that market is super-sized, there must be local solutions. This is best illustrated with the regions undeniable need for food, clothing and shelter. A market-size of 42 million must foster industries on Main Street to produce and supply these basic needs. By fulfilling this mission, a strategic and defensive stance, other aspects of the economy gets the peripheral benefit: jobs, lower costs of living, control of inflation – fostering middle class prospects.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this April 2020, our focus was on the impact of the Coronavirus on the economic engines in the region. There is now the need to re-focus on the changes this crisis has ushered in and to Keep the Changes that are good and may have always been needed, like industrial diversification. This is entry 5 of 5 for this series, it completes the series and encores the certainty and urgency to flex our economic muscles to “put our eggs in more than one basket”.

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

  1. Keep the Change – Lower Carbon Consumption abating Climate Change
  2. Keep the Change – Working From Home & the Call Center Model
  3. Keep the Change – Schools – Primary to Tertiary – making e-Learning work
  4. Keep the Change – Basic Needs: Cannot just consume; we must produce as well
  5. Keep the Change – Mono-Industrial Economy: ‘All eggs in 1 basket’

Don’t get it twisted, this Coronavirus-COVID-19 threat means death and devastation for many people and it has devastated the economic engines of most countries. There are no Ands, Ifs or Buts; we are not immune here in the Caribbean. We must abide by best-practices or suffer the consequences. Crises bring challenges, challenges bring changes. Some good, some bad and some ugly.

Yes, we can … Keep the Changes for the good benefits. We have always needed to pursue a diversification of our industrial footprint, to accomplish this finally would be good. This diversification goal was previously identified, qualified and proposed with different Industrial Reboot solutions, spread across 2 years. See this chronological list of previous submissions:

  1. Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
  2. Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
  3. Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
  4. Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
  5. Industrial Reboots – Commercial Gigs 101 – Published February 8, 2018
  6. Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
  7. Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
  8. Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
  9. Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published July 19, 2018
  10. Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published July 20, 2018
  11. Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published July 23, 2018
  12. Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published July 24, 2018
  13. Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published July 25, 2018
  14. Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
  15. Industrial Reboots – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
  16. Industrial Reboots – Reinsurance Sidecars 101 – Published October 2, 2018
  17. Industrial Reboots – Navy Piers 101 – Published October 9, 2018
  18. Industrial Reboots – Payment Cards 101 – Published October 11, 2018
  19. Industrial Reboots – Medical Schools 101 – Published March 1, 2019
  20. Industrial Reboots – Amusements Parks 101 – Published May 8, 2019

In summary, our Caribbean region needs a diversified industrial landscape to improve our economics, security and governance. This is why we must Keep the Change. emanating from this Coronavirus-COVID-19 crisis.

If the only positive thing that comes from this crisis is a diversified economy, then that would be a good benefit from a bad sacrifice, a good return on a huge investment.

The sacrifices would not have been in vain.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste!

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to work to reform and transform our homeland. We urge you to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to reboot the industrial landscape. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):

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

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

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

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

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – Idioms – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – https://youtu.be/EFkSIuNTdXc

Posted December 2, 2016

Sprachenzentrum Hochschule Nordhausen

——————-

Appendix – A new direction for the Saudi Arabian economy
Sub-title: As Saudi Arabia moves to diversify its economy away from oil, its private sector is beginning to truly thrive

Saudi Arabia finds itself at a significant economic crossroads. Home to the second-largest oil reserves in the world, the kingdom’s economy has been largely defined by the crude industry since drillers first struck oil in Dammam in March 1938. The discovery marked a watershed moment in the nation’s history, sparking an economic boom and propelling Saudi Arabia towards becoming one of the world’s wealthiest countries. Today, the nation is recognised as a global economic powerhouse, sitting among the G20 countries and boasting one of the highest GDPs in the Middle East.

While oil has brought Saudi Arabia great wealth and prosperity, we know one thing for certain – it won’t last forever. Crude is a finite resource and, although there is much debate surrounding the extent of the nation’s vast oil reserves, some estimates predict that supplies will last just 70 more years. This looming time limit – coupled with a global push to create a greener future – has seen Saudi Arabia begin to craft its vision for a post-oil era.

In 2016, Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the ambitious Vision 2030, a far-reaching reform plan that aims to diversify the economy away from oil, bolstering the private sector and improving employment opportunities for young people. The plan seeks to create a thriving economy where non-oil sectors such as tourism, manufacturing and renewable energy can drive growth, and entrepreneurial activities are encouraged. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a main focus for Vision 2030, with the project seeking to increase the contribution of SMEs to the Saudi Arabian GDP from 20 to 35 percent over the next decade. As the government forges ahead with its diversification drive, Saudi businesses must develop in line with these exciting transformations. A new economic ecosystem is emerging in Saudi Arabia and opportunities are plentiful for those businesses that contribute to its creation.

Burgeoning businesses
With Saudi Arabia ramping up its economic transformation plan, the nation’s private sector is truly coming into its own, and non-oil industries are beginning to drive growth. One such industry is the Saudi insurance market, which has shown great promise in recent years, emerging as one of the largest insurance sectors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Since first opening its doors to customers in 1986, the Company for Cooperative Insurance (Tawuniya) has grown into one of the nation’s foremost insurance providers, offering more than 60 insurance products – including medical, motor, fire, property, engineering, casualty, marine, energy and aviation insurance – in order to protect Saudi citizens from all manner of risk.

See the full article here: https://www.worldfinance.com/featured/a-new-direction-for-the-saudi-arabian-economy published October 3, 2019 retrieved April 26, 2020.

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Keep the Change: Being ‘Basic’ about Basic Needs

Posted on April 25, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

The strong urging to the Caribbean today is to:

Be more Basic.

What exactly does this mean?

Sometimes the reference is good, sometimes bad, and sometimes ugly.

What does Basic Mean? – www.dictionary.com
In slang, basic characterizes someone or something as unoriginal, unexceptional, and mainstream. A basic girl—or basic bitch as she is often insulted—is said to like pumpkin spice lattes, UGG boots, and taking lots of selfies, for instance.

WHERE DOES BASIC COME FROM?

According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, basic emerges as slang for someone or something as being “unexciting, unexceptional, or uneventful” in the 1970s. This is an outgrowth of the negative sense of basic as “plain and simple”.

The slang especially stuck to women. In their 1984 song “Meeting in the Ladies Room,” the R&B girl group Klymaxx call a woman basic for making moves on another’s boyfriend. [(See Appendix A below)].

The 2000s saw the rise of the term basic bitch, or a woman who is uninteresting and mainstream in her tastes, interests, style, or personality. Comedian Lil Duval had a 2009 video about the Basic Bitch. [(See Appendix B below)]. The 2011 song “Gucci Gucci” by Kreayshawn features the hook: “And we stunting like / Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada / Basic bitches wear that shit so I don’t even bother.”

Basic has since become associated with unlikeable, predictable, and ordinary things, especially associated with young white women.

WHO USES BASIC?

While basic can describe anyone or anything considered disagreeably mainstream, it especially insults, as noted, young white women. As basic and basic bitch spread in popular culture, some women aren’t oblivious to their supposed basic-ness but ironically embrace it. But men, be very careful about calling a woman basic, let alone basic bitch. We don’t recommend it.

NOTE:
This is not meant to be a formal definition of basic like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of basic that will help our users expand their word mastery.

The take-away from this foregoing “ugly” definition is that “basic is ‘plain and simple’”.

The plain and simple requirement is that the 30 member-states of the political Caribbean need to do a better job of fulfilling its basic needs: food, clothing, shelter and energy. Globalization has failed us – we must do the Basic ourselves. We do not necessarily need – though we might want – all the fancy solutions.

  • Hungry? Go Fish … or go outside and pluck from a family garden or a family farm. How about plucking eggs or tree-ripen selections from fruit trees (think tomatoes) or a fattened bull for slaughter?
  • Naked? Pull out the sewing machine and make a garment; sweatshops in low-wage countries are the breeding grounds for this virus. How about Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) garments; i.e. mask, gowns, tunics, jackets?
  • Homeless? Gather the building materials and construct a house. Zoning and HOA rules must be agile and flexible. How about allowing family gardens and/or community gardens in urban areas? Barn-houses in rural areas?
  • Stranded? Use the wind to move a turbine and/or move a vehicle (boat) from Point A to Point B. How about generating electricity from alternative sources (wind, sun, thermal and tidal), then powering electric cars?

Thanks to the Coronavirus – COVID-19 crisis, the world is re-thinking the fulfillment of these basic needs. Believe it or not, in every jurisdiction Food Service workers are now regarded as Essential Workers. This is a fundamental change – a shift in values – for jobs that had previously been valued as inconsequential or unworthy for most, except the lowest in society; think  the new immigrants (Migrant Workers) toiling in the fields and the packing houses.

Are these ones now “essential” or sacrificial?

Or are they now … simply Basic?

It’s time to acknowledge the change … and Keep the Change to our value systems. It is time to acknowledge that fulfilling our basic needs is a basic requirement for survival as a people and a collective society.

So often, the basic needs for Caribbean survival were just delegated to others, only fulfilled through imports. But now that it is April 2020 and the world is locked-down, sheltering-in-place, the majority of people have had to avoid gathering for all but essential interactions in order to “flatten the curve”. Those who gather and distribute our food are now more valued and more expensive.

Have you noticed the increase in prices for our necessities? We can no longer be “cute”, only desiring the fancy brands. No, we now have to be basic. We need to Keep this Change.

The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean had originally asserted that doubling-down on Basic Needs was the key to reforming and transforming the societal engines in our Caribbean homeland. The book stated that the best way to reboot the economy and recover from the Global Crisis – that time it was the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 – was to double-down on the Basics. There is an actual advocacy of this purpose in the Go Lean book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 152, entitled:

10 Ways to Create Jobs … in the Caribbean Region

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)
The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member- states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. The CU’s mission is to create high-paying jobs for the region, beyond the minimum wage (defined below). Many high-wage industries would be promoted, incentivized and regulated at the federal level, even new industries created. Jobs come from trade; the CU goal is to improve trade. The CU will thus institute Enterprise Zones and Empowerment Zones – SGE’s – with tax benefits: rebates, abatements – as job creation pockets. The CU will capture data, micro and macro economic metrics, to measure the success/failure of these initiatives.
2 Feed Ourselves
The industries of agri-business allow structured commercial systems to grow, harvest and trade in food supplies. Many of the Caribbean member states (Lesser Antilles) acquire all their food in trade, the agricultural footprint is very small, though some countries (Greater Antilles, Belize, Guyana & Suriname) have a low opportunity cost for producing food. But with the Trade Federation in force, intra-region trade will be the first priority. When the demand is qualified, quantified and assured, the supply and quality there in, will catch up.
3 Clothe Ourselves
With textiles manufacturing; fashion merchandising and logistical industries, jobs can be created in the supply of apparel, shoes and accessories. Today, 90 – 99% of the supply is foreign trade. But once the CU regional demand is qualified, quantified and assured, the local supply will catch up further. 4
4 House Ourselves
In the US, it’s a truism of the National Association of Realtors® that “housing creates jobs” [239]. With the repatriation of the Caribbean Diaspora, local building supplies and new “housing starts” will emerge in the Caribbean. Plus, the CU will facilitate mortgage secondary market and pre-fabulous construction thereby fostering new housing sub-industries.
5 Update Our Own Infrastructure and the Industries They Spun
6 Help Regional Businesses Find Foreign Markets
7 Steer More People to S.T.E.M. Education and Careers
8 Welcome Home Emigrants [ or Repatriates]
9 Welcome “Empowering” Immigrants
10 Draw More Tourists

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this April 2020, our focus is on the impact of the Coronavirus on the Globe, region, each member-state (national), community and each family. There is the need to re-focus on the changes this crisis has ushered in and to Keep the Changes that were always needed for implementation. This is entry 4 of 5 for this series, which details that there is the need to double-down on Basic Needs (food, clothing, shelter and energy.

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

  1. Keep the Change – Lower Carbon Consumption abating Climate Change
  2. Keep the Change – Working From Home & the Call Center Model
  3. Keep the Change – Schools – Primary to Tertiary – making e-Learning work
  4. Keep the Change – Basic Needs: Cannot just consume; we must produce as well
  5. Keep the Change – Mono-Industrial Economy: ‘All eggs in 1 basket’

Don’t get it twisted, this Coronavirus-COVID-19 threat means death and devastation for many people and it has devastated the economic engines of most countries – our Caribbean homelands included. There are no Ands, Ifs or Buts; changes are afoot. Some good, some bad and some ugly.

Yes, we can … Keep the Change for the good benefits. We have always needed to do a better job for Food Security. In fact this was the subject of a whole series in December 2019 where we identified these issues, challenges and solutions:

  1. Food Security – Bread Baskets on Land and Sea
  2. Food Security – Temperate Foods in the Tropics
  3. Food Security – Opportunity: 1 County in Iowa raises all the Beef for a Caribbean Cruise Line
  4. Food Security – FTAA: A Lesson in History for servicing Local Foods
  5. Food Security – Big Chicken – Low-hanging fruit for all Poultry needs

The points of reforming and transforming the Caribbean eco-systems for other basic needs – think clothing, housing and energy – were also elaborated upon in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19327 ‘Missing Solar’ – Inadequacies Exposed to the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18287 The Housing Industry can save us – in Good Times and Bad
 https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17280 Way Forward – For Energy: ‘Trade’ Winds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13985 EU Assists Barbados in Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14250 Leading with Money Matters – As Goes Housing, Goes the Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11737 Robots Building Houses – More than Fiction
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10373 Science of Sustenance: CLT Housing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10371 Science of Sustenance: e-Clothing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/? p=10367 Science of Sustenance: Energy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5155 Tesla unveils super-battery to enable Alternative Energy for homes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726 Caribbean People have thrived in Fashion industry – Oscar De La Renta
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=665 Real Estate Investment Trusts – Solution for financing Housing industry

Call us Basic … I dare you.

Rather than an insult, we need to be proud to be more technocratic in the fulfillment of our basic needs. “Plain and simple”, we need to:

  • Feed Ourselves
  • Clothe Ourselves
  • House Ourselves

We should be insulted that we are NOT Basic.

This is why we must Keep the Change.

Coronavirus COVID-19 is not a good happenstance – people are dying.

However, if we can use this crisis to forge change in our society, force changes to our “community ethos” (the Will to Change) and to the societal engines for economics, security and governance, then those sacrifices would not have been in vain.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste!

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to work to reform and transform our homeland. How? The strategies, tactics and implementations are all identified, qualified and proposed in the pages of the Go Lean book. It’s a full roadmap for change. A complete roadmap to make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

Who We Are

The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14):

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

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

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

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

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

——————

Appendix A VIDEO – Klymaxx – Meeting In The Ladies Room (Official Video)  – https://youtu.be/_odTlZaoLCA

Klymaxx

Posted Dec 25, 2009 – Best of Klymaxx: https://goo.gl/QEYkmT

Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/2vDd9j

Music video by Klymaxx performing Meeting In The Ladies Room. (C) 1985 Geffen Records

#Klymaxx #MeetingInTheLadiesRoom #Vevo

Music in this video

Learn more

Listen ad-free with YouTube Premium

  • Song: Meeting In The Ladies Room (Radio Edit)
  • Artist: Klymaxx 
  • Licensed to YouTube by: UMG (on behalf of Geffen*); ARESA, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, Sony ATV Publishing, CMRRA, Abramus Digital, EMI Music Publishing, LatinAutor – PeerMusic, LatinAutor, Audiam (Publishing), LatinAutor – SonyATV, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., SOLAR Music Rights Management, and 4 Music Rights Societies

——————

Appendix B VIDEO – @LilDuval BASIC BITCH! – https://youtu.be/PUXt7N_TmdI

[This content of this VIDEO is profane, misogynistic and racist; highly inappropriate, but still considered art.]

Posted Aug 3, 2009

LILDUVAL TV SPOKENREASONS BASIC BITCH CALLING A WOMAN A BITCH YOUR A BITCH NO OFFENSE DRAMA FOR YO MAMA FUNNY COMEDY TWITTER LIL DUVAL NECOLE BITCHIE SKYPE BRAVE JB DA POET FUNNIEST BOY ALIVE FUNNIEST MAN ALIVE FUNNIEST YOUTUBER ALIVE STAND UP COMEDY DEF POETRY JAM BEST POET ALIVE TWITTER ME I LOVE TWITTER

Music in this video

Learn more

Listen ad-free with YouTube Premium

 

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Keep the Change: Making e-Learning Work

Posted on April 24, 2020 in Economics, Strategy

 Go Lean Commentary

Here’s how to make money in the Stock Market:

Buy low and sell high.

Here’s a stock tip:

Any company that develops-deploys computer software for e-Learning:

These companies are all the rage now, as they provide software-systems to facilitate online education for Tertiary (college) students down to Primary students. Welcome to the …

… no wait, we have been here all the while … waiting for “you” to arrive. See the priority-focus from Page 127 of the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean:

10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region  # 9: e-Learning – Versus – Studying Abroad
The Caribbean has tried the Study Abroad model, the result: a “brain drain” where our best students leave and may never return for residence, employment or investments, (only family visits). The new approach is to keep the talent here in the Caribbean, educate them here and notice the positive efforts on societal institutions.

In the Caribbean, this was always our BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal – that we would terminate the strategy of sending our children off to college to only then watch them “never come back”.  🙁

Imagine depositing money in the bank, for a rainy day fund; when it rains we go to take the money and the expected interest.

But, there is no bank …

… the investment did pay-off; interest revenue did accrue, but not for us.

This is the sad reality … for the Caribbean … and many other Failing-States around the world.

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

Students out side a closed college

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

We can only say that now … that e-Learning options (above) are real and viable.

COVID-19 is here today in April 2020; how about for Fall 2020?

We do not know … what we do not know? See the Appendix below.

But we can “hedge our bets”, mitigate the risks, by doubling-down on e-Learning. This changed environment has been forced on us – uninvited – by the invisible enemy of the Coronavirus; but we can Keep the Change and invite these new tools and techniques. This is not just our opinion alone. See this portrayal in the news articles and VIDEO’s here:

Title: Students are weary of online classes, but colleges can’t say whether they’ll open in Fall 2020
By: Chris Quintana, USA Today

College students threatened to revolt if universities put another semester of classes online to avoid spreading the coronavirus – but that’s increasingly what campus leaders are considering doing.

For Ryan Sessoms, a marketing student at the University of North Florida, the transition to online classes has been rocky. The thought of paying the same amount of tuition for another semester of lackluster classes is a nonstarter. It’s harder to find the motivation to complete his assignments, he said, when not surrounded by his peers.

“Fall is my last semester as well,” said Sessoms, 24. “All my hard work I have put in, I’d prefer to walk across the stage and wrap up some last-minute connections on campus as well.

“If it’s going to be online at the same tuition price, then I’ll just wait for the spring semester.”

Grayce Marquis, 20, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, told USA TODAY she was joking when she tweeted about skipping the fall semester after the college’s chancellor raised the possibility of putting fall classes online. Still, she said, another semester of online learning would be heartbreaking for her.

The college experience, she said, had been fantastic, thanks to her friends, professors, sports and extracurricular activities on campus. Going online stripped that away, she said, and her days are now defined by her individual effort.

“Perhaps I am still learning and fulfilling my areas of study,” she said. “But every part of what I love about college has been taken away.”

She said the university could make life easier on students by discounting tuition or increasing scholarships.

The problem: Many colleges are in financial crisis. They need students, with their tuition and housing payments, as much as students need them.

The reality is no one knows what the fall semester will look like, said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president for the American Council on Education, a national trade group of universities.

“The coronavirus will determine when colleges and universities can reopen,” he said. “All colleges and universities want to open normally, but no college knows if it can.”

That’s bad news for universities. As the economic impact of the coronavirus continues mostly unabated, many have canceled their summer classes and other activities, such as alumni gatherings or camps that generate revenue.

They’re scrambling to make up for lost money. The University of Cincinnati ended its men’s soccer program, and St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, announced last week it was cutting men’s and women’s golf and tennis, along with men’s soccer.

Friday, the University of Arizona announced it would furlough employees and may lay some off. The chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges System recommended the closure of three campuses.

The financial trouble started when colleges started issuing refunds for housing costs after sending students home and buying licenses and equipment to put courses online.  Some students demand refunds for tuition.

If social distancing requires colleges to keep students at home for another semester, the fallout could remake America’s higher education system, upending everything from students’ degree attainment to the economies of college towns.

What does fall hold? No one can know
News of universities suggesting another online semester spread rapidly and, at times, incorrectly. Boston University was one of the first institutions to announce that in the “unlikely event” its students couldn’t return to campus, in-person instruction would resume in 2021. Many interpreted that as a declaration that the fall semester would not happen. (The university added a note to clarify its statement.)

Universities around the country are having the same conversation, including Harvard, the University of Arizona, the University of South Carolina, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California-San Diego, to name a few. The truth is few colleges have definitive plans.

In a survey of college officials, a little more than half of 210 respondents said their colleges are talking about the possibility of putting the fall semester entirely online, according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.  A slimmer 5% of colleges have committed to online classes for the fall semester.

The fall semester may seem far out, but for higher education, it’s basically here, said Wendy Kilgore, director of research at the association. In many cases, the fall class schedule has been built, and universities are opening class registration.

“They have to have the plans in place for course delivery,” she said. “That’s why these deliberations are happening right now.”

Even if colleges don’t go completely online, they could choose a solution that embraces more online learning. In the survey, two-thirds of colleges considered offering more online courses compared with the previous fall semester, and 57% talked about reducing the number of in-person courses for the same time frame.

A handful of colleges considered delaying the start of the fall semester or shortening it.

Utah State University’s president told students and employees classes might be smaller, and she expects “people will come back on campus but not in large, free-moving ways that we used to have,” according to The Herald Journal. 

Changes are already in place at Beloit College in Wisconsin. The semester will start later than normal, and students will not take a traditional four-course semester, said Eric Boynton, provost and dean of the college.

Instead, the semester will be split in half: Students will take two more intensive courses in the first seven weeks and two more after that.

The goal, Boynton said, is to minimize disruption should the college need to pivot to online learning again suddenly. The threat of the virus might make in-person classes impossible for the first set of courses that start in September, but by late October, the start of the second session, the safety concerns might have abated. If the college has to pivot to online learning, only two of a student’s classes would be affected at any given time, rather than four.

“What we wanted was some kind of decisive step,” Boynton said. “What we wanted was some kind of ability to call something certain in the midst of this uncertainty.”

The altered semester is just one part of Beloit’s plan. The college is locking the price of tuition for current students, lowering the cost of tuition for students from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and starting a two-year-long mentoring program for new students.

Not all colleges will be able to follow Beloit’s model. It’s a smaller institution that can move more quickly than larger institutions.

Even with hybrid solutions, some colleges may have to fight to survive, said Hartle, the vice president with the American Council for Education.

The most at-risk: those that were struggling financially before the disruptions of the coronavirus. Some private liberal arts colleges and regional universities that had declining enrollment and budget shortfalls may experience especially steep challenges. In some parts of the country, the population of traditional college-age students is declining.

Higher education has received some help from the federal government. As part of the CARES Act stimulus, colleges received $14 billion. Roughly $6.3 billion must go to students, but Hartle said he hopes Congress will consider providing more aid to higher education. After all, he said, the field employs 4 million people.

Another wild card: During a recession, colleges often see an increase in enrollment. In the fall of 2009, college enrollment climbed by 1 million students, Hartle said. It’s unclear if that would be the case if colleges can’t operate as they normally have. Will families be nervous about students attending universities far from home? Or will some students take a gap year while waiting for the threat of the virus to wither?

“There’s simply no precedent for this,” Hartle said.

Some students try to find a bright side to online classes. Hannah Druss, 19, at Binghamton University said she is eating healthier and sleeping more.

It’s nice, she said, being able to complete her coursework while staying indoors. Reaching professors can be challenging, as is coordinating group work, given that everyone is juggling different life circumstances.

What gives her the most anxiety is the lack of clarity for what the fall semester will bring. Online or in person, she just wants answers.

“I would rather be told sooner rather than later,” she said. “I would prefer it to be in person, but only if it’s safe to do so, which is highly unlikely.”

Contributing: Ethan Bakuli of The Burlington Free Press in Vermont, Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY, Rachel Leingang of The Arizona Republic, Dave Clark of The Cincinnati Enquirer and Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman. 

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

Related:

Source: Posted April 19, 2020; retrieved April 24, 2020 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/19/coronavirus-college-universities-canceling-fall-semester/5157756002/

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VIDEO 1 – College students face challenges with online classes  – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2020/03/30/college-students-face-challenges-online-learning/2937218001/

College teachers and students discuss some of the challenges they face as their classes move online for the foreseeable future. – Jasper Colt, USA Today.

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VIDEO 2 – Coronavirus puts small colleges in a tough spot – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2020/03/19/coronavirus-puts-small-colleges-tough-spot/2878000001/


College presidents discuss the financial challenges they will face during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jasper Colt, USA Today.

In case you missed it in the foregoing article, this is not a discussion about Public Health or Public Safety. No, this is a discussion about economics and Caribbean students are a commodity. Consider these highlights:

The thought of paying the same amount of tuition for another semester of lackluster classes is a nonstarter.

… the university could make life easier on students by discounting tuition or increasing scholarships. The problem: Many colleges are in financial crisis. They need students, with their tuition and housing payments, as much as students need them.

… That’s bad news for universities. As the economic impact of the coronavirus continues mostly unabated, many have canceled their summer classes and other activities, such as alumni gatherings or camps that generate revenue.

… the University of Arizona announced it would furlough employees and may lay some off. The chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges System recommended the closure of three campuses. The financial trouble started when colleges started issuing refunds for housing costs after sending students home and buying licenses and equipment to put courses online.  Some students demand refunds for tuition.

Reggae Music Icon Bob Marley died in 1981 with no fore-knowledge of the Coronavirus-COVID-19, but the lyrics to his song ”Pimpers Paradise” speaks truth for Caribbean tertiary students, past and present:

You’re just a stock on the shelf.

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

This is the continuation of the theme for this April 2020 Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. Every month, we present a collection of blog-commentaries on a consistent subject germane to Caribbean life; this month we considered the actuality of this Coronavirus crisis. There have been changes in society, in our environment, in the workplace and in the educational institution; some changes that are good, some bad and some really ugly. This is entry 3-of-5 for this Keep the Change series. The full catalog for this month’s series is listed as follows:

  1. Keep the Change – Lower Carbon Consumption abating Climate Change
  2. Keep the Change – Working From Home & the Call Center Model
  3. Keep the Change – Schools – Primary to Tertiary – making e-Learning work
  4. Keep the Change – Basic Needs: Cannot just consume; we must produce as well
  5. Keep the Change – Mono-Industrial Economy: ‘All eggs in 1 basket’

Don’t get it twisted, this Coronavirus-COVID-19 threat means death and devastation for many: seniors, active-adults, and the young; even the economic engines have faltered. There are no Ands, Ifs or Buts, we cannot just ‘bury our heads in the sands”, change has come; we must change in response. Many of the changes that we have always wanted to make to reform and transform the Caribbean can now be engaged.

Yes, we can … Keep the Change and limit our college matriculation to local or remote options.

This is not a new discussion for the Go Lean movement. We had long contemplated the challenges-opportunities of tertiary education for Caribbean stakeholders. In fact, the movement identified these related issues:

  • Exploring Medical School Opportunities … as Economic Engines
    The reality is that Medical Schools average over $300,000 in tuition for a 4-year education; ($60,000/yr). Imagine 3,000 students. That’s a lot of economic opportunity; that’s $180 million annually added to a community’s GDP just based on tuition. Imagine too, room-and-board, extra-curricular activities and spending by visitors to the campus and students.
    Economics = supply and demand dynamics; fulfilling the outstanding demand for some financial remuneration.
    …
    Since 29 of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean boast a majority Black population, it should be a natural assimilation to invite Black American students to Caribbean campuses.
    By the way, this is being done already! There are medical colleges and universities operating in Caribbean communities right now that do a good job of providing the needed educational training and experience (internships). … Some schools have an impressive track record of success with testing and examinations on medical boards. Many alumni get residency in the US as International Medical Graduates.
  • Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style
    College is good!
    College is bad!
    This has been the conclusion of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean from the beginning of our campaign to elevate Caribbean society. According to the book (Page 258), this bitter-sweet assessment is due to the fact that tertiary education in the Caribbean is:
    Good for the individual (micro) – every additional year of schooling they increase their earnings by about 10%.
    Good for the community (macro) – evidence of higher GDP growth in countries where the population has completed more years of schooling.
    Bad for Brain Drain – if a person emigrates, all the micro and macro benefits transfer to the new country.
    …
    Can tertiary education be delivered better for the Caribbean without the travel/relocation?
    Absolutely! We can study in the region, lowering the risks of abandoning the homeland.
    …
    A focus on the future for college education must also consider “cyber reality” and/or the Internet. This consideration is embedded in the Go Lean roadmap. In fact, the book presents the good stewardship so that Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) can be a great equalizing element for leveling the playing field in competition with the rest of the world.
    Can tertiary education be delivered over the internet?
    Absolutely! We can study here, without leaving; the future is now!
    There are many offerings and options.
  • Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Lower Ed.
    Who is more abominable? The fool who loses out on his new found fortune or the shrewd person that schemes to take advantage of that fool? (It should be noted in this case that the fortune is only rights and credits; every American citizen qualify for a need-based Student Loan from the federal government – that loan is non-dischargeable).
    …
    So imagine that one who exploits the “fool”! Imagine, if instead of an individual, it is a “system”, a government program, that does the exploiting. This is the actuality of Student Loan financing for Private, For-Profit Schools and Colleges in the US.
    This is truly abominable; and yet this is the United States of America.
    …
    Who really is the fool in these scenarios? The person being abused by the American eco-system or the ones abandoning home to join that society. The premise in the Go Lean book and subsequent blog-commentaries is that the people of the Caribbean can more easily “proper where planted” in their homeland than to emigrate to the American foreign shores for relief. It is foolish to think that America cares about “us”, when they undoubtedly do not care about the “weak” in their own society.
    We need more education in our region; because we need economic growth. Economists have established the relationship between economic growth and education:

      “For individuals this means that for every additional year of schooling they increase their earnings by about 10%.

    A lot of Caribbean students do matriculate in American colleges and universities. But this commentary is hereby declaring that we must assuredly look beyond the American model to fulfill our educational needs. According to the book [Lower Ed – The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Dr. Tressie McMillan-Cottom and the related AUDIO Podcast], only a fool would invest in American For-Profit private educational institutions.

The points of reforming and transforming the Caribbean eco-systems for tertiary education have been further elaborated upon in many other previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15543 Caribbean Unity? Ross University Saga
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13272 Model of a University Facilitating Economic Opportunity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13466 Future for Educating Our Youth: “Cyber reality” and the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9724 Bahamas Welcomes the New University
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8966 For-Profit Education – Plenty of Profit; Little Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373 A Lesson in Economic Fallacies – Student Loans As Investments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433 Caribbean loses more than 70 percent of tertiary educated to brain drain
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256 Is a Traditional 4-year Degree a Terrible Investment? Yes for Caribbean.

Going to college … in the US this Fall/Autumn?

What will that experience be like?

( See Appendix below for an announcement on the plans for one sample college, the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Frankly, this could be the expectation for any university in North America and/or Europe).

Will the on-campus experience be worth the expense and the hassle this year? Will you get the comradery, atmosphere or direct side-by-side instruction-coaching-teambuilding while the restrictions of Social Distancing remain in place. Perhaps it will be better to just continue the e-Learning exercises for now … or the foresee-able future.

Keep the Change; save the aggravation; save the excessive costs.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste!

Let’s not lose out on this opportunity to reform and transform tertiary educational practices in the Caribbean. Let’s encourage all stakeholders to pursue these strategies, tactics and implementation.

Education and Economics go hand-in-hand. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. We urge all Caribbean people – students and their sponsoring parents –  to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.  🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):

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

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

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

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

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

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Appendix – University Of Oklahoma To Reopen All Campuses This Fall

The interim president of the University of Oklahoma said students will return to campus by the fall semester of 2020.

Interim President Joseph Harroz Jr. said students can return to “in-person educational operations on all three campuses by this fall.” He also said that will include “traditional instruction and residential life.”

The following [excerpt] is [from] the full statement from OU:
…

After careful deliberation, our intention is to return to in-person educational operations on all three campuses by this fall, offering traditional instruction and residential life. We are doing everything we can to make that realistic and safe. We are acutely aware of the certain challenges COVID-19 will present as we pursue this goal and are planning to address the issues proactively and creatively. We are prepared to adapt instructional and housing models as appropriate to protect our community and still offer the life-changing in-person OU experience. Flexibility will be a guiding principle as we navigate the coming months, and we will ensure that our students, faculty, and staff are presented with appropriate options to return to our campuses, keeping their safety top of mind.
…

Source: Posted-retrieved April 24, 2020 from: https://www.news9.com/story/5ea39432d795682ab682e66a/university-of-oklahoma-to-reopen-all-campuses-this-fall

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Keep the Change: Working From Home

Posted on April 23, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

In case you missed it:

After advocating for the Caribbean Diaspora to repatriate back to their ancestral homelands, this writer returned back to the Bahamas in August 2019.

Psst…here’s the not-so-secret revelation:

“I kept my US-based job and simply Work from Home (WFH)”.

Welcome to the modern world …

… while WFH was a minority model operating in a majority world, something is happening in 2020: Coronavirus – COVID-19.

Now many-most White Collar workers have been working from home. It’s been part of the shelter-in-place/lockdown protocols. The majority of people in society have avoided gathering and all but essential contact for people – other than their immediate household – in order to “flatten the curve”.

It has worked!

Though infection rates has progressively risen, it has been far less dire than what was possible or feared. Consider the Bahamas for example, they only have 70 ventilators in the whole country to service 350,000 people; but their infection rates hasn’t exceeded more than 50 by April 2020. The same patterns have materialized in many countries that complied – early – with these protocols. (Italy on the other hand, overwhelmed their hospitals, ICU’s and ventilators at the peak of their crisis).

Public Health Lessons learned!

Change was mandated: many Blue Collar staffers were laid-off or furloughed from their jobs – other than the “essential” workers – during the shelter-in-place periods; unemployment rates soared. But for the White Collar staff, they were able to shift to the Work From Home model…and productivity and incomes were sustained.

Let’s summarize: schools were shuttered; day care facilities closed; e-Learning schemes deployed, and in-the-office jobs suspended, so home became the workplace, class room and college campus and yet many companies found that their White Collar staff still delivered. Think Accounting, Payroll-Human Resources, Information Technology, Collections, and Telephone-based Customer Service continued unabated; even governments and back-office banking (Commercial, Trust, Investment) continued unimpeded. See this portrayal in the follow news article – VIDEO:

Title: As coronavirus forces millions to work remotely, the US economy may have reached a ‘tipping point’ in favor of working from home
By: Lindsey Jacobson

KEY POINTS

  • Companies are enabling remote work to keep business running while helping employees follow social distancing guidelines.
  • A typical company saves about $11,000 per half-time telecommuter per year, according to Global Workplace Analytics.
  • As companies adapt to their remote work structures, the coronavirus pandemic is having a lasting impact on how work is conducted.

With the U.S. government declaring a state of emergency due to the coronavirus, companies are enabling work-from-home structures to keep business running and help employees follow social distancing guidelines. However, working remotely has been on the rise for a while.

“The coronavirus is going to be a tipping point. We plodded along at about 10% growth a year for the last 10 years, but I foresee that this is going to really accelerate the trend,” Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, told CNBC.

Gallup’s State of the American Workplace 2017 study found that 43% of employees work remotely with some frequency. Research indicates that in a five-day workweek, working remotely for two to three days is the most productive. That gives the employee two to three days of meetings, collaboration and interaction, with the opportunity to just focus on the work for the other half of the week.

Remote work seems like a logical precaution for many companies that employ people in the digital economy. However, not all Americans have access to the internet at home, and many work in industries that require in-person work.

According to the Pew Research Center, roughly three-quarters of American adults have broadband internet service at home. However, the study found that racial minorities, older adults, rural residents and people with lower levels of education and income are less likely to have broadband service at home. In addition, 1 in 5 American adults access the internet only through their smartphone and do not have traditional broadband access.

Full-time employees are four times more likely to have remote work options than part-time employees. A typical remote worker is college-educated, at least 45 years old and earns an annual salary of $58,000 while working for a company with more than 100 employees, according to Global Workplace Analytics.

New York, California and other states have enacted strict policies for people to remain at home during the coronavirus pandemic, which could change the future of work.

“I don’t think we’ll go back to the same way we used to operate,” Jennifer Christie, chief HR officer at Twitter, told CNBC. “I really don’t.”

Source: Posted March 23, 2020; retrieved April 23, 2020 from: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/what-coronavirus-means-for-the-future-of-work-from-home.html

————

VIDEO – With Coronavirus forcing millions to work from home, how productive can the US be while working remotely?  –  https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/03/23/what-coronavirus-means-for-the-future-of-work-from-home.html

Now for the corporate realizations and lessons-learned: perhaps businesses can accomplish Work from Home just as successfully as Work from the Office.

Keep the Change …

This is the theme of the April 2020 Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. This publication serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Every month, we presents a collection of blog-commentaries on a consistent subject germane to Caribbean life; this month we cannot ignore the actuality of this Coronavirus crisis. There have been changes to the workplace; some of which might be good; some benevolent consequences are emerging from this. This WFH discussion is entry 2-of-5 for this Keep the Change series. There are other benefits that are also submitted for consideration; the full month’s series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Keep the Change – Lower Carbon Consumption abating Climate Change
  2. Keep the Change – Working From Home & the Call Center Model
  3. Keep the Change – Schools – Primary to Tertiary – making e-Learning work
  4. Keep the Change – Basic Needs: Cannot just consume; we must produce as well
  5. Keep the Change – Mono-Industrial Economy: ‘All eggs in 1 basket’

Yes indeed, there are no Ands, Ifs or Buts …

… regarding COVID-19 – people are dying; patients are suffering; economies are faltering. Many jobs are essential and must persist in the workplace – public safety, food supply chain, etc. – but many jobs too can survive the WFH shift.

This is the business model for the Go Lean roadmap; while the rest of the world wrestle with the choices of which jobs to bring back to the workplace versus which jobs to allow to WFH, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation wants to present the proposals to bring those WFH jobs here. So maybe now, our Caribbean citizens can find new economic opportunities abroad without actually going abroad or abandoning the homeland.

Yes, we can … Keep the Change.

This is not a new discussion for the Go Lean movement. We had long contemplated jobs in the Caribbean homeland that could in-source for clients who are physically in other jurisdictions. In fact, the movement identified these prominent industries:

  • Call Centers – Title Industrial Reboot – Call Centers 101
    Industries that depended on phone calls … now have to reboot their industrial landscape and business model. This is bad! This is good! As it opens the opportunity for jobs in the Call Center industry.
    With modern Internet Communications Technology (ICT) – think Voice-over-IP – a phone call can originate or terminate around the globe, but feel/sound like it is next door. The premise of this business model for the Caribbean is simple: Why not make those calls / answer the phone here in the Caribbean?
    Jobs are at stake.
    … there could be this many jobs:
    Direct and indirect jobs at physical and virtual call centers: 12,000
  • Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
    Contact Centers today do more than just phone calls, but rather business process outsourcing (BPO), including email, IM, web chat, social media and work flow processing on behalf of 3rd party clients.
    …
    Direct and indirect jobs at physical and virtual call centers: 12,000.
    …
    In addition to these industry jobs; there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add another 45,000 jobs.
  • Offshore Banking
    This refers to banks located outside the country of residence of the depositor, typically in a low tax jurisdiction (or tax haven) that provides financial and legal advantages – a mainstay in Antigua, Bahamas, Bermuda and Caymans. These advantages typically include: greater privacy, little or no taxation, easy access to deposits, and protection against local, political, or financial instability. … Legally, offshore activities do not prevent assets from being subject to personal income taxes on interest income, often times it is the privacy feature that skirts tax computation and collection.
  • Graphic Design and Animation
    A round of new jobs are to be found in the executions for this digital world; this is becoming a new playground. This is a glimpse of industrial growth for the 21st Century; this is the sphere of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT). …
    The Go Lean [book] … makes the claim that innovation and economic growth can result from a progressive community ethos. The book defines this “community ethos” as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of society; dominant assumptions of a people or period. The book thereafter recommends the ethos of Fostering Genius (Page 27), so as to not only consume this industry’s product offering, but facilitating development and production. The skills to participate in the art and science of this development may not apply to just everyone; it may be limited to a “gifted few”, a “talented tenth”.
    This is why all the other attendant functions must also be facilitated to engage this activity, such as Helping Entrepreneurship (Page 28), Promoting Intellectual Property (Page 29), Impacting Research and Development or R&D (Page 30) and Bridging the Digital Divide (Page 31).
  • e—Government
    e-Government 1.0 refers to just the facilitation of government services via some electronic mode, the first attempt to embrace an online presence and processing; 2.0 refers to the quest for greater citizen participation in the governing/policy-making process, “putting government in the hands of citizens”.[54] This 3.0 brand however, refers to the penultimate e-Delivery, processing and optimization of ICT (Internet & Communications Technologies) among all the different roles and responsibilities. …
    … we must explore the viability and feasibility of e-Government schemes in the new Caribbean, as rebooting the governing engines is part-and-parcel of the Go Lean roadmap.
    Go Lean Book (Page 51):
     The CU’s delivery of ICT [(Internet & Communications Technologies)] systems, e-Government, contact center and in-source services (i.e. property tax systems [and www.myCaribbean.gov]) can put the burden on systems continuity at the federal level and not the member-states. (This is the model of Canada with the federal delivery of provincial systems and services – some Provincial / Territorial presence / governance is completely “virtual”).

The points of reforming and transforming the Caribbean eco-systems so that WFH could thrive have been further elaborated upon in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18749 Learning from Another ‘Great Place to Work’: Mercedes-Benz
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14954 Overseas Workers – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11184 JPMorganChase spent $10 billion in 1 year on ‘Fintech’ & Call Centers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9839 Alibaba Cloud stretches global reach with four new facilities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126 Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698 STEM Jobs – ideal for WFH – Are Filling Slowly

So this writer “talked the talk and walked the walk”.

Don’t just do what I say; do what I do.

We have stood on the rooftops and on the steeples and told the Caribbean world that these islands and coastal states are the greatest address on the planet and all efforts should be made to Stay Home or Return Home.

We came home, by executing the strategies of Working From Home. While this was always our plan, we knew that it would be a “Hard Sell” to the Caribbean mentality; this was not the “community ethos”; see the prescription from Page 212 of the Go Lean book:

10 Ways to Promote Contact Centers  # 8: Promote Work-at-Home Options
The CU needs to conduct a public relations campaign to promote the benefits of tele-commuting and minimize any negative stigma associated with head of households working from home. This reflects the realities of media portrayals affecting the choice of careers in prior decades. For example, the 1984 movie Revenge of the Nerds is credited for dissuading young girls from pursuing careers in Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). [18].

Now the whole world is considering – in response to the COVID-19 crisis – the merits and benefits of WFH. To this change, we say:

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste! Let’s Keep the Change …

… and encourage more people to pursue these strategies, tactics and implementation.

Economics in the homeland are inadequate? We hear you; we see you; we’ll bring more jobs back here!

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

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14):

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

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

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

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

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

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Blog # 1000 – MasterClass: Economics and Society

Posted on April 21, 2020 in Economics, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Here’s an urgent inquiry to the 30 member-states that comprise the political Caribbean:

What do you need right now?

With the “pangs of distress” of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic devastating the world today, it may be obvious what the communities’ needs are:

  • Universal Testing
  • Treatment Protocols for anyone affected
  • A Flu-Shot / Vaccine
  • Rebooting of the Economy

This is right for the Caribbean member-states … and the whole world actually. This last item – Rebooting of the Economy – was an acute need even before this pandemic. This was truly what was needed; and what is needed now even more urgently.

The publishers behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – with no foresight of 2020’s Coronavirus threat – detailed the sad state of affairs for the Caribbean economy and societal life in general. The book stated in its opening words (Page 3):

There is something wrong in the Caribbean. It is the greatest address in the world for its 4 language groups, but instead of the world “beating a path” to these doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out. …

Many people love their homelands and yet still begrudgingly leave; this is due mainly to the lack of economic opportunities. The Caribbean has tried, strenuously, over the decades, to diversify their economy …

So how now …? How do we reboot the Caribbean economy now, even though we needed to do it all the while in the past? The answer is found in a previous blog-commentary that was published early in the history of this movement (April 21, 2014), at the start of the practice of publishing these commentaries:

‘Only at the precipice, do they change’
We’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don’t take it from us. We are close to an answer.

April 21, 2014 – exactly 6 years to the day – was only the 2nd month of this publishing practice; that was the 51st blog in our history. Today, we are publishing this one, the 1000th. This 1000th submission is truly a monumental milestone; and ideal for these monumental times.

The reality of the Coronavirus-COVID-19 here in April 2020 means that we are truly “at the brink of destruction”; this is the State of our Caribbean Union; we must now “find the will to change”, to reform and transform our society.

How do we go about this change? What is the answer?

Now, is the time for a class, a MasterClass … a MasterClass on Economics in Society.

Huh?! What?! Why?!

This MasterClass was taught by this Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman – see his profile in Appendix A below – and see the Topic Highlights of the MasterClass here:

See this introduction to this MasterClass in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Paul Krugman Teaches Economics and Society | Official Trailer | MasterClass – https://youtu.be/JRhvnlQHKc0

MasterClass
Paul Krugman’s work is defined by his belief in the power of economic thought to open minds and change history.

Learn more about Paul Krugman Teaches Economics and Society: https://www.masterclass.com/pk

In his economics class, Paul says that “economics covers 70% of life.” Not the passions and deep meanings, but everything that keeps clothes on our backs, food on our plates, and the trains running on time. The economic lens can help tell us how income inequality happens, it can predict how tariffs on Chinese steel will play out, and it can steer us toward more effective policies to get us out of a recession.

Over the course of his 40+ year career, Paul Krugman has become one of the most influential economists of our time. He is a New York Times columnist, lecturer, best-selling author, and won a Nobel for his theories on international trade and economies of scale. Through it all, he’s made it his mission to translate complex and abstract economic concepts into plain English.

Paul Krugman’s MasterClass on economics and society will teach you the core economic concepts that drive our world, how those concepts impact current issues, and how to develop strategies to become a better informed and empowered citizen. His online economics course includes case studies of his works, his process for writing a column, his resources for reliable news and data, and more. Through 22 video lessons and a customized workbook tailored to each chapter Paul teaches you:

  • The principles of economic thought
  • How to think beyond bias, slogans, and partisanship
  • The basics of international trade • Debunking myths about taxes
  • What’s wrong with the health care market and how to fix it
  • How the Fed works and its role in recessions and crises
  • What happened in the ‘08 crash
  • The impact of China’s rise on the US job market
  • How to be an informed and skeptical reader of economics
  • His process for writing a column

More from MasterClass:

About MasterClass:
MasterClass makes it possible for anyone to learn from the best. Get inspired with classes from 75+ world-renowned instructors on cooking, photography, writing, performance, and much more. Watch video lessons anytime, anywhere on mobile, desktop, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

Category: Education

Seriously, we urge all Caribbean stakeholders to consume this MasterClass. See the thorough review of the MasterClass in Appendix B below. (Connect to the actual link for the paid class here: https://www.masterclass.com/pk)

One definition of insanity is to do the same things again and again expecting a different result.

The movement behind the Go Lean book has consistently messaged against the Zombie Economic Ideas operating in the Caribbean region. It is inconceivable how one Caribbean member-state after another repeat the same economic mistakes – suicide actually. Let’s revisit some examples here-now, and see how this theme had been highlighted in these previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; see this sample list here:

A MasterClass on Zombie Economic Ideas …

Yeah! Bring it on.

This is the latest milestone, a nice round figure of 1000. But this is also a nice juncture to look back at the previous milestones. See these previous Go Lean blog-commentary milestones here (in reverse chronological order):

Date Description
June 7, 2019 Blog # 900 – 2020: Where Vision is Perfected
September 14, 2018 Blog # 800 – An Inconvenient Truth – Caribbean Version
May 17, 2017 Blog # 700 – We Need to Talk!
March 4, 2017 Blog # 600 – State of Caribbean Union: Hope and Change
November 2, 2016 Blog # 500 – Vision and Values for a ‘New’ Caribbean
February 20, 2016 Blog # 400 – A Vision of Freeport (Bahamas 2nd City) as a Self-Governing Entity
May 18, 2015 Blog # 300 – Legacies: Cause and Effect
November 28, 2014 Blog # 200 – Ignorance is no excuse – Milestone in Enlightenment
August 26, 2014 Blog # 150 – Why So Long? Can’t We Just…
June 15, 2014 Blog # 100 – College World Series Time

The movement behind the Go Lean book has consistently monitored and messaged about the need to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines. This need is heightened all the more so during this current fight against the Coronavirus threat.

The ordinary times are no more; these are extraordinary times.

We have no excuse now not to change, adapt, transform, improve, optimize, thrive … finally. Let’s get started. Let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to make our regional homeland a better place to live, work and play.  🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

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

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

———————

Appendix A – Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman

Paul Robin Krugman (born February 28, 1953)[3] is an American economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for The New York Times.[4] In 2008, Krugman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography.[5] The Prize Committee cited Krugman’s work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic distribution of economic activity, by examining the effects of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.[6]

Krugman was previously a professor of economics at MIT, and later at Princeton University. He retired from Princeton in June 2015, and holds the title of professor emeritus there. He also holds the title of Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics.[7] Krugman was President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2010,[8] and is among the most influential economists in the world.[9] He is known in academia for his work on international economics (including trade theory and international finance),[10][11] economic geography, liquidity traps, and currency crises.

Krugman is the author or editor of 27 books, including scholarly works, textbooks, and books for a more general audience, and has published over 200 scholarly articles in professional journals and edited volumes.[12] He has also written several hundred columns on economic and political issues for The New York Times, Fortune and Slate. A 2011 survey of economics professors named him their favorite living economist under the age of 60.[13] As a commentator, Krugman has written on a wide range of economic issues including income distribution, taxation, macroeconomics, and international economics. Krugman considers himself a modern liberal, referring to his books, his blog on The New York Times, and his 2007 book The Conscience of a Liberal.[14] His popular commentary has attracted widespread attention and comments, both positive and negative.[15] According to the Open Syllabus Project, Krugman is the second most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses.[16]
…
Source: Retrieved April 19, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman

———————

Appendix B VIDEO – Paul Krugman Masterclass Review – Is It Worth the money? – https://youtu.be/efel_G9C_XI

LouisPee
Posted Dec 19, 2018 – Grab Paul Krugman’s economics Masterclass here: http://bit.ly/2Qt4tyf

Today we complete a review of Paul Krugman’s Masterclass course on economics and society. We discuss each component of the Masterclass from the workbook to the lesson plan and go into the curriculum as though you purchased it. We then consider if it’s worth it for you based on your interest and existing knowledge in economics and society.

If you’re a fan of Paul Krugman’s writings from the New York Times, or blog. You may want to support him by getting his [official] Masterclass here: http://bit.ly/2Qt4tyf

I personally purchased the all-access Masterclass which gives me access to all the present and future classes. http://bit.ly/MasterclassAll

#PaulKrugman #Masterclass #Review #Economics #Society #NYTimes #Krugman #Economy #Crash #PropertyMarket

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BHAG – Need ‘Big Brother’ for Pandemics

Posted on April 17, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Industries, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The whole world must act now to remediate this crisis – flatten the curve – of this Coronavirus danger. There are no “ands, ifs or buts”. This is a systemic threat!

If one Caribbean member-state does not comply with the best practices for mitigating this disease, they will have to answer to …

Wait, there is no one to answer to!

This is the problem; there is no accountability entity for the Caribbean to turn to in times of distress.

If only there was …

… this is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal for the Caribbean. We need someone – a Big Brother – to run to for help with our security threats. This was the clarion call for the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean. It opened with this acknowledgement and declaration (Page 3):

There is something wrong in the Caribbean. It is the greatest address on the planet, but instead of the world “beating a path” to our doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out. Our societal defects are so acute that our culture is in peril for future prospects.
…
The requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state [alone]. Rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).
…
The economy of the Caribbean is inextricably linked to the security of the region. Therefore the CU treaty includes a security pact to implement the mechanisms to ensure greater homeland security. These efforts will monitor and mitigate against economic crimes, systemic threats and also facilitate natural disaster planning and response agencies.

But can’t we just …

… run to the big Super Power in our region, the United States of America, for answers, solutions and refuge.

The simple answer is No!

The US has gone on record to declare and demonstrate that they are not to be considered the Big Brother for anyone else, other than their people; (many conclude that they even fail in their domestic deliveries). “Blood is thicker than water” and the Caribbean member-states must accept that frankly, we are “not blood” – even true for US Territories like Puerto Rico. Consider the support for this assertion in these examples of news articles here:

VIDEO – Trump address allegations about US blocking multiple Caribbean states from receiving shipments of vital medical supplies – https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article241951191.html

———–

Title # 1: Caribbean nations can’t get U.S. masks, ventilators for COVID-19 under Trump policy
By: Jacqueline Charles and Alex Harris
Caribbean nations struggling to save lives and prevent the deadly spread of the coronavirus in their vulnerable territories should not look to the United States as they seek to acquire scarce but much-needed protective gear to fight the global pandemic

A spokesperson from U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to the Miami Herald that the agency is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prevent distributors from diverting personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as face masks and gloves, overseas. Ventilators also are on the prohibited list.

“To accomplish this, CBP will detain shipments of the PPE specified in the President’s Memorandum while FEMA determines whether to return the PPE for use within the United States; to purchase the PPE on behalf of the United States; or, allow it to be exported,” the statement read.

In the past week, three Caribbean nations —the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Barbados —have all had container loads of personal protective equipment purchased from U.S. vendors blocked from entering their territories by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“We are talking about personal protective equipment; we’re talking about durable medical devices and gloves, gowns, ventilators as well,” Bahamas Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands told the Miami Herald.

On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed a shipping company that its Nassau-bound shipment of medical supplies could not be offloaded in the Bahamas and the containers had to be returned to Miami “for inspection.” But even before that, Sands said the Bahamian government had already been fielding multiple “complaints from freight forwarders and shipping companies that they were having challenges clearing certain items.”

“Over time, that grew to a crescendo with certain persons having the same experience,” he said.

The blockade experienced by Caribbean nations followed President Donald Trump’s April 3 signing of the little-known Defense Production Act. While the order gave the federal government more control over the procurement of coronavirus-related supplies, it also allowed the administration to ban certain exports. Trump invoked the act following a Twitter attack against U.S. manufacturer 3M over the export of its highly sought N95 respiratory face masks.

In a release, the Minnesota-based company said the Trump administration wanted it to cease exports of the masks to Latin America and Caribbean nations. Pushing back on the request, 3M said such a move carried “humanitarian consequences.”

Soon after the president’s order, Caribbean governments and shippers started hearing from Customs and Border Protection, learning that shipments of vital supplies had been blocked.

In the case of Barbados, it was a shipment of 20 ventilators purchased by a philanthropist that were barred, Health Minister Lt. Col Jeffrey Bostic told his nation in a live broadcast on April 5. After accusing the U.S. of seizing the shipment, Bostic walked back the allegation and told a local newspaper the hold up had “to do with export restrictions being placed on certain items.”

For the Cayman Islands, it was eight ventilators and 50,000 masks that were produced and purchased in the U.S. and removed from a Grand Cayman-bound ship in Miami — also on Tuesday. In a Friday afternoon tweet, the British overseas territory’s premier, Alden McLaughlin, said the U.S. had released the shipment with help from the U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica Donald Tapia.

Like Cayman, the Bahamas was also forced to turn to diplomatic channels for help. Following the intervention of the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, Sands said, it appeared they “were fairly close to a resolution.” But on Friday, the shipments were still being held by Customs and Border Protection, said a source familiar with the situation.

Betty K Agencies, a shipping company, was informed about the Trump policy after its ship had left Miami with three containers of medical supplies on Tuesday, hours ahead of its Wednesday arrival in Nassau.

The CBP note sent to Betty K Agencies regarding its Bahamas medical shipment was obtained by the Herald. It reads, “Due to a April 3rd, 2020 Presidential Memorandum regarding the allocation of certain scarce or threatened health and medical resources for domestic use, the items below cannot be exported until further notice.” The list went on to mention various types of single-use, disposable surgical masks, including N95 respirators and medical gloves.

Earlier in the week, the State Department suggested to the Miami Herald that media reports about seized medical exports might not be accurate. Late Friday, the White House issued a different statement after the ministers went public.

“The United States, like many other nations, is currently experiencing a high demand for ventilators, masks, gloves, and respirators that is straining available supplies and production capacity,” a senior administration official told the Herald. “President Trump has made clear that this Administration will prioritize the well-being of American citizens as we continue to take bold, decisive action to help slow the spread of the virus and save lives.”

The official went on to say that the administration “is working to limit the impacts of PPE domestic allocation on other nations. The United States will continue to send equipment and supplies not needed domestically to other countries, and we will do more as we are able.”

During Friday’s Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House, President Trump acknowledged the high demand for the United States’ ventilators and testing kits, which Caribbean health officials have said are also banned from export.

“We’re the envy of the world in terms of ventilators. Germany would like some, France would like some; we’re going to help countries out. Spain needs them desperately. Italy needs them desperately,” he said.

But when asked by a McClatchy reporter about the Caribbean and the accusation that the U.S. was blocking personal protective equipment in certain cases, Trump implied that the shipments were being caught up in drug trafficking and seizures.

“Well, what we’re doing, we have a tremendous force out there, a Naval force, and we’re blocking the shipment of drugs,” he said. “So maybe what they’re doing is stopping ships that they want to look at. We’re not blocking. What we’re doing is we’re making sure; we don’t want drugs in our country, and especially with the over 160 miles of wall, it’s getting very hard to get through the border. They used to drive right through the border like they owned it, and in a certain way, they did.”

The president also invoked the U.S.’s effort to stop human trafficking.

“What we’re doing is we’re being very tough and we’re being tough because of drugs and also human trafficking,” he added. “We have a big Naval force that’s stopping, so maybe when you mentioned that, maybe their ships are getting caught. But we are stopping a lot of ships and we’re finding a lot of drugs.”

The LA Times reported earlier this week that seven states have seen the federal government seize shipments of necessary medical supplies, including thermometers and masks, without saying where or how they planned to reallocate them.

Caribbean health ministers, who have been warned by the Pan American Health Organization to expect a spike in COVID-19 infections in the coming weeks, have tried to assure their citizens that they are not relying solely on vendors in the United States to help their response to the respiratory disease.

They have also placed orders with suppliers in China and South Korea, they have said. McLaughlin, the Cayman premier, recently announced that the territory recently sold thousands of extra coronavirus test kits it had purchased, at cost, to Bermuda and Barbados.

It has been slightly more than 100 days since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus to be a global pandemic, and just over a month since the first cases were registered on March 1 in the Caribbean, beginning with the Dominican Republic and the French overseas territories of St. Martin and St. Barthélemy. The first confirmations of COVID-19 in the English-speaking Caribbean came on March 10 when Jamaica recorded its first case, followed by St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Guyana the next day.

Since then, the number of cases has grown to more than 4,000 across 33 Caribbean countries and territories, with over 185 deaths, according to the latest available statistics compiled by the Caribbean Public Health Agency.

The Bahamas currently has 41 confirmed cases and eight deaths. Sands said the island nation, which is still recovering from last year’s deadly Hurricane Dorian, is “in the middle of our surge.” As a result, he’s trying to build the country’s capacity to handle COVID-19 infections by ensuring that healthcare workers, police and defense force officers are armed with masks, gowns, booties and hazmat suits for the pandemic.

“While we do not have a problem at this point, we do not want to get into a problem,” Sands said. “We have modeled what our burn rate is likely to be so we are just trying to build out our anticipated need to make sure that we stay ahead of the demand. So these shipments, while important, would have been for future needs.”

Sands acknowledges that the United States, which on Saturday surpassed more than half a million coronavirus cases and 20,000 deaths, is in a very difficult position as it becomes the world’s worst coronavirus hot spot and hospitals experience shortages.

“It’s very challenging when you don’t have enough supplies to meet the needs of your own institutions. I am in no way condoning or endorsing anything. I am simply saying as we watch the challenge it is also very, very difficult,” he said. “For all intensive purposes, borders are now shut, and without wanting to be flippant or dismissive, it’s every man for himself and God for us all.”

McClatchy Washington Bureau reporter Michael Wilner contributed to this report.

Source: Posted April 13, 2020; retrieved April 17, 2020 from: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article241922071.html

—————-

Title #2 : U.S. blocks export of ‘tens of thousands’ of COVID-19 medical supplies
By:  Ava Turnquest
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Health minister Dr Duane Sands confirmed the country has been significantly hit by U.S. restrictions banning the export of COVID-19 protective gear, noting the procurement of “many, many thousands” of critical supplies has been blocked.

However, Sands told Eyewitness News the government did not put all of its “eggs in one basket” as the country has sourced supplies from various countries.
…
He added: “This was a big deal, this wasn’t no little problem, this is a big deal.”

See the full article here: https://ewnews.com/u-s-blocks-export-of-tens-of-thousands-of-covid-19-medical-supplies posted April 9, 2020; retrieved April 17, 2020.

—————

Title #3: U.S. will send supplies that are ‘not needed domestically’, embassy says
By: Jasper Ward
While defending the United States’ decision to block the export of critical medical supplies, a U.S. embassy official said today that America will continue to send equipment and supplies that are “not needed” domestically to countries like The Bahamas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary response measures are challenging governments globally,” the official told The Nassau Guardian.

“The United States is taking action to maintain the commitment of the president to the American people. The United States is continuing to send equipment and supplies not needed domestically to many other countries, including The Bahamas, and we will continue to do more as we are able.”
…
See the full article here: https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/09/u-s-will-send-supplies-that-are-not-needed-domestically-embassy-says/ posted April 9, 2020; retrieved April 17, 2020

***************

We just completed a 6-part series on Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) where we considered these goals, these entries:

  1. BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
  2. BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
  3. BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
  4. BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
  5. BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
  6. BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock è Caribbean Media

Now for this continuation, a 7th entry, we consider the goal of a “region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy for greater production and greater accountability” – our own Caribbean Big Brother.

We obviously cannot rely on the US to be our Big Brother for pandemics – we must do it ourselves. This has been the theme of a number of previous Go Lean commentaries that elaborated on the goal of elevating the Caribbean societal engines for better Homeland Security; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19409 Coronavirus: ‘Clear and Present’ Threat to Economic Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19025 Cursed in Paradise – Disasters upon Disasters
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15996 Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13999 First Steps for Caribbean Security – Deputize ‘Me’, says the CU
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996 After Disasters, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566 Funding the Caribbean Security Pact – Yes, we can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9038 Caribbean Charity Management: Grow Up Already & Be Responsible
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896 The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002 Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’

Yes, a new guard, the CU Homeland Security apparatus has always been the quest of the movement behind the Go Lean book (Page 10), and these previous blog-commentaries. The book presented a Declaration of Interdependence, with these words:

When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

This movement studied previous pandemics and presented the lessons learned to the Caribbean region in a post on March 24, 2015:

A Lesson in History – SARS in Hong Kong
How can a community – the Caribbean region in this case – manage such an epidemiological crisis?

For this, we have a well-documented lesson from Hong Kong in 2003. There is much for us to learn from this lesson in history.

The people, institutions and governance of the Caribbean need to pay more than the usual attention to the lessons of SARS in Hong Kong, not just from the medical perspective (see Appendix B), but also from an economic viewpoint.

During the “heyday” of the SARS crisis, travel and transport to Hong Kong virtually came to a grinding halt! Hong Kong had previously enjoyed up to 14 million visitors annually; they were a gateway to the world. The SARS epidemic became a pandemic because of this status. Within weeks of the outbreak, SARS had spread from Hong Kong to infect individuals in 37 countries in early 2003.[3]

Can we afford this disposition in any Caribbean community?
…
Consider how this history may impact the Caribbean region. SARS in Hong Kong was 12 17 years ago. But last year [2014] the world was rocked with an Ebola crisis originating from West Africa. An additional example local to the Caribbean is the Chikungunya virus that emerged in Spring 2014. The presentation of these facts evinces that we cannot allow mis-management of any public health crisis; this disposition would not extend the welcoming hospitality that the tourism product depends on. Our domestic engines cannot sustain an outbreak of a virus like SARS (nor Ebola nor Chikungunya). Less than an outbreak, our tourism economic engines, on the other hand, cannot even withstand a rumor. We must act fast, with inter-state efficiency, against any virus.

This is the goal as detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean as it serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The vision of the CU is to ensure that the Caribbean is a protégé of communities like the US and EU states, not a parasite.
…
The Go Lean book reports that previous Caribbean administrations have failed miserably in managing regional crises. There is no structure for cooperation, collaboration and coordination across borders. This is the charge of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. To effectuate change in the region by convening all 30 Caribbean member-states, despite their historical legacies or governmental hierarchy.

The CU is not designed to just be in some advisory role when it comes to pandemic crises, but rather to possess the authority to act as a Security Apparatus for the region’s Greater Good.
…
Legally, each Caribbean member-state would ratify a Status of Forces Agreement that would authorize this role for the CU agencies (Emergency Management and Disease Control & Management) to serve as a proxy and deputy of the Public Health administrations for each member-state. This would thusly empower these CU agencies to quarantine and detain citizens with probable cause of an infectious disease. The transparency, accountability and chain-of-command would be intact with the appropriate checks-and-balances of the CU’s legislative and judicial oversight. This is a lesson learned from Hong Kong 2003 with China’s belligerence.

SARS was eradicated by January 2004 and no cases have been reported since. [4] We must have this “happy-ending”, but from the beginning. This is the lesson we can learn and apply in the Caribbean. …

This vision is the BHAG for today’s Caribbean. Yes, we can …

… execute the strategies, tactics and implementations to fulfill this vision.

COVID-19 was not the worst pandemic and may not be the last. So we must put the proper mitigation in place.

This vision, this BHAG, is conceivable, believable and achievable. We urged all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. This is how we make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

Who We Are

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

ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, mental health, obesity and smoking cessation programs. The Federation must proactively anticipate the demand and supply … as developing countries are often exploited by richer neighbors for illicit organ [medical equipment and provisional] trade.

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

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

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

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

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BHAG – Caribbean Media: Learning from Netflix et al

Posted on March 29, 2020 in Economics, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

All stakeholders in America – and other countries – must act now to “flatten the curve” with this Coronavirus crisis:

There is the role for doctors, nurses and other clinicians in the delivery of medical best practices; then there is also the role for the general public. Yes, the Public Health prescription for America to get past this Coronavirus crisis is abbreviated to these 3 words:

Netflix and chill …

Yep, it is that simple; the country needs to Shelter-in-Place and practice Social Distancing, so the best option is to stay home and occupy your time with streaming video and other online media.

That is it! That is the heavy-lifting that Americans need to do to sustain their economy. (Overall, “Hollywood” has been severely impacted by this COVID-19 pandemic – see Appendix VIDEO).

Netflix, as the market leader – as of April 2019 … over 148 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 60 million in the United States, and over 154 million subscriptions total including free trials [12]  – is being presented here as a “metonym“ …

[Metonym = a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated; like Wall Street for American Capital Markets or Hollywood for American Movie-TV-Game industries].

… an icon that symbolizes the rest of the media industry delivered by Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT). While Netflix is #1 – as a financial opportunity, early adaptors have seen an amazing 15,460% return on their investment – there are other streaming sites that deliver the same functionality. According to Wikipedia, this whole industry is referred to as:

Over-the-top media service
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.[1]

The term is most synonymous with subscription-based video-on-demand (SVoD) services that offer access to film and television content (including existing series acquired from other producers, as well as original content produced specifically for the service). Examples include:

Amazon Music, Apple TV+, Disney+, Google Play Movies & TV, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Netflix, Prime Video, SiriusXM, and YouTube Premium.

OTT also encompasses a wave of “skinny” television services that offer access to live streams of linear specialty channels, similar to a traditional satellite or cable TV provider, but streamed over the public Internet, rather than a closed, private network with proprietary equipment such as set-top boxes.

Over-the-top services are typically accessed via websites on personal computers, as well as via apps on mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), digital media players (including video game consoles), or televisions with integrated Smart TV platforms.

Due to the public assimilation of these OTT services, the traditional American television networks have responded to the competition – for public eyeballs – with streaming products of their own. Consider these two examples:

  • Peacock (NBC) –  an upcoming American over-the-top subscription video on demand streaming service by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Named after the logo of NBC, the service is set to launch on July 15, 2020, with early availability for Xfinity customers starting on April 15, 2020.[1][2][3]
    … [The new service will feature] content from its entertainment brands. It was also announced that the service would be free and ad-supported for customers of NBCUniversal pay-TV, Comcast, and eventually Sky; viewers without a pay-TV subscription or viewers who do not want advertisements can also subscribe to an ad-free version of the service. … [The service will] also include new original programming.

There is a lesson in this directive for us in the Caribbean; we must design, develop and deploy our own Caribbean streaming network, our own Netflix. This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for Caribbean society; we must do what America has done with Netflix and do it better. The extra effort is tied to the fact that we are more pluralistic with a multilingual society. The Caribbean solution must accommodate 4 languages: Dutch, English, French and Spanish so as to cover the 42 million in the 30 member-states.

No one language is to be considered the default or preferred over the others.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean presents a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this March 2020, our focus is on BHAG efforts that are too big for any one member-state alone. This is the final entry for this series, 6-of-6, which addresses live-work-play activities for all economic engines in society: economic, security and governance.

The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

  1. BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
  2. BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
  3. BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
  4. BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
  5. BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
  6. BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock è Caribbean Media

In addition to the 42 million people in the Caribbean member-states, there is also the Diaspora, estimated in some circles to be 20 – 26 million people; (the disparity is due to the status of first generation “legacies”; only “some” identify with the homeland). Any network that emerges from this Caribbean effort would have the Diaspora included in the target market. This is a familiar theme for this movement behind the Go Lean book. In addition to the direct references to Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) in the 2013 book, there have been a number of previous Go Lean commentaries that elaborated on this theme of deploying a new ICT-based Caribbean network; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17822 Caribbean Youtuber providing a Role Model with Expanded Audiences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17250 Way Forward – Caribbean ‘Single Market’ for Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858 Network Mandates for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14224 How the Youth are Consuming Media Today
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321 Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6464 Sports Role Model – ‘WWE Network’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244 Sports Role Model – espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171 Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network

In the Go Lean book and these previous blog-commentaries, this movement asserts that the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits of ICT is within reach of our people, with the proper technocracy. As related in a previous blog-commentary, the eco-system for streaming videos – i.e. Netflix, Hulu, WWE, ESPN-W, Amazon Prime, etc. – is inclusive of the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

Yes, we can …

… build our own Caribbean streaming network. We have the successful model to emulate in the deliveries of the company Amazon. They are an e-Commerce company that processes fulfilment services and ICT media services as well. We have previously (October 1, 2018) elaborated on this Amazon role model:

Amazon: ‘What I want to be when I grow up’
This one company is worth US$1 Trillion. The whole Caribbean’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is [far] less; it is our plan to elevate the economic engines in the region to get the economy’s output up to $800 Billion.

Amazon is a model for e-Commerce, logistics, media and innovation. This is the role model we want for our Caribbean Postal Union and the aligning online portal, www.myCaribbean.gov. It is good to have a roadmap to follow to duplicate the successful journey of Amazon.

This commentary concludes this March 2020 series on our Big Hairy Audacious Goals for the Caribbean. Many people are able to consume Netflix and other streaming services now, though the networks and programming is not really intended for us in the Caribbean. It is time now to design, develop and deploy our own. This will be a good investment for the future of media (TV and Movies) and ICT in our region.

This vision of our own streaming network is conceivable, believable and achievable. We urged all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. This is how we make our homeland a better place to live, work and play.  🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

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

xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

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

——————

Appendix VIDEO – Coronavirus – Covid-19: film industry counting the cost of ongoing crisis – https://youtu.be/h-ZW6OU6tIU

FRANCE 24 English

Posted March 26, 2020 – The film industry, like many others, is affected by the coronavirus pandemic. FRANCE 24’s culture editor Eve Jackson tells us more.

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BHAG – Outreach to the World: Why Not a Profit Center – Encore

Posted on March 28, 2020 in Economics, Government, Planning, Strategy

The plan to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states does not ignore the rest of the world. No, it recognizes that there must be a lot of “coming and going” with other people in other places.

We honestly admit that many of our own citizens have abandoned the homeland, yet these ones still want to be engaged with Caribbean institutions and can truly still have a positive impact on our societal engines. If only we can “profit” from this engagement.

Yes, we can …

How about a plan for the Caribbean member-states to build-out their “Outreach to the World” – Embassies, Consulates and Trade Mission Offices – in such a way so as to generate traffic from consumer and commercial stakeholders – think: retail, dining, entertainment and amusements.

Generate traffic and generate profits!

This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), but this can be done; this is being done; this could be expanded upon to a heightened extent.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean presents a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life, either at home or abroad. For this March 2020, our focus is on BHAG efforts that are too big for any one member-state alone. This is entry 5-of-6 for this series, which embraces the reality of the Caribbean Outreach to the World.

The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

  1. BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
  2. BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
  3. BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
  4. BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
  5. BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
  6. BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

In addition to the 42 million people in the Caribbean member-states, there is also the Diaspora, estimated in some circles to be 10 to 26 million people; (the disparity is due to the status of first generation “legacies”; only “some” identify with the homeland). So the subject of Caribbean Outreach to the World is familiar for this movement behind the Go Lean book. In addition to the direct references to Diaspora and Trade Mission Offices in the 2013 book, there have been a number of previous Go Lean commentaries that elaborated on this theme of Outreach to this population; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19134 Caribbean Diaspora – All Member-states – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17992 The ‘Best of the Caribbean’ … now live abroad
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16532 Diaspora Reckoning – Settlers -vs- Immigrants – ‘We’ never catch-up
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16395 The Caribbean – A People or A Place?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16208 Caribbean Trade and Outreach Can Transform Society
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858 Opportunities for a New Media Network to reach the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15658 Realities and Dangers of American Immigrant Life – We need to protect our Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14746 Calls for Repatriation Strategy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13604 Outreach Goal: We Want Diaspora to Retire ‘Back at Home’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151 The Caribbean is Looking For Heroes … to Return

In fact, this exact concept of Outreach to the World – Why Not A Profit Center has been addressed specifically in this prior Go Lean blog-commentary from May 3, 2014. It is only appropriate to Encore that 6-year old commentary now. But imagine how much progress has been made since then. For example, consider this establishment in Berlin Germany where developers have captured a Tropical Island experience indoors, open 365 days a year. Consider this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Tropical Islans Water Park! – https://youtu.be/MRywPptaOrA


Posted March 12, 2017 – Tropical Islands is a tropical water park built in an old air ship hanger that protected air ships in bad weather. It is located about 45 minutes south of Berlin, Germany and is set in the largest freestanding hall in the world.
Category: Film & Animation

This is not the only one – there are many more “Indoor Water Parks” throughout the world; consider this list:

30 Top Indoor Water Parks around the World
i.e. #21: Castaway Bay, Cedars Point, Sandusky, Ohio, USA

Why can’t we do the same in other locations – especially our Trade Mission sites – in our Outreach to the World?!

“Can’t bring the people to the Caribbean? Then bring the Caribbean to the people.” – Yes, this is a BHAG.

See the Encore of the May 3, 2014 commentary here-now:

———————–

Go Lean Commentary – Why not … a Profit Center?

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:

Why Not ... a profit center - Photo 1 (2)

Why Not ... a profit center - Photo 2

Why Not ... a profit center - Photo SPECIAL

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.

Why Not ... a profit center - Photo 4 (3)

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!

———————

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

———————

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 46th Street, New York, NY 10017  Phone: 212-421-6420
Barbados 820 Second Avenue, 5th 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, 4th Fl, New York, NY 10001  Phone: 212-947-5110
Haiti 271 Madison Avenue, 17th 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, 16th 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 75th Street, New York, NY 10103 – 212-535-5521
St. Lucia 800 Second Avenue, 9th 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, 21st Fl, New York, NY – 212-687-4490
Suriname 1 UN Plaza, 26th Fl, New York, NY 10017 – 212-826-0660
Trinidad & Tobago 125 Maiden Lane, Unit 4A, 4th 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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BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads

Posted on March 16, 2020 in Economics, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

I have a dream …
… that one day people can easily get from Point A to Point B here in their Caribbean homelands.

Is that so fanciful?

Is it so “pie in the sky” to think that our Caribbean communities can organize, plan and execute infrastructure projects so that people can safely travel by road, mitigating traffic congestion, and get to their destinations to live, work and play?

“Pie in the sky” or just “sky” is the key reference here. This commentary asserts that some of the congested streets in the Caribbean member-states can find relief by building “skyways” and overpasses; and they can be Toll Roads. (Considers  these samples-examples)

This vision was always part of the roadmap, as described in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. This roadmap introduces the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as a super-national entity with Port Authority functionalities, to build highways, bridges, tunnels, docks and other Public Works (infrastructure) to facilitate the societal engines (economics, security and governance) of the Caribbean region. The book describes that transportation solutions must be embedded into any plan to elevate Caribbean society. See this reference to Turnpike-Toll Roads in the book (Page 205) in this advocacy:

10 Ways to Improve Transportation
#4 – Turnpike: Land Highways
The CU will fund and build limited-access “toll ways” to expedite transportation of people and goods. The tolls will be rebated as incentives for carpools, ride-share and zero-emissions promotion. “Build it and they will come” is the mantra for putting in the highways away from the current population centers. Overall, every densely populated community should have one North-South and one East-West artery.

Imagine existing roads, but with additional lanes that are elevated above the existing roads. This would indeed provide solutions and relief to the current traffic congestion.

Questions: What is missing today? Why is it that the local Caribbean governments (and other Third World countries) are not doing this now?

Answer: Money!

This is the focus of this commentary: Funding Toll Roads.

How do we fund the construction of such Toll Roads?

The book’s excerpt states that “the CU will fund and build”; but the focus is on raising the money, not “swinging the hammer”. This is the dream, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), to be able to generate capital for Public Works projects. Another excerpt from the Go Lean book details the Art and Science of municipal financing; see these summaries here (Page 175):

10 Ways to Impact Public Works
# 2 – Union Atlantic Turnpike
The Union Atlantic Turnpike is a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. There are many transportation arteries and facilities envisioned for the Turnpike: Toll Roads, Railroads, Ferry Piers, and Navy Piers. The CU plan calls for underwater tunnels, causeways and bridges in narrow straits where the economics dictate. While some CU states already have railroad installations, there is no uniform management, oversight or standards. The CU will regulate the railroad industry to complement the other transportation modes to offer integrated solutions. This approach will allow the conformity and logistics so that passengers/cargo can efficiently move to trains, ferries, pipeline (cargo only) to highway-bound buses/trucks… and vice-versa.

# 10 – Capital Markets
A Single Market and Currency Union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).

There are role models for us to emulate. Here is one example; we have been to New York City; we have studied the history and the progress of their transportation-focused Public Works. We have even published previous commentaries on the Port Authority of New York – New Jersey and on the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroCard payment system; (also see VIDEO’s – one factual and one satirical – in the Appendices below). So the lesson-learned is to have the organizational structure so as to fund the construction and management of transportation projects, such as Toll Roads; consider the case of the George Washington Bridge (picture above) that connects New York and New Jersey. See this historic milestone in the timeline:

The New York City Planning Commission approved the George Washington Bridge improvement in June 1957,[147] and the Port Authority allocated funds to the improvement that July.[148][149] – Source: – Wikipedia.

Just like that! One group of experts made the plan and another group of experts arranged the funding – this is an example of a technocracy, and a role model for us to emulate here in the Caribbean region.

This is entry 3-of-6 for the March 2020 monthly series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. This submission considers the mechanics of funding Public Works projects. The strategy is simple: each transportation project will apply tolls, to generate ongoing revenues. When there are thousands and millions of journeys, and a toll is charged every time, then the economics finally make sense.

The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

  1. BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
  2. BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
  3. BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
  4. BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
  5. BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
  6. BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The subject of Infrastructure is a Big Deal for the consideration of reforming or transforming the Caribbean region. The premise of the Go Lean roadmap is that the leverage of the 30 member-states and 42 million people will allow for Public Works initiatives that are bigger and better than any single (one) member-state alone. “Toll Roads” is one such example, though only a subset of the planned Union Atlantic Turnpike. The plan is for the Turnpike Authority to design and facilitate one North-South and one East-West highway as applicable in each island or coastal-state.

Yes, the highways will be Toll Roads; that charges fees for each ride. The “small pennies add up to millions” over time. This funding mechanism of the Turnpike Authority allows present infrastructure investments based on those future revenues; think bonds and loans. Look again at the New York-New jersey Port Authority example; see their gross revenues here from a recent year (2012), as reported in a previous blog-commentaries – ‘Cannot Break Up the Port Authority’ from August 20, 2014:

PANYNJ Revenues / Profits

TOTAL AVIATION: +$2.5 BILLION

Airport

 Profit

JFK

+$990 million

LaGuardia

+$273 million

Newark

+$1.3 million

Teterboro, Stewart, heliports

-$65 million

TOTAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL: -$537 MILLION*

Bridge/Tunnel

 Profit

GW Bridge

+$1.3 billion

Lincoln Tunnel

+167 million

Holland Tunnel

+$141 million

Port Authority Bus Terminal

-$479 million

PATH

-$2.3 billion

TOTAL PORT COMMERCE: -$755 MILLION*

Port

 Profit

Port Newark

-$317 million

Port Jersey

-$184 million

Howland Hook

-$160 million

Brooklyn Marine   Terminal

-$27 million

TOTAL WORLD TRADE CENTER: -$3.1 BILLION
GRAND TOTAL: -$2.5 BILLION

The total shows the authority doesn’t generate enough from tolls, fees and grants to cover its costs. It borrows to cover the shortfall.
*Total includes other entities not listed here.

Source: Phase II Report to the special committee of Port Authority’s board, prepared by consulting firm Navigant in September 2012. 

All these revenues for the PANYNJ are used to “Service Debt”, make loan payments or pay-off bonds that funded these projects over the decades. The purpose of the Port Authority is “not to make a profit per se”, but rather to facilitate the infrastructure for the regional communities, so that the people (citizens) can successfully live, work and play. This is a Good model for us!

This theme of Caribbean infrastructure projects have been elaborated in many other previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19327 ‘Missing Solar’ – Inadequacies Infrastructure Exposed to the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18828 Big Infrastructure to Better Feed Ourselves – Temperate Foods
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18266 After Dorian, Still no Flood Prevention – ‘Fool Me Twice’ on Flooding
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18228 After Dorian, The Need for the Science of Power Restoration
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925 What Went Wrong? Failing the Lessons from ‘Infrastructure 101’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17434 Moving Forward with Transportation Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17377 Marshall Plans – Funding: How to Pay for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17337 Industrial Reboot – Amusement Parks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15662 Build It and They Will Come – Manifesting High-Tech Neighborhoods
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13856 Lesson Learned – Big Projects Designed for Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8590 Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure

The goal of these projects are not just to alleviate traffic congestion. No, it is bigger than that. The goal is to connect the people and places of the Caribbean region, better. This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, but this is conceivable, believable and achievable.

To recap, there is reform: mitigate traffic congestions by building bigger, better roads, maybe even adding skyways and overpasses …

… and there is transform: deploying alternative transit options: light rail, unmanned people-movers, busways, and even bicycle lanes and safe-ways.

This is the Way Forward for Caribbean society. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

 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.

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

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – The Port of New York and New Jersey – https://youtu.be/7XTi2oyPs2k

Port Authority New York & New Jersey
Posted February 20, 2019 – The Port of New York & New Jersey is the largest port on the U.S. East Coast and the third largest in the U.S. The Port plays an important role in getting goods to the region and to key inland markets while also contributing to the local communities we inhabit and our region.

http://www.portnynj.com

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – New York’s Port Authority: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/44fCfJQV7yQ



LastWeekTonight

Posted August 3, 2014 – Locked in a dispute with Fishs Eddy, New York’s Port Authority wants to regain control of its own image. John Oliver wants to help them make it happen.

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BHAG – Regional Currency – ‘In God We Trust’

Posted on March 13, 2020 in Economics, Government, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

Got any money? Got any American coins or notes (US Dollars). Notice the engraving: ‘In God We Trust’. What does it mean?

The capitalized form “IN GOD WE TRUST” first appeared on the two-cent piece in 1864[5] and has appeared on paper currency since 1957. The 84th Congress passed legislation (P.L. 84–851), also signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declaring the phrase to be the national motto.[6][7][8]

With the separation of “Church and State” mantra, isn’t this intended to imply that God backs this money? As such “In God We Trust” as a national motto and on U.S. currency has been the subject of numerous unsuccessful lawsuits by many individuals.[72] But the legal defense has been validated repeatedly – see how this encyclopedic source details this historicity:

Some groups and people have objected to its use, contending that its religious reference violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.[9] These groups believe the phrase should be removed from currency and public property. In lawsuits, this argument has not overcome the interpretational doctrine of accommodationism, which allows government to endorse religious establishments as long as [one religion is not favored over another].[10] According to a 2003 joint poll by USA Today, CNN, and Gallup, 90% of Americans support the inscription “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.[11]

Don’t get it twisted: American money having a reference to “trusting in God” does not make it divine, or backed by God. There is nothing sacred about American currency, and thusly, it can be replaced or supplanted. This is our dream!

For the 30 member-states of the political Caribbean, there are a number of different currencies that represent our monetary efforts: local currencies (i.e. Jamaican, Caymanian, Bahamian, etc.) AND reserve currencies like US Dollar or the Euro. This is the dream that there would be just one Single Currency, not the US Dollar, to represent all of the Caribbean.

What a dream! In fact, this is considered a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

This is entry 2-of-6 for the March 2020 version of the monthly series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This submission considers the BHAG of the Caribbean Dollar or C$ – yes, we even have a brand name. Our one currency with coins and notes for all monetary exchanges in the Caribbean region.

Yes, we can!

Every month, we submit a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. The full series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is cataloged as follows:

  1. BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
  2. BHAG – Regional Currency – ‘In God We Trust’
  3. BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
  4. BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
  5. BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
  6. BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The subject of a regional currency is a weighty responsibility, as it underpins the economic engines for the 42 million people in the region. This quest for the Caribbean Dollar, managed by a technocratic Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) was presented in the Go Lean book as a paramount strategy for elevating the societal engines. Next to the confederation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) itself, the establishment of the CCB is presented as the next highest priority.

In fact, the advocacy (Page 127) of 10 Big Ideas listed this detail as the #2 entry:

Currency Union / Single Currency
Apolitical technocratic monetary control, by the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB), and foreign trade with a globally respected currency allows for the methodical growth of the Caribbean economy without the risk of hyper-inflation and/or currency devaluations. The CU/CCB trades in Caribbean Dollars (C$) of which the currency’s reserves are a mixed-basket of strong foreign currencies: US Dollars, Euro, British Pound and Japanese Yen.

In addition to traditional monetary benefits – discussed below – there is the need to mitigate upheavals in the international financial markets; we have that reality today, on the heels of the Coronavirus pandemic – a global recession is surely coming.

The points of a BIG Hairy Audacious Goal of a Caribbean Dollar to optimize our economic engines have been addressed in previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; consider this one from December 11, 2018 addressing the need to leverage against upheavals in the international financial markets. See an excerpt here:

The strategy in this Go Lean book is to optimize money issues: consolidate monetary reserves for the region into a Single Currency, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), managed by the technocratic Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). The C$ will be based on a mixed-basket of foreign reserves (US dollars, Euros, British pounds & Yens).

This is a simple but effective plan – a best practice: introduce the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) and Caribbean Dollar as a Single Currency for the region’s 30 member-states.

Huge benefits abound! And so this economic initiative is important for Caribbean elevation. The rationale is that this strategy “enables economies to be more resilient to exogenous shocks”.

  • exogenous shocks – In economics, a shock is an unexpected or unpredictable event that affects an economy, either positively or negatively. Technically, it refers to an unpredictable change in exogenous factors — that is, factors unexplained by economics — which may influence endogenous economic variables. – Wikipedia.

This benefit is so obvious that others have thought of this before …

Yet there has consistently been a Failure to Launch this economic initiative; or to do so successfully. Consider the historicity of the CariCom Multilateral Clearing Facility (CMCF) in Appendix A [of that previous commentary] – a normal functionality of regional Central Banks.

Currently, the Caribbean has no regional Central Bank, so 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 (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). 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.

One traditional charter for the monetary responsibilities of a Central Bank is the minting of coins. This charter is now perilous for small units of currency, think the Penny.

One Caribbean member-state, the Bahamas, is embarking on the effort to eliminate the penny from national circulation; see article in the Appendix below and the Appendix VIDEO that relates the American Penny Drama. Yet, this Go Lean roadmap is advocating for a regional currency instead of just a national one. Question: What are our plans for the “Penny”?

Answer: Make it moot!

The Go Lean roadmap calls for doubling-down on electronic money and payments systems. That same previous December 2017 blog-commentary asserted:

Central Banks are required to …

  1. facilitate monetary and currency policies,
  2. oversee bank regulations, and
  3. execute inter-bank financial transactions (like payment settlements …).

(Note: The strategy to including the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Monetary Union is for Electronic Financial Transactions only).

This is how the Go Lean roadmap seeks to transform the Caribbean region, with legitimate, structured and technocratic schemes for electronic money, payments systems, and even crypto-currency. See this declaration here:

The world of electronic payment systems is here! This is a good thing. The benefits of these new schemes are too enticing to ignore: fostering more e-Commerce, increasing regional money supply, mitigating Black Markets, more cruise tourism spending, growing the economy, creating jobs, enhancing security and optimizing governance.

A successful digital money / electronic payment scheme is very important in the strategy for elevating the Caribbean economy, for reforming and transforming. Any “risky” image of technology-backed payments will be nullified with the image of a bleeding-edge technocracy, the CCB, deploying these regimes efficiently and effectively.

This theme of Caribbean monetary and currency solutions have been elaborated in previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16836 Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14248 Leading with Money Matters – New Almighty Caribbean Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744 Failure to Launch: The Quest for a Caribbean ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8381 Case Study on Central Banking for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7034 The Future of Money – For the Caribbean and Beyond
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=906 Bitcoin needs regulatory framework to change ‘risky’ image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=467 Barbados Central Bank records $3.7m loss in 2013
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360 Central Banks Can Create Money from ‘Thin Air’ – Here’s How

To recap, there is reform: mitigate upheavals in the international financial markets …

… and there is transform: deploying electronic money regimes.

This is the Way Forward for Caribbean society. This is our Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Let’s get started!

This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

——————

Appendix – Bahamas one cent coin to be discontinued
By: Chester Robards

The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) officially announced yesterday that The Bahamas’ one cent coins as legal currency will be relegated to the annals of history.

Central Bank Governor John Rolle announced during a press conference at the central bank that by the end of 2020, the Bahamian penny will no longer be accepted at the register. By June of 2021, banks will no longer cash in pennies.

This change will have no effect on the overall cost of goods and services, Rolle said.

CBOB made the decision after studying the cost of producing the penny versus its actual value. The bank found that it cost $443,000 to distribute the one cent coin and it could save $7 million over ten years by eliminating the penny.

The Central Bank has already stopped manufacturing the penny. The last time pennies were manufactured was in 2015, Rolle said.

In January CBOB will stop issuing the coin to commercial banks and will begin withdrawing the coin from circulation.

“There are lots of reasons why this process is being embarked upon. The key one is that it is not financially or economically viable to produce the penny,” Rolle said.

“Today we are spending four percent above the face value to produce them. In the past we used to spend 50 percent above the value to get them produced.

“The penny is not widely used in cash transactions and as many as 60 percent that we have produced over the years we estimate are lost permanently.”

Rolle said the central bank will place coin counting machines in high traffic areas where people with pennies can redeem them for a token that can be deposited to their bank accounts.

The bank explained in a previous press release that the removal of the coin will not have an effect on electronic payments, while cash payments will be rounded off to the nearest five cents.

CBOB outlines its rounding rules as such:

  • One and two would be rounded down to zero (e.g. $4.21 becomes $4.20).
  • Three and four would be rounded up to five (e.g. $7.23 becomes $7.25).
  • Six and seven would be rounded down to five (e.g. $15.67 becomes $15.65).
  • Eight and nine would be rounded up to 10 (e.g. $27.89 becomes $27.90).

The bank explained that rounding off should only take place on the total bill and individual item prices should not be adjusted.

Rolle explained yesterday that U.S. pennies will also not be accepted at the register after 2020.

He said CBOB will likely recycle the pennies it recovers from the public.

Rolle said of the 700 million pennies that have been circulated since the start of the Central Bank, half of those can no longer be found.

Source: Posted October 11, 2019; retrieved March 13, 2020 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/10/11/bahamas-one-cent-coin-to-be-discontinued/

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Appendix VIDEO – Pennies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/_tyszHg96KI

LastWeekTonight
Posted November 23, 2015 – Pennies are not even worth what they’re worth. So why do we still make them?

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