Month: March 2017

Funding the Russell Family Memorial – RIP

Posted on March 28, 2017 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

A family of 5 die in a horrific car crash on an American highway.

There is no other way to look at this drama – it is sad. The Bible says “Death rules as King” (Romans 5:17).

The Caribbean Diaspora community in South Florida is now mourning this sad tragedy. We send condolences to all the surviving family and loved-ones of the Russell family, reported in this news story here:

Title: Entire family killed in crash on Florida highway
By: Alex Harris, Miami Herald Staff Reporter

After more than 12 hours in the hospital, a 10-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries, leaving an entire family dead after a horrific car wreck in North Florida on Sunday [March 19].

The Russell family, of Hollywood, was loaded into their 2016 Chrysler 200 and headed home from a trip to Georgia, according to a memorial fundraiser. They were driving south on Interstate 75 when the sedan swerved off the road and into a tractor-trailer stopped on the side of the highway.

Nathan Russell, 37; his 35-year-old wife, Lynda; his 15-year-old daughter, La’Nyah; and one of his twins, 10-year-old Natayah, were killed in the crash. The other twin, 10-year-old Nathan Russell Jr. died hours later at ShandsHospital, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

Relatives are raising money for five funerals on GoFundMe and mourning on social media.

Nicole Narae, who said she is Nathan Russell’s cousin, wrote on Facebook that “tomorrow is not promised to anyone.”

“This one hurts. From the Bahamas to Haiti to South Florida…our hearts are broken,” she wrote. “It’s too much for anyone who know them and their household. So unreal to me right now.”

A vigil is was planned at the family’s Coral Springs home, at 9040 Royal Palm Blvd, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

———————–

VIDEO – 5 from Hollywood killed in I-75 crash near Gainesville – http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=90045&siteSection=90045_pp&videoId=32152391

What is a community to do? In this case, what is the Caribbean community to do? (The father is of Bahamian descent and the mother is of Bahamian-Haitian descent).

We cannot bring back the dead, but we can console, support and remember. This is the exact experience for the Caribbean community in South Florida today; they have “come together” and covered this family with love, prayers and the necessary financial support. Advocates for the family created a GoFundMe account for crowd-sourcing to raise $50,000. The end-result: $70,020 was raised … over 4 days.

This shows the power and effectiveness of crowd-funding.

This is not the first tragedy to befall the Caribbean community; and I guarantee you this will not be the last. But notice the alternative fundraising response. Instead of a ‘Bake Sale’ or ‘Car Wash’, advocates for the family conducted a Social Media outreach and raised $70,020 on a crowd-sourcing site.

This fact right here could be a great legacy that comes from this tragic story. The embrace of Internet & Communications Technologies so as to foster the Greater Good.

This objective aligns with the movement behind the book Go Lean… Caribbean. The book and a previous blog-commentary have identified crowd-sourcing as an effective strategy for funding Caribbean projects, especially addressing the Diaspora of the Caribbean communities. These ones have been identified as a potential resources for their time, talent and treasuries. There is only the need for a good delivery system.

The Go Lean book details that delivery. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate optimization of the region’s societal engines. Imagine not just funding the charitable causes for assuaging family tragedies – like the foregoing news article – but facilitating investment and entrepreneurship as well. Imagine the job-creation!

Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to attract investments (funding) and create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with these pronouncements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):

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

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … – impacting the region with more jobs.

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.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that the Caribbean region needs unconventional thinking to overcome the obstacles – the societal defects – that befall our communities. We have an atrocious rate of human flight (reported at 70 percent of the professional classes); so many of our people have left their island homes to now live (and die) in the big-bad United States (and other countries, like Canada and Western Europe). Our citizens leave and we have to accept whatever unforeseen occurrences that befall them.

Crowd-funding is an unconventional funding method – see Appendix – there are benefits for thinking unconventionally and we need to start thinking unconventionally to impact all aspects of Caribbean society – all the engines. This is the charter for the Go Lean book, to effectuate change in the region’s societal engines, allowing for these 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean book/roadmap subscribes to crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing as “unconventional thinking” to attract unconventional funding for Caribbean philanthropy and empowerment causes (think entrepreneurial endeavors):

The book advocates for cooperatives…
The book advocates for incubators… helping/coaching entrepreneurs …
The book advocates for the full exploration and exploitation of social media, identifying www.myCarribbean.gov …

Beyond crowd-funding, there is another compelling lesson to glean from the sad drama in the foregoing news article. As a result of attending the “Vigil” on Friday (March 24), it was disclosed that the cause of the car crash was due to driver fatigue or human error: the father – Nathan Russell – fell asleep behind the wheel.

So now we see that this tragedy was also preventable.

Many automakers have now committed to providing technical solutions to transcend human error; they have introduced Self-Driving cars (fully autonomous) and have rolled-out Driver-Assist features, such as lane violation detection. These advancements would have been life-saving for this family of 5. Consider this list of features that help drivers avoid or mitigate collisions:

Title: Cars With Advanced Safety Systems

Key active safety systems include:

Automatic emergency braking (AEB) – Brakes are automatically applied to prevent a collision or reduce collision speed.

Forward-collision warning (FCW) – Visual and/or audible warning intended alert the driver and prevent a collision.

Blind-spot warning (BSW) – Visual and/or audible notification of vehicle in blind spot. The system may provide an additional warning if you use your turn signal when there is a car next to you in another lane.

Rear cross-traffic warning – Visual, audible, or haptic notification of object or vehicle out of rear camera range, but could be moving into it.

Rear Automatic Emergency Braking (Rear AEB) – Brakes are automatically applied to prevent backing into something behind the vehicle. This could be triggered by the rear cross-traffic system, or other sensors on the vehicle.

Lane-departure warning (LDW) – Visual, audible, or haptic warning to alert the driver when they are crossing lane markings.

Lane-keeping assist (LKA) – Automatic corrective steering input or braking provided by the vehicle when crossing lane markings.

Lane Centering Assist – Continuous active steering to stay in between lanes (active steer, autosteer, etc.)

Adaptive Cruise Control – Adaptive cruise uses lasers, radar, cameras, or a combination of these systems to keep a constant distance between you and the car ahead, automatically maintaining a safe following distance. If highway traffic slows, some systems will bring the car to a complete stop and automatically come back to speed when traffic gets going again, allowing the driver to do little more than pay attention and steer.

Source: Posted March 08, 2017; retrieved March 28, 2017 from: http://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/cars-with-advanced-safety-systems/

The proper motivation and inspiration from this car crash in the foregoing – and the lost of life of the Russell Family – should be a commitment for Research-and-Development of these and other highway safety automation initiatives, and then their deployment in the Caribbean.

This is the commitment of the Go Lean movement.

Previously, these innovations were detailed as being impactful to this roadmap to elevate the Caribbean. See this sample list of previous blog-commentaries that delved into the details and the resultant issues:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10869	Bill Gates: ‘Tax the Robots’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8650	Now it’s Detroit’s turn to rescue Silicon Valley
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8294	‘Olli’ – The Self-Driving Public Transit Vehicle
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3384	Plea to Detroit: Less Tech, Please
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673	Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

Martyrs

No one wanted to lose a family like this. This is just an unforeseen occurrence that proves that “bad things happen to good people”; (this point coincides with the Bible’s edict at Ecclesiastes 9:11) But can we use this tragedy as inspiration to power the Caribbean community for progress.

Indeed we can!

The Go Lean book asserts that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste” (Page 8).

We can memorialize this family, and their tragedy, as stimuli to double-down on the Research-and-Development community ethos, to innovate collision avoidance systems as described above. The Go Lean book defines community ethos as …

… “the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period”.

The book proceeds to identify a number of community ethos (and related strategies) that the Caribbean region needs to adopt. Consider this sample list:

Impact Research & Development (Page 30)
Promote Intellectual Property (Page 29)
Bridge the Digital Divide (Page 31)
Impact Social Media ((Page 111)
Foster Technology (Page 197)
Improve Transportation (Page 205)
Develop a Caribbean Auto Industry (Page 206)

The Russell Family can be “martyrs” for progress … and innovation!

Rest in Peace Nathan, Lynda, La’Nyah, Natayah, and Nathan Jr.. You will not be forgotten!

🙁

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

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

——————–

Appendix – Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and of alternative finance. In 2015, it was estimated that worldwide over US$34 billion was raised this way.^[1]^[2]

Although the concept can also be executed through mail-order subscriptions, benefit events, and other methods, it is now often performed via Internet-mediated registries.^[3] This modern crowdfunding model is generally based on three types of actors: the project initiator who proposes the idea and/or project to be funded, individuals or groups who support the idea, and a moderating organization (the “platform”) that brings the parties together to launch the idea.^[4]

Crowdfunding has been used to fund a wide range for-profit entrepreneurial ventures such as artistic and creative projects, medical expenses, travel, or community-oriented social entrepreneurship projects.^[5]
Source: Retrieved March 28, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

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ENCORE – Legacy of the ‘Buffalo Soldier’ Song

Posted on March 28, 2017 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Now” is always the right time for great Reggae Music.

The world misses Bob Marley. Not only was he a great musician and entertainer, but a great educator as well. How many people in the Caribbean knew about the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ in America before he recorded this song?

(Interesting tidbit: the song was released in 1983, after his death in 1981).

This Caribbean family got to stretch our knowledge and appreciation of American History and the Buffalo Soldier in our recent summer vacation to Washington, D.C.. We enjoyed this monument to the original segregated African-American fighting men in the US Army.

Related blog-commentary – A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Principle over Principal

This consideration is presented with an ENCORE of this previous blog-commentary from March 28, 2016 – exactly 1 year ago today. See the previous submission here-now:

————-

Title: A Lesson in History: Buffalo Soldier

Welcome to the New World.

“Fighting on arrival; fighting for survival“. – Lyrics from song Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley.

This is the experience of the Pan-African Diaspora in all of the Americas. Truly a sad origin history, “Coming to America” as slaves. And yet, the African race has proliferated in much of the Americas, most notably in the Caribbean, where the one-time slaves emerged as the majority population in 29 of the 30 member-states; (the only other New World non-Caribbean country with a majority Black population is Brazil). After a few turns in world political developments, these majorities now run the governments in most of these Caribbean countries.

It took “blood, sweat and tears” to reach this accomplishment. This connotes military action, warfare and sacrifice. The most prominent of Black fighting men in the history of the New World is the Buffalo Soldier.

Caribbean Music legend Bob Marley is to be credited for educating much of the world with this history. In his landmark song Buffalo Soldier; he sang their praises – see lyrics in Appendix A.

See the VIDEO-AUDIO of the song here:

VIDEO-AUDIO – Bob Marley Buffalo Soldier – https://youtu.be/IEpSBsUjY-0

Uploaded on May 2, 2011 – This song was released post humorously in 1983, after Bob Marley’s death.

Just who were the Buffalo Soldiers and what are their connections to the Caribbean? See this encyclopedia reference here:

From 1863 to the early 20th century, African American units were utilized by the Army to combat the Native Americans during the Indian Wars.^[14] The most noted among this group were the Buffalo Soldiers:

9th Cavalry Regiment

10th Cavalry Regiment

24th Infantry Regiment

25th Infantry Regiment

This nickname was given to the “Negro Cavalry” by the Native American tribes they fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American regiments formed in 1866. At the end of the U.S. Civil War the army reorganized and authorized the formation of two regiments of black cavalry (the 9th and 10th US Cavalry). Four regiments of infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st US Infantry) were formed at the same time. In 1869, the four infantry regiments were merged into two new ones (the 24th and 25th US Infantry). These units were composed of black enlisted men commanded by white officers such as Benjamin Grierson, and occasionally, an African-American officer such as Henry O. Flipper. The “Buffalo Soldiers” served a variety of roles along the frontier from building roads to guarding the U.S. mail.^[15]

These regiments served at a variety of posts in the southwest United States and Great Plains regions. During this period they participated in most of the military campaigns in these areas and earned a distinguished record. Thirteen enlisted men and six officers from these four regiments earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars.^[16]

After the Indian Wars ended in the 1890s, the regiments continued to serve and participated in the Spanish–American War (including the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba), where five more Medals of Honor were earned.^[17]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_African_Americans#Indian_Wars retrieved March 28, 2019.

All of the New World , despite their European colonizers – Dutch, English, French, Portuguese or Spanish – was developed on the same economic policy: slavery!

This ugly institution was so entrenched that only a model war would effectuate its abolition permanently. That war was waged in the United States (1861 – 1865) as a proxy to all the New World territories. Shortly thereafter, the institution was abolished in the remaining countries that still maintained it in the region, i.e. Brazil. (The US was not the first; that distinction belong to Haiti, which endured a slave rebellion and battles for emancipation; the Spanish colonies followed shortly there-after, then the French, then the British).

The Buffalo Soldiers are most noteworthy because they fought for dignity for all the African race in the New World, though this was not pronounced in their commission, only now gleaned from their legacy. See Trailer below for one of the many movies.

The movement and underlying book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that Caribbean people must now consider the weight of history and re-assign these islands and coastal states as their only homeland. As a people, the African Diaspora have fought and paid for these lands; they have shed “blood, sweat and tears” for their New World homelands. The ancestral home of Africa is no longer relevant. We now need to “prosper where we are planted” here in the Caribbean. Bob Marley said it best:

I mean it, when I analyze the stench –
To me it makes a lot of sense:
How the Dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier,
And he was taken from Africa, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

The freedoms we enjoy today, were not free!

They cost our ancestors and predecessors all they had to offer: a full measure of sacrifice and devotion. They gave of their sons and daughters. This is the important lesson to learn in considering the history of these American fighting men. As our ancestors and predecessors, they paid a steep price – “they punched our tickets” – for progress. We must regard their sacrifice.

This is one reason why we must adopt a National Sacrifice community ethos. This vital quality has been missing for far too long. This is why the region has such a deplorable abandonment rate: no [perception of] pain, no gain; no comprehension of sacrifice, no sense of value.

As a region, we must do better. We must discourage the emigration, brain drain and further societal abandonment.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean and accompanying blogs provide lessons from history in considering the fighting men of the American Civil War. The Caribbean region’s debilitating societal abandonment rate – 70 percent of college educated had fled for foreign shores – is proof positive of the absence and lack of this National Sacrifice ethos.

Early in the Go Lean book, this need for careful review of the history of slavery was acknowledged and then placed into perspective with this pronouncement (Declaration of Interdependence – Page 10):

As the history of our region and the oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous people is duly documented, there is no one alive who can be held accountable for the prior actions, and so we must put aside the shackles of systems of repression to instead formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny.

As the colonial history of our region was initiated to create economic expansion opportunities for our previous imperial masters, the structures of government instituted in their wake have not fostered the best systems for prosperity of the indigenous people.

So the consideration of the Go Lean book, is to identify and correct all bad community ethos – the fundamental spirit of our culture – and to foster positive community ethos (such as National Sacrifice and deferred gratification). This point was also pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13) with this statement:

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

This book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to spearhead the elevation of Caribbean society. The book advocates learning lessons from many events and concepts in history, covering all societal engines: economics, security and governance. The roadmap seeks to reboot these engines to ensure that all Caribbean stakeholders have the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with no abusive exploitation of any ethnic group; no suppression, repression or oppression of any people: African or not!

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to employ “best-practices” to impact the CU prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

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

The Go Lean book stresses the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reboot, reform and transform the eco-systems of Caribbean society. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact a Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Enact a Defense Pact with Militia and Naval Forces	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Implementation – Assemble – Incorporating all the *existing* regional military organizations	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean	Page 118
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – Confederation Without Sovereignty	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights	Page 220

There are other lessons for the Caribbean to learn from considering history; the following previous blog/commentaries apply:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7682	Frederick Douglass: Role Model for Single Cause – Abolition
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6722	A Lesson in History – After the Civil War: Birthright Mandates
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720	A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Principle over Principal
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6718	A Lesson in History – Before the Civil War: Compromising Human Rights
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5333	A Lesson in History – Legacies: Cause and Effect
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5183	A Lesson in History – Cinco De Mayo
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5123	A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Zimbabwe -vs- South Africa
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971	A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Truth & Consequence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4935	A Lesson in History: the ‘Grand Old Party’ Abolition Roots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480	A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2297	A Lesson in History: Booker T versus Du Bois
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531	A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago Today – World War I
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789	A Lesson in History: America’s War on the Caribbean

The concepts in this commentary are more profound than just the lyrics of a reggae song. It is bigger than music, it relates to life and legacy. The recent legacy of the Afro-Caribbean community is one of dysfunction and abandonment. But the ancient history – Buffalo Soldiers in particular – should give us pause and cause to reflect and reform our commitment to a National Sacrifice ethos.

No appreciation, no sacrifice; no sacrifice, no victory!

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines, urging the adoption of new positive community ethos, such as National Sacrifice. This is an expression of deferred gratification, choosing to focus more on the future than on the present. The Go Lean book relates that the “African Diaspora experience in the New World is one of future gratification, as the generations that sought freedom from slavery knew that their children, not them, would be the beneficiaries of that liberty. This ethos continued with subsequent generations expecting that their “children” would be more successful in the future than the parents may have been”. Deferred gratification is a form of sacrifice.

We should value this sacrifice. Such gratitude makes our community better, more resilient and more long suffering.

Now is the time for all stakeholders in the Caribbean to show proper appreciation for the sacrifices by leaning-in to this roadmap for Caribbean empowerment. All the empowerments in this roadmap require people to fight for their homeland. We can learn so much from the Buffalo Soldiers:

Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.

If you know your history,
Then you would know where you coming from,
Then you wouldn’t have to ask me,
Who the ‘eck do I think I am.

The Go Lean quest is simple, learn from history and work to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

———–

Appendix A – Song Buffalo Soldier Lyrics – Sang by Bob Marley

Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta:
There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,
Stolen from Africa, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

I mean it, when I analyze the stench –
To me it makes a lot of sense:
How the Dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier,
And he was taken from Africa, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta –
Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America.

If you know your history,
Then you would know where you coming from,
Then you wouldn’t have to ask me,
Who the ‘eck do I think I am.

I’m just a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,
Stolen from Africa, brought to America,
Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America.

Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Buffalo Soldier troddin’ through the land, wo-ho-ooh!
Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand,
Troddin’ through the land, yea-hea, yea-ea.

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America;
Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.

Singing, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!

Troddin’ through San Juan in the arms of America;
Troddin’ through Jamaica, a Buffalo Soldier# –
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival:
Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta.

Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy! [fadeout]
———–

Appendix B – VIDEO – Buffalo Soldiers Trailer 1997 – https://youtu.be/Om_BrJhu4gQ

Published on Mar 9, 2015 – Buffalo Soldiers Trailer 1997; Director: Charles Haid; Starring: Danny Glover, Bob Gunton, Carl Lumbly, Tom Bower, Gabriel Casseus.
Official Content From Warner Home Video

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See Something, Say Something … Do Something

Posted on March 23, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Locations, Social

The conventional wisdom – advice to the public – for counter-terrorism is “See Something, Say Something”.

For all innocent victims, a 3rd step would be greatly appreciated, though not recommended, it is truly beneficial if that advice can be extended to “See Something, Say Something, Do Something”.

This was definitely the experience recently in the Caribbean island-state of St. Lucia when a couple of tourists were accosted-mugged by a crook-bully-nefarious-character and people in the general public came to their aid. See the story here:

Title: Citizens arrest man who attacks visitor
Concerned citizens today arrested a man who attacked a visitor on Jeremie Street near the Castries market, according to an eyewitness report.

The eyewitness told the Times that the incident occurred at around noon.

It is reported that the female visitor was in the company of her husband when she was attacked by a man, said to be in his thirties, in an apparent robbery attempt.

According to the eyewitness, a local man who witnessed the incident intervened and grabbed hold of the attacker who managed to free himself and flee.

However, according to the eyewitness, other citizens gave chase and eventually held the attacker.

The eyewitness said he was part of the group that effected the arrest and eventually handed the attacker over to the police.

Source: Saint Lucia Times Daily Newspaper – Posted 03-12-2017; retrieved 03/22/2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/03/12/citizens-arrest-man-who-attacks-visitor

Photos of the Indoor & Outdoor Castries Market:

This foregoing article belies a serious point of concern: never under-estimate a robber; they may have a gun and can inflict harm on “wanna-be-heroes”. This is why the bravery of that “one local man” in the foregoing story is even more impressive. The unnamed heroes in this case extended protection with no regard for their own safety. But despite this benevolence, it is out of place for civilians to put themselves in harm’s way to ensure public safety. That is the job of the country’s security forces.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean explains the Social Contract as where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. The formal institutions of the State (Police and Militia) are expected to deliver the security solutions, not some Good Samaritans. So under this Social Contract, it is expected that the people will “See Something, Say Something”, and then the State’s security apparatus would “Do Something”.

There is dysfunction in the Caribbean in the delivery of the Social Contract. So there is the need for many of the best-practices here-in for Caribbean people and institutions to apply to improve this experience.

There is the need to reform and transform the societal engines, the economic, security and governing eco-systems. The Go Lean book (Page 23) details many economic empowerments; and then makes this revelation:

… with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent.

This roadmap for Caribbean integration declares that peace, security and public safety is tantamount to economic prosperity. This is why an advocacy for the Greater Good must be championed as a community ethos. A prime precept is that it is “better to know than to not know” – this implies that privacy is secondary to security. A secondary precept is that bad things will happen to good people and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The branding Trade Federation emphasizes the economic mandate of the CU; but there must also be a security apparatus enveloping the economic engines. Tourism is the primary economic driver in the region. So muggings-robberies of tourists are unbecoming. The communities must mitigate the risks and assuage all threats against tourists. What strategies, tactics and implementations does the Go Lean/CU roadmap envision for this quest? Consider this sample:

Community Ethos – Security Principles	Page 22
Ways to Improve Sharing – Mobile Command Centers	Page 35
Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Ways to Impact Justice	Page 177
Ways to Reduce Crime	Page 178
Ways to Improve for Gun Control	Page 179
Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Ways to Mitigate Terrorism – Bullying	Page 181
Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis	Page 182
Ways to Improve Animal Husbandry – Security Dogs et al	Page 185
Ways to Enhance Tourism – Tourist Hate Crimes Sentences	Page 190
Ways to Impact the Prison-Industrial Complex	Page 211

The CU‘s efforts will be supplemental to the individual member-states, like St. Lucia in the foregoing news story. These states will deputize the CU‘s security agencies – i.e. CariPol and the Naval Authority – to aid-abet the police and military forces to better deliver on the security mandates in the Social Contract. This intent was among the motivation for the Go Lean book in the first place. This is related as the Prime Directives, with these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate internal and external threats.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The purpose of these prime directives is to elevate Caribbean society. We cannot do this alone. The challenges befalling the Caribbean region are too big for any one member-state alone. We have an interdependence within the region. See these statements from the formal Declaration of Interdependence, at the start of the book (Page 12):

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

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

The Go Lean book provides exact details for this roadmap. Consider these points from Page 178 – headlines only here, except for #5 and #8 – from this section, entitled:

10 Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market to leverage for Regional Threats
2	Deploy the Caribbean Police (CariPol)
3	Deploy a Regional Security Intelligence Bureau
4	Install an optimized Prison Industrial Complex
5	Equip local police with advanced technologies The CU will provide grants to equip local police with advanced technologies, including video (dashboard cameras) and audio transmission, GPS tracking, and mobile computing systems to optimize community policing. The advanced systems also include anklet monitoring systems for non-violent offenders and suspects out on bail.
6	Provide Witness Protection at the Regional Level
7	Enable the Private Industry of First Responders and Bounty Hunters
8	Add Hate Crime Qualifiers on Sentencing Criminal offences against “special” protected classes get extended sentences. This could include senior citizens, race-based crime, sexual biases, and even *crimes against tourists, and the repatriates. Though not necessarily preventing crime, this provision sends the message to perpetrators that undermining the Greater Good* is dealt with severely.
9	Roll-out a regional Youth Crime Awareness and Prevention
10	Reform the Dynamics of the Death Penalty – introduce Lethal Injection

Whatever the motivation for the crimes …

1. Need; 2. Greed; 3. Honor; 4. Justice; 5. Terrorism

… the Go Lean roadmap anticipates a forthright response and solution.

This point has been previously elaborated on in these prior blog-commentaries; see sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on Terrorism – (Junior Partner of ‘Bullying’)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485	A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Street Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7179	SME Declaration: ‘Change Leaders in Crime Fight’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5307	8th Violent Crime Warning to Bahamas Tourists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4308	911 Emergency Telephone Systems: Art, Science, Issues
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713	Model of Regional Border Control
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2782	Red Light Traffic Cameras: Art, Science, Issues
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965	America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean Regional Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1832	American Drug-arrested inmates to be deported – Look-out Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554	Status of Forces Agreement for Regional Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487	Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535	Remembering and learning from Boston’s Terror Attack
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica received World Bank funds to help in crime fight

The quest of the Go Lean movement is to protect the economic engines from any “bad actors”. These ones will always emerge; we must always be ready. This is the very essence of the Greater Good as a community ethos. This is a BIG motivation for the planners of this new Caribbean eco-system. The Go Lean book (Page 37) defines it as:

“… the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”. – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

This … Greater Good philosophy also synchronizes with a principle from the Bible (Judges Chapter 4:17-22) with the actions of Jael to save her village rather than give refuge to Canaanite Army Commander Sisera. Her actions were celebrated by the prophetess Deborah, and esteemed as an example of a godly woman executing judgment for the Greater Good, even though at the expense of one person.

Tourism, at present, is the primary economic driver that feeds the Caribbean communities in general and St. Lucia in particular. (See the promotion VIDEO in the Appendix below). We need to not undermine it with selfish, felonious actions by a few “bad actors” imperiling the livelihoods and well-being of the greater community.

So now imagine the foregoing scenario at the Castries Market with the Go Lean/CU empowerments in place:

Smartphone mobile apps to notify the crime-fighting authorities.
CCTV Camera surveillance for the “high tourist” areas.
Cruise Ship Passenger Monitoring (with Chip-embedded ID cards).
Closer monitoring of known “bad actors” (parolees, bailants) for predictive modeling.
Satellite/GPS monitoring of traffic patterns for “chase” and recovery of suspects.
K-9 Police Dogs for Security Mitigations

Being prepared – the goal of the Go Lean/CU roadmap – helps us to make our Caribbean communities better places to live, work and play. We urge everyone in the Caribbean to lean-in to this plan; if you see something, say something, and then do something; leaning-in will be doing something. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————–

Appendix VIDEO – St Lucia Top Ten Things To Do, by Donna Salerno Travel – https://youtu.be/ulNDWzJcRlE

Published on Nov 27, 2013 – St Lucia Top Ten Things To Do, is a tour of the most popular activities and highlights.
St. Lucia is the type of island that travelers dream about ~ a small, lush tropical gem that is still relatively unknown. In natural beauty, St. Lucia seems like an island plucked from the South Pacific and set down in the Caribbean.
Top Ten Things To Do on Vacation:
1) The Pitons
2) National Rain Forest
3) Sulphur Springs
4) Scuba and Snorkel
5) Jazz Festival
6) Pigeon Island National Park
7) Anse Chastanet Beach
8) Duty Free Shopping (i.e. Castries Market)
9) Horseback Riding on the Beach
10) Rodney Bay and Gros Islet

Category: Travel & Events
License: Standard YouTube License

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White is Right – Not!

Posted on March 21, 2017 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

White Supremacy has been “weighed in the balance and found to be wanting“, invalid and fallacious.

Yet still, in many circles around the world in general and the Caribbean in particular, there is the impression that “White is Right“.

Why does this fallacy proliferate and how can we dispel this false notion?

The origins are tied to a religious orthodoxy. In a previous blog-commentary, it was related that the Universal Catholic Church …

… permitted trade with Barbary merchants, in which foodstuffs would be given in exchange for slaves who could then be converted to Christianity.^[11] This was the de jure authorization of the Slave Trade.

From this origin, the foundation of the New World was established.

All stakeholders have now renounced this history. It is accepted that “Whiteness” is only a social construct, a product of a bad history in social development; (see the AUDIO-PODCAST in the Appendix below). Though it is a different world today, some things still linger; think Colorism where “White is Right” on one end of the spectrum, while all things non-White is … “Less Than“.

One more lingering item is language. The 5 major languages in the New World are English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish – all from previous European colonizers. One other language not listed above but that held sway over the New World was the “dead language” of Latin. This was the ancient language of the Roman Empire, as described here:

Undoubtedly, Latin is the language that has the most longevity in the Roman Liturgy: It has been in use for over sixteen centuries, that is to say, from the time when the official liturgical language of the Church went from Greek to Latin – a change completed under Pope Damasus (+384). The official liturgical books of the Roman Rite are still published in Latin today (editio typica). – Vatican Office of Liturgical Celebrations

So “White is Right” was a natural extension from all the religious activities that transpired in the dead language of a European culture, White Romans. To the simple mind, this logic flowed:

Language is White

God is White

White must be Right

This orthodoxy or liturgy continued, with Latin as the only language of the Roman Catholic Church … until 1963.

What happened then and why is it deemed that this change actually changed the world? See the full article here on the Second Vatican Council, informally known as “Vatican II”; this addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world^[3]:

Title: Vatican II Changed The Catholic Church — And The World
By: John Pope, Religion News Service

Fifty years ago on Thursday (Oct. 11), hundreds of elaborately robed leaders strode into St. Peter’s Basilica in a massive display of solemn ecclesiastical pomp. It signaled the start of a historic three-year assembly that would change the way members of the world’s largest Christian denomination viewed themselves, their church and the rest of the world.

It was the first day of the Second Vatican Council, more popularly known as Vatican II, which was designed to assess the church’s role in a rapidly changing world. Leading the prelates was Pope John XXIII, who said frequently that he convened the council because he thought it was time to open the windows and let in some fresh air.

For many Catholics, the air came in at gale force.

As a result of Vatican II, priests started celebrating Mass in the language of the countries in which they lived, and they faced the congregation, not only to be heard and seen but also to signal to worshippers that they were being included because they were a vital component of the service.

“It called for people not to have passive participation but active participation,” said New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who chairs the Committee on Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Prayer is not supposed to be a performance. We’re supposed to be actively participating.”

The changes didn’t stop when Mass ended. As time went by, many nuns shucked their voluminous habits in favor of clothes similar to those worn by the people they served. And men and women in religious orders started taking on causes, even risking arrest, when they spoke out in favor of civil rights and workers’ rights and against the war in Vietnam.

Such changes represented an about-face from the church’s defensive approach to the world before Vatican II, said Christopher Baglow, a theology professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

“It wasn’t that the church wasn’t committed to human dignity before Vatican II,” he said. “With Vatican II, the church began to look closely at the ways with which modern thinkers tended to promote human dignity and showed how they and the Gospels are complementary.”

With Vatican II, the Catholic Church sent out the message that it was part of the modern world, said Thomas Ryan, director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry. “Not against, not above, not apart, but in the modern world,” he said. “The church sought to engage, not condemn.”

The council documents say there must be a conversation between the church and the world, Aymond said.

“The church, by its teaching and by its discipleship, has something to say to the world. At the same time, the world is saying something to the church.”

“We can’t just say we’re not going to be involved in these conversations,” he said. “As the church, we have to be in conversation with others who agree and disagree with us.”

This shift included the Catholic Church’s attitude toward other religions. Before Vatican II, Catholics weren’t supposed to visit other denominations’ houses of worship. “Catholics looked down on other religions and thought of them as condemned to hell,” Ryan said.

But one document from the council acknowledged that these disparate faiths had a common belief in God, said Ryan, who described it as nothing less than “a revolutionary approach.”

Perhaps the biggest of these changes came in the church’s approach to Judaism. Before Vatican II, Jews were stigmatized as the people who killed Jesus Christ. That changed with the council, when the Catholic Church acknowledged its Jewish roots and Jews’ covenant with God, Ryan said.

“It had the effect that the sun has when it comes up and interrupts the night,” said Rabbi Edward Cohn of New Orleans’ TempleSinai, whose best friend as a child had to get permission from the archbishop to attend Cohn’s bar mitzvah. “It was no less dramatic than that. It provided an entirely new day. It changed everything.”

Not all the changes brought about by Vatican II have been welcomed, and many would say there haven’t been enough changes regarding the status of women. This spring, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog launched a full-scale overhaul of the largest umbrella group of American nuns, accusing the group of taking positions that undermine church teaching and promoting several “radical feminist themes” that are incompatible with Catholic teachings.

Although Vatican II was a catalyst for a great deal of change, it didn’t happen in a bubble, Aymond said. The 1960s was a decade of change, with protests against racism, war, sexual behavior, the status quo and authority in general.

“If that’s going on in the world and in society, that’s bound to affect the church because we’re both a divine and a human institution,” Aymond said.

“Vatican II isn’t about replacing what the church is,” said Baglow, the theologian at Notre Dame Seminary. “It’s about helping it be more vitally what God intended it to be in the first place.”

(John Pope writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)

Source: HuntingtonPost Posted Oct 12, 2012; retrieved March 19, 2017 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/vatican-ii-catholic-church-changes_n_1956641.html

Accordingly, it took something drastic to force this change on Christian (Catholic) society. Such an entrenched society would need a revolution to change.

As detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 241 – Bottom Line on European Colonialism) the revolutionary event was World War II – upheaval of the European continent (mostly Christian nations), plus 55 million deaths. That global war was a watershed event that led to revolutionary change amongst the European powers – and their overseas territories – including their religious institutions. The changes included:

Decolonization
Human Rights Empowerments
Religious Orthodoxy Neutralization

These changes brought implementation challenges; many of which we are still contending with. These efforts belie Caribbean society. Our focus in this commentary is the historicity of the Second Vatican Council and its effect on the “White is Right” fallacy. See this excerpt here from Wikipedia:

The Vatican II formally opened under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1965.

… the most important and essential message of the council is “the Paschal Mystery as the center of what it is to be Christian and therefore of the Christian life, the Christian year, the Christian seasons”.^[5] Other changes which followed the council included the widespread use of vernacular languages in the Mass instead of Latin, the subtle disuse of ornate clerical regalia, the revision of Eucharistic prayers, the abbreviation of the liturgical calendar, the ability to celebrate the Mass versus populum (with the officiant facing the congregation), as well as ad orientem (facing the “East” and the Crucifix), and modern aesthetic changes encompassing contemporary Catholic liturgical music and artwork. Many of these changes remain divisive among the Catholic faithful.^[6]

Of those who took part in the council’s opening session, four have become popes: Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini, who on succeeding John XXIII took the name Pope Paul VI; Bishop Albino Luciani, the future John Paul I; Bishop Karol Wojtyła, who became John Paul II; and Joseph Ratzinger, present as a theological consultant, who became Benedict XVI.^[7][8][9]

The consequences from Vatican II were impactful!

Consider this one quotation regarding the Second Vatican Council recommendation henceforth related to the horrors of war:

In addition to general spiritual guidance, the Second Vatican Council produced very specific recommendations, such as in the document Gaudiem et Spes: “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.”^[48]

The concept or fallacy of “White is Right” was never an agenda item of Vatican II. The same as White Supremacy was never an official doctrine of the Church, only a bad community ethos among its adherents. The Go Lean book defines “community ethos” as …

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

It is possible to “weed out” bad community ethos and debunk societal fallacies. Notice here, how these previous blog-commentaries have detailed how to “weed out” some identified bad community ethos:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10629	Learning from the Bad Ethos of McCarthyism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10532	Learning from Bad Stereotypes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on ‘Terrorism’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10220	Waging a Successful War on Rent
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10218	Waging a Successful War on Stupidity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10216	Waging a Successful War on Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5529	American Defects: Inventory of Crony-Capitalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527	American Defects: Racism – Not Over!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3780	No Sacrifice; No Victory

Debunking fallacies has also been a frequent past-time for the Go Lean movement; consider these previous blog-commentaries depicting this theme:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8381	Economic Fallacy – Casino Currency – US Dollars?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8379	Economic Fallacy – Self-regulation of the Centers of Economic Activity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8377	Economic Fallacy – Phillips Curve: Fallacy of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373	Economic Fallacy – Student Loans As Investments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8370	Economic Fallacy – Austerity: Dangerous Idea?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8351	Economic Fallacy – Independence: Hype or Hope

There are a lot of manifestations from the bad “White is Right” ethos.

Two momentous expressions are presented here: 1. Housing Discrimination and 2. White Flight.

Housing Discrimination – Many urban communities suffered from a legacy of racial segregation; as those patterns started to breakdown after World War II and minorities integrated previous White neighborhoods, there were many upheavals and protests. See this sample blog-commentary highlighting the bad trend in American northern cities. In addition, the experience was the same for many Caribbean immigrants to European cities; see a previous blog-commentary here with that theme.
White Flight – Decolonization meant a lot of countries that were previously ruled by White minorities came suddenly under a Black-or-Brown majority rule. Many dysfunctions ensued. See this sample blog-commentary highlighting the lessons-learned from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Zimbabwe ascended to majority-rule in 1980; there was an immediate movement of nationalization – forfeiting and seizing commercial farms and mines. This turned out disastrously for this country. Next door in South Africa, the strategy, tactics and implementation was different. This latter country ascended to majority rule in 1994; the first President there, Nelson Mandela saw the futility of this nationalization strategy amongst the precedent African nations that sought independence, so he pursued an alternate approach to assuage White Flight and keep the capital and skilled labor in the country. But the continuation of the status quo of the White minority permeated the White is Right ethos. This sample blog-commentary depicted how majority rule therefore brought no revolutionary change for the average man there in South Africa.

Considering these case studies, we see lessons from history; we get a new appreciation for best-practices in “weeding out” bad community ethos … in the Caribbean region. This is the quest of the Go Lean book, to serve as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); to spearhead the elevation of Caribbean society. The book seeks to reboot the region’s economic, security and governing engines, hypothesizing that the European colonial stewards did not have societal efficiency in mind when they structure administrations of the individual “overseas territories” in this region; (many times, their attitudes reflected the defective White Supremacy fallacy).

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

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

The Go Lean book, all 370 pages, stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean society. Imagine the messaging campaigns.

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines. It is out-of-scope to impact the Vatican and the religious orthodoxy of Europe; our focus is only here at home in the Caribbean. Already we are advocating for the Greater Good ethos as opposed to orthodoxy. Our former European colonial masters now realize the futility of the actions of their ancestors and predecessors who advocated for White Supremacy and White is Right; They are now battling to try and weed-out the last vestiges of racism and ethnic supremacy in their society.

In conclusion, “White is NOT Right“. There is good and bad in every ethnicity.

The quest of the Go Lean movement is just to move forward, not to prosecute any “bad actors” from previous generations. We cannot go back in time, so we do not want to be shackled to the past. Instead, we want to move forward. Our 21^st century quest is to do the heavy-lifting to “weed out” the bad, and bring on the good – the Greater Good – to make our Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play. We urged everyone in the Caribbean to lean-in to this roadmap for change. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————-

Appendix AUDIO-VIDEO – What Is Whiteness? – https://the1a.org/segments/2017-02-27-what-is-whiteness/

Posted Feb 27 2017 – Biological races do not exist. So why do we continue to rely on race as a key defining factor in our society? A new crop of scholars and artists have turned their attention to examinations of those who identify as white. We talk with some of them about what “whiteness” is — and isn’t — and what the dangers are in the context of a renewed call for white supremacy in America.

Guests

Sandra Kim founder of Everyday Feminism and Compassionate Activism.
Tim Wise anti-racism activist; author, “Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority” and “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.”
Mat Johnson associate professor of English at the University of Houston; author of “Pym” and “Loving Day.”
Carol Anderson professor of African-American Studies at Emory University; author of “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide.”
LeRonn P. Brooks Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Lehman College and Curator for Claudia Rankine’s The Racial Imaginary Institute.

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Day of Happiness – Music-style; Miami-style; JITG-style – ENCORE

Posted on March 18, 2017 in Ethos, Social, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Welcome to Miami – English

Bienvenido a Miami – Español

Bienvenue à Miami – Français

Welkom in Miami – Langue Néerlandaise

Welcome to a ‘Day of Happiness’, the International Day of Happiness to be exact, a few days early. (The International Day of Happiness is celebrated every March by the United Nations; this year on March 20th). The celebration in this commentary is being presented a few days early to correspond with the annual Jazz in the Gardens (JITG) Music Festival in Miami Gardens, Florida.

As previously related, Miami is a frontier city in the United States that draws its success from the impact of Caribbean cultures. This event is a music festival that appeals more to the African-American community from around the US and the Caribbean region. This allows us to celebrate the “Joy, Pain, Sunshine and Rain” of music and Miami. A good time is to be had by all attendees – a ‘Day of Happiness’ for each day in this elated weekend. The event, in its 12th year now in 2017, has proven to be one of the most growing music festivals in the world – the 2015 event saw a record 73,000 attendees. See the music-artist line-up here for just one day (Saturday) of the 3-day JITG festival:

Click on photo to Enlarge

In many previous years, the musical artist/group Frankie Beverly and Maze performed as the final performer of the festival; their classic anthem – “Joy. Pain. Sunshine. Rain.” – is the theme of this previous blog from March 20, 2016 (for last year’s International Day of Happiness); it is being Encored here:

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

Encore Title: Joy. Pain. Sunshine. Rain.

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean strives to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. Having success in this quest would mean more joy (happiness) for the stakeholders (residents and visitors alike) of the tropical sunshine. We also try to soften the pain of day-to-day life, for “in every life, a little rain must fall”.

“Joy, Pain, Sunshine and Rain” – Sounds familiar, right? It is the title and chorus of a popular Rhythm & Blues song by the Grammy Award winning band Frankie Beverly and Maze; see the VIDEO-AUDIO here:

VIDEO-AUDIO: Frankie Beverly And Maze – Joy And Pain – https://youtu.be/KNuKMPeOdfM

Uploaded on Oct 31, 2011 – {DISCLAIMER}
No Copyright Intended. This Song Belongs To It Respective Owners.
Please Support The Artist By Buying Their Songs/Album – “Joy and Pain” by Maze Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

Art imitates life and life imitates art …

Music is a viable approach for forging change in society. Consider these popular quotations:

“Music soothes the savage beast”.

“A great song can change the world”.

There are a lot of famous quotes alluding to the power of music, but here’s an old favorite:

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” — Plato

Consider this list where music (songs & concerts) has changed the world in past campaigns:

1
Bob Dylan: Times They Are A-Changin’ – 1960’s Civil Rights Anthem

2
Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief – Telethon on Jan 22, 2010

3
“Sun City” – 1985 Anti-Apartheid Group Song and Album

4
Bob Marley and the Wailers: “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” – 1975 song

5
K’naan: “Wavin’ Flag” – 2010 Soccer World Cup anthem advocating rights for refugees

6
Live Aid – 1985 “simul”-concerts in London & Philadelphia for famine relief in Ethiopia

7
46664 Concerts – (Mandela’s Prison #) – 2003 advocacy against HIV/AIDS in South Africa

8
John Lennon: “Imagine” – 1971 iconic song for world peace

9
Tsunami Aid: Concert of Hope – 2004 Benefit for Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami

10
The Concert for Bangladesh – 1971 Benefit for refugees from (then) East Pakistan

11
Live 8 – 2005 series of concerts in the G8 member-states for foreign aid to poorest countries

12
Patti Smith: “People Have the Power” – 1988 song condemning war and human rights abuses

13
Farm Aid – Annual concerts starting in 1985 advocating Family Farms

14
Marvin Gaye: “What’s Going On” – 1971 album against the Vietnam war, drugs and poverty

15
Concert in celebration of “It Takes Two” – 2014 effort tackling high teenage pregnancy in Uganda

16
Joni Mitchell: “Big Yellow Taxi” – 1970 hit song addresses environmental concerns

[17]
[“We Are the World” – 1985 super-group (most famous music artists) song by USA for Africa]

Source: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/music-that-has-changed-the-world/ by Christina Nuñez on July 27, 2015. The [] represent this blog’s addition – Number 17 – to the list.

The Go Lean book identifies the art and science of the music business among the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies of the roadmap to elevate the Caribbean’s societal engines. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an initiative to elevate and empower the region, to make the homelands better and happier. From the outset, the book recognized the significance of music and happiness in this roadmap with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):

Preamble. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …

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.

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.

The purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is not music, but rather to make the Caribbean region a better homeland, a happier place to live, work and play. Music can be an effective tool for campaigns … to convey the important message of happiness, to pronounce that “Joy, Pain, Sunshine and Rain” is part-and-parcel of any happiness advocacy.

This Go Lean roadmap calls for heavy-lifting in shepherding important aspects of Caribbean life. In fact, the empowerment roadmap has 3 prime directives that are critical for forging a happy society; they are identified as follows:

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 protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The book describes the CU as a hallmark of a technocracy, with a commitment to efficiency and effectiveness in these societal engines, while still not ignoring principles of fun such as music, arts, heritage and overall happiness. In fact, one of the 144 different missions of the Go Lean/CU roadmap is to promote happiness (10 Ways to Promote Happiness – Page 36).

Happiness is the focus of this commentary…

… thousands of people all around the world took action to support the International Day of Happiness on March 20, 2016. (This is celebrated in March every year). See a related alternate commentary of this year’s advocacy in the Appendix below.

What more can we do?

First, we encourage all to take this “Action for Happiness” pledge:

“I will try to create more happiness in the world around me”.

… this Go Lean/CU effort is “our” attempt to do more … for the Caribbean. The Go Lean/CU roadmap was constructed with the community ethos in mind to make the region more happy, plus the execution of related strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge permanent happiness. The following is a sample of these specific details of the roadmap from the book:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Celebrate the Music, Sports, Art, People and Culture of the Caribbean	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – Cyber-Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 136
Planning – Reasons Why the CU Will Succeed	Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music	Page 231
Appendix – Case Study Managing Copyright Infringements	Page 351

The Go Lean/CU roadmap is optimistic, but it is realistic and pragmatic too. There is the acknowledgement that while music is powerful, the music business on the other hand, not so much. This industry has changed in the light of modern dynamics (technology and globalization), particularly due to Internet & Communications Technologies. The industry needs to adapt accordingly – we need a fully functional music industry. To spur more development in the industrial dimensions of the music business, this roadmap seeks to secure the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region. This point was detailed in these previous Go Lean blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6310	Farewell to ‘Sábado Gigante’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5648	Taylor Swift withholds Album from Apple Music
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5251	Post-Mortem of Inaugural Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City …’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2415	How ‘The Lion King’ productions roared into history
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1909	Music Role Model Berry Gordy – Reflecting & Effecting Change

We need a fully functional music industry because we need music, and the effects of music: the power to reach, soothe and move people. This point was previously detailed in other Go Lean blog/commentaries; a sample follows:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7628	‘A Change Is Gonna Come’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3568	Forging Change: Music Moves People
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2291	Forging Change: The Fun Theory
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Music Man Bob Marley: The legend lives on!

This quest to elevate the Caribbean region is heavy-lifting; more is involved than just saying “Don’t Worry Be Happy“. It is more complex than just playing or listening to music. Though this is serious, it should also be fun; it should be “Joy, Pain, Sunshine and Rain”.

Let’s create a happier world together; a happy world filled with laughter and music – “Joy, Pain, Sunshine and Rain”. And if not the world, then maybe just the Caribbean. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————

Appendix – Title: The best habits to practice to feel happy every day
By: Dr. Christine Brown
Source: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mind/the-best-habits-to-practice-to-feel-happy-every-day/news-story/bd7d414a2b5da7f6f0bd138f0af2c7fc . Posted and retrieved March 20, 2016.

HAPPY International Day of Happiness!

I have a question for you: How often do you feel like a ‘room without a roof’? According to Pharrell Williams, this “space without limit” feeling is universally achievable. But for many of us, limitless happiness takes a little work. So, what are some of the best habits to practice for feeling happy every day?

MANAGE THE DOWN DAYS

You know the days. Those days when you’re telling yourself the ‘I’m not good enough’ story (which we all have, by the way). The days where things seem to go from bad to worse.

It’s very easy to get trapped at this point because many of us start feeling bad for feeling bad. There are enough external pressures to always be ‘up’ and cheerful, without applying internal pressure too. Acknowledge you’re feeling suboptimal, and do a quick stocktake.

If you can change things, take action. If not, do something that helps to calm you, comfort you or cheer you up (even a little bit).

Be gentle with yourself and don’t splatter your down day over your bystanders. Remember, no-one can ‘make’ you feel anything. You have all the controls. Which reminds me …

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK

Much unhappiness is caused by paying way too much attention to our thoughts. Our minds are constantly telling us stories to explain the world around us. Many times these stories are accurate, but unfortunately, whenever we don’t have enough data, our mind just fills in the gaps.

Let’s face it, we really don’t know why they didn’t say hello to us this morning. We really don’t.

As soon as we hear our minds saying things like, “They ALWAYS let me down” or “She NEVER keeps her promises” we need to reach for the metaphorical handbrake.

Get in the habit of asking yourself if that’s strictly true. Remember it’s just a story you’re telling yourself. You can even give the story a name: “Oh, it’s the ‘I do everything around here’ story”. It is very unlikely that things NEVER or ALWAYS happen. There are always exceptions. Remembering to look for (and recognise) the exceptions means much happier states of mind.

KEEP WHAT ‘SPARKS JOY’

In her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo recommends a (once-off) festival of tidying where you gather categories of belongings into ginormous piles, pick items up one-by-one and ask a simple question: “Does it spark joy?”

If it does, you keep it. If it doesn’t, you can let it go.

Just imagine how it would be if every item around you had a happy association. Out would go that hideous fondue set from Aunt Bertha or those pyjamas from your ex. Because, according to Marie Kondo, a gift has done its job once it’s received. The freedom!

Oh, and on a side note, this totally applies to the humans in your life too.

EVERYONE’S DOING BETTER THAN ME

The International Day of Happiness website has a great downloadable resource containing 10 keys to happier living. Each key strategy has been inspired by the latest scientific happiness research and there are some excellent quotes.

The one that I recognised most from working with many different clients is “Don’t compare your insides with other people’s outsides”. This is easy to do.

I remember consulting at a very high-end corporate where everyone was incredibly polished and successful looking. One by one, they would come in and say, “Everyone else is doing okay, but I’m falling apart”.

The thing is, you can’t know what is going on inside someone else, especially if you only have their outside as your guide. Chances are, if you’re finding something difficult or challenging, other people are too. I’m talking work, parenting, studying, teaching, being single, being in a relationship …

WHAT WENT WELL?

One of the pioneers of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, outlines some quick and easy strategies that raise your wellbeing and lower your depression in his book, Flourish.

A simple exercise to do in the 10 minutes before you go to sleep every night is the ‘what-went-well’ exercise. Every night, you write down three things that went well and why they went well (e.g. I finished most of my important tasks today because I took time to plan in the morning or I didn’t yell at my partner this morning because I got up a little earlier and made sure I ate breakfast). This will greatly improve your mood over time.

ROOFLESS ROOMS

According to Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness, up to 40 per cent of our happiness is within our power to change.

Being grateful, taking responsibility, blaming less, learning to forgive and yes, even practising random acts of kindness, all predictably increase our happiness.

Have a happy day and go well everyone!

———-

Dr. Christine Brown is an Inventiologist, Psychologist and Executive Coach.

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Trump’s Vision of the Caribbean: Yawn

Posted on March 17, 2017 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Advice: When people tell you who they are, listen to them.

The new American President, Donald Trump, has announced, proclaimed and repeated that he is “for America First”. Yet the rest of the world seems to be surprised when he promotes policies that ignores, disregards and denigrates foreign people and countries; i.e. banning travel from 7 Muslim countries.

Come on people, the man said who he was and what is important to him. Why are we now surprised with stories like this, it is like he “yawns” at previous American empowerments that affected us in the Caribbean and Latin America – see the following article:

Title: Trump’s Big F-U To The Caribbean, Latin American
By:NAN Editorial Team

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Mar. 17, 2017: Donald Trump released his first “budget blueprint” Thursday morning, providing the clearest glimpse yet at his administration’s war on the so-called “administrative state.” He once again proved his administration cares nothing about the Americas – Latin America or the Caribbean – or the world for that matter. Here are a few big F-U’s from Trump that will see drastic cuts if this budget ever gets green lighted.

1: Cuts to fighting drug trafficking in Latin America & the Caribbean

The administration’s budget proposal calls for some US $1.3 billion in cuts to the US Coast Guard to eliminate its top counter-terrorism unit, the Maritime Security Response Team, and all of its regional Maritime Safety and Security Teams. This means fewer assets to interdict all suspected smuggling boats and to disrupt drug trafficking at sea in the Caribbean, especially.

2: The Inter-American Foundation

Donald Trump has sliced away US $22 million from The Inter-American Foundation which funds grass-roots groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

3: The U.S. Trade and Development Agency

Some $60 million is being cut from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which works atpromoting U.S. exports in the Americas and the world and works to do things such as improve transportation infrastructure and otherwise facilitate trade in dozens of countries.

4: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation promotes U.S. economic investment in the Americas and other developing nations by working with private partners but its budget of $83 million has been swiped away.

5: The Global Climate Change Initiative

The Global Climate Change Initiative that was aimed at supporting climate change fight globally per the Paris climate agreement has been wiped away.

6: The Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund

Gone in the wind will be the US $70 million that allows the US President to “provide humanitarian assistance for unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs worldwide.”

7: Cuts To The State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs

There is a 50 percent cut to the U.S. funding for the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which pays U.S. dues to the United Nations, the OAS and other international and regional groups, according to news reports disclosed by Foreign Policy magazine. The United States currently contributes $50 million a year to the OAS budget which will now mean a drastic cut to that organization’s budget.

Source: News America Now – posted-retrieved March 17, 2017 from: http://www.newsamericasnow.com/trumps-big-f-u-to-the-caribbean-latin-american/

———

About News America Now

News Americas Now is a daily newswire covering the Americas – the Caribbean and Latin America and its Diasporas – whose content is syndicated across 21 plus news sites including on the Caribbean Today in Florida and on Irie Jam radio in New York City – the media company’s headquarters.

It is owned by Hard Beat Communications, a global media company with over a decade of experience on the Caribbean, Caribbean Diaspora and Latin American markets.

News Americas Now and its 20 affiliated sites is the largest dedicated Caribbean news network covering the Caribbean, Caribbean Diaspora and Latin America news, business, travel, politics and executive interviews.

So Donald Trump’s America has it’s own priorities, and its not the Caribbean.

Charity begins at home – Old Adage

The policies of Donald Trump is consistent in being nonchalant towards other causes, not just Caribbean issues. He “yawns” at more than just our priorities. Consider this headline:

Trump To Planet: Drop Dead – see excerpt in the Appendix below.

The days of a Good Neighbor policy emanating from Washington towards Latin America and the Caribbean appears to be over, at least for this administration.

This foregoing article relates to the ongoing theme from the publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, that of America’s War on the Caribbean. Our goal and aspiration is for Caribbean people to take the lead ourselves for Caribbean elevation.

America has problems and challenges. It is only understandable that political leaders may be focusing on empowerments to help the American homeland first. This commentary had previously detailed some of the societal threats; see this list that corresponds with Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign platform:

Jobs	Loss of Jobs-Taxes to ‘Robots’ and Automation
Trade	An Ode to Detroit – Good Luck on Trade!
Making America Great	Going from ‘Good to Great’
Incomes	Mitigating Income Inequality
ISIS	Americans arrested for aiding ISIS
Climate Denial	Capitalism -vs- the Climate
Winning Again	The Erosion of the Middle Class

In addition, the Go Lean movement has previously detailed the American societal defects – institutional racism and Crony-Capitalism. Donald Trump, had previously been known to instigate racial hatred and business-wise, to be an abusive capitalist himself.

Therefore his first budget proposal, laying out his priorities, should be no surprise.

Expecting a liberal immigration policy for Caribbean people into the US?

Don’t count on it!

Really don’t! The US should not be the panacea for Caribbean ills. We have our own issues, problems and challenges that we need to deal with. This has been a consistent theme for the Go Lean book, which posits that one of the greatest threats to Caribbean society is the atrocious emigration rates. We have a high abandonment rate of our citizens to countries in North America (US & Canada) and Western Europe – especially among our professional classes.

Unfortunately, the leanings of Caribbean people to emigrate is still acute. The reasons why our people leave are identified as “Push” and “Pull”; they are fleeing from “home” and seeking “refuge” in countries like the US. “Refuge” is a good word; because of the many societal defects – the issues, problems and challenges referred above – many in the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. On the other hand, the lure of a more prosperous life in foreign countries, drive the “pull” side of the equation; these ones “pulled” are to be considered economic refugees.

See the VIDEO in the Appendix below regarding Caribbean expectations for immigration to the American mainland.

What parasites we are in the Caribbean!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean aspires to economic principles that dictate that “consequences of choices lie in the future”. America has to deal with the consequences of its electoral choice; and we in the Caribbean have to deal with ours – we must have our own vision … and values. This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The goal is to confederate the 30 member-states in the region to form a federal government and effect a turn-around in our region. We should not leave it up to our colonial masters – or the American Super Power – to assuage our problems. We need our own expression of governance, to “formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny” (Page 10).

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to optimize the Caribbean governance. This vision is defined early in the book (Page 12) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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

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

The purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to turn-around the Caribbean in general; we have our own threats and societal defects. The CU thusly has these 3 prime directives, proclaimed as follows:

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.

Yes, empowerments in the security and governing spheres are equally important as economic ones. This focus is wise in the era of Donald Trump as he has expressed – and so far followed through on – an intent to deport our emigrants more readily that run afoul of “the law”. We now have to be prepared “for some bad hombres” coming back home involuntarily.

We repeat the opening “Advice”: When people tell you who they are, listen to them. Prepare accordingly!

The Go Lean book details the community ethos to adopt, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute to empower all the factions in the Caribbean region. Consider this sample:

Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Integrate region for Economics & Security	Page 45
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence	Page 120
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218

Caribbean people do not have a voice nor a vote in Washington. We are only spectators!

The Go Lean/CU goal is to reform and transform our own society, not America. We no longer want to be considered parasites of the American eco-system, we want to be protégés. In fact, we want to be better than America. Yes, we can.

We hereby urge everyone in the Caribbean – people, institutions and governments – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. It is time now to reboot our society. We must do the heavy-lifting ourselves, and not leave it up to any American decision-maker. This is what we all want: a new Caribbean that is a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

——————

Appendix – Climate Schmimate – Trump To Planet: Drop Dead 😀

By: Doktor Zoom – November 10, 2016

Donald Trump has big plans for America. He’s going to make all of us who are already rich even richer and more prosperous, and the only price we have to pay is four to eight more years of delay in doing something about global warming, which isn’t merely a Chinese plot to keep America from competing, but is also a complete hoax perpetrated by scientists for nefarious motives. What, you never heard of evil scientists who want to rule the world? There’s one bit of good news in all this: The rest of the nations who have signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement still plan to go ahead with reducing their carbon outputs, even as the nation that supposedly leads the world in science turns itself over to leadership by a party that doesn’t believe in science anymore — at least, not in science that you can’t drop from fighter jets on some “ay-rabs”. …

——————

Appendix VIDEO – In-Depth Trump and Caribbean Immigration – https://youtu.be/tKvfVQFkY30

Published on Jan 31, 2017 – CEEN Caribbean News discusses with Immigration Attorney, Wayne Golding on US President Donald’s Trumps Policy and its impact on Caribbean Immigration

Category: Entertainment
License: Standard YouTube License

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Caribbean Solidarity with the Irish People – ENCORE

Posted on March 17, 2017 in Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Today is the annual St. Patrick’s Day observation. Celebrating it does not mean “we are Irish”, it means we have “Solidarity with the Irish People” and culture. This is a BIG deal …

… the Irish has endured a lot and now they thrive.

This is a lesson for the Caribbean to apply, as we too have endured … and want to thrive. See this Encore of the blog-commentary from March 17, 2015 here-now:

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

Title: The ‘Luck of the Irish’ – Past, Present and Future

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

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

This is a big deal considering the real history.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The White House in full St. Patrick Day tribute mode

London; on the Thames River

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

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

Why this history?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the exact option being proposed now by the Go Lean roadmap, to emulate and model the successes of the European Union with the establishment of the Caribbean Union. It was not independence that brought success to Ireland, but rather interdependence with their neighboring countries “in the same boat”. This is the underlying theme behind the Go Lean movement, to “appoint new guards” to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. This Declaration of Interdependence is pronounced at the outset of the Go Lean book (Pages 11 & 13):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May you always have…

Walls for the winds

A roof for the rain

Tea beside the fire

Laughter to cheer you

Those you love near you

And all your heart might desire.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

——–

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

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

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Civil Rights, Diaspora, History, Ireland, Model

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Bill Gates: ‘Tax the Robots’

Posted on March 15, 2017 in Economics, Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is a fear – fueled by Hollywood – of a Robot Apocalypse. This is where the machines become self-aware – see Appendix VIDEO below – and ascertain that humans are a threat to their existence and so they seek to destroy all biological humans. This theme has been frequented in movies like “The Terminator“, “The Matrix“, “I, Robot“, “West World“, “Avengers – Age of Ultron” and more.

While enmity between humans and robots (Artificial Intelligence) may NOT be a legitimate fear today, one thing for sure, many robots, robotic systems, autonomous systems and automation systems are responsible for taking a lot of jobs IN REAL LIFE; there is no need for Hollywood make-believe with this threat.

From a governance perspective, this is bad! Humans pay taxes, social security, national insurance, pensions, healthcare and other community benefits. Robots do not!

Or should they?

Bill Gates, a billionaire whose fortunes were forged from the computer software industry asserts that robots should pay taxes. See the related news articles or editorials here:

Title #1: Robots that steal human jobs should pay taxes: Bill Gates

WASHINGTON: Robots that steal human jobs should pay taxes, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has said.

“Certainly there will be taxes that relate to automation. Right now, the human worker who does, say, USD 50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things,” Gates told Quartz website.

“If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level,” said Gates, one of the world’s richest men.

Gates said he believes that governments should tax companies’ use of robots, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment.

The 61-year-old philanthropist said a robot tax could finance jobs taking care of elderly people or working with kids in schools, for which needs are unmet and to which humans are particularly well suited.

He argued that governments must oversee such programmes rather than relying on businesses, in order to redirect the jobs to help people with lower incomes.

“If you can take the labour that used to do the things automation replaces, and financially and training-wise and fulfilment-wise have that person go off and do these other things, then you’re net ahead,” said Gates, one of the leading players in artificial-intelligence technology.

“But you can’t just give up that income tax, because that’s part of how you’ve been funding that level of human workers,” he said.

The web portal reported that the idea is not totally theoretical as EU lawmakers considered a proposal to tax robot owners to pay for training for workers who lose their jobs, though on February 16 the legislators ultimately rejected it.

“You ought to be willing to raise the tax level and even slow down the speed” of automation, Gates said.

“Exactly how you’d do it, measure it, you know, it’s interesting for people to start talking about now,” Gates said.

Talking about the tax on robots, Gates said, “Some of it can come on the profits that are generated by the labour- saving efficiency there. Some of it can come directly in some type of robot tax. I don’t think the robot companies are going to be outraged that there might be a tax. It’s OK.”

Source: Economic Times Magazine – Posted February 20, 2017; retrieved March 15, 2017 from:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/robots-that-steal-human-jobs-should-pay-taxes-bill-gates/articleshow/57234194.cms

—————

Title #2: What’s Wrong With Bill Gates’ Robot Tax
By: Noah Smith

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates made a splash in a recent interview, when he suggested that robots should be taxed in order to help humans keep their jobs:

“Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level.”

Gates is only one of many people in the tech world who have worried about automation and its threat to workers. YCombinator founder Sam Altman, for instance, is conducting an experiment with basic income — a regular cash payment to all households. That policy has gained popularity across Silicon Valley, if not in the rest of the country.

It’s easy to see why the tech world is worried. The rise of machine learning has increased the fear that many humans could simply become obsolete — for example, 3.5 million American truck drivers might soon find their jobs threatened by driverless trucks. Though in the past, technology usually complemented workers instead of replacing them, there’s no law of nature saying the technology of the future will work the same. A few economists even claim that cheap automation has already diverted income from workers to company owners.

The fear isn’t that all humans will become obsolete, but that automation will increase inequality among humans. Company owners and high-skilled workers — people who tell machines what to do — would be vastly enriched, while everyone else either works low-skilled jobs for meager wages or goes on welfare.

Another fear is that even if the mass of humanity ultimately does find new ways to add value by complementing new technology — to “race with the machines,” as economist Erik Brynjolfsson puts it — this transition could take a long time and hurt a lot of people. As Bloomberg View’s Tyler Cowen has noted, wages in Britain fell for four decades at the start of the Industrial Revolution. More recently, we’ve seen very slow and painful adjustment to the impact of globalization. If the machine learning revolution hurts workers for 40 years before ultimately helping them, it might be worth it to slow that revolution down and give them time to adjust.

The main argument against taxing the robots is that it might impede innovation. Growth in rich countries has slowed markedly in the past decade, suggesting that it’s getting harder and harder to find new ways of doing things. Stagnating productivity, combined with falling business investment, suggests that adoption of new technology is currently too slow rather than too fast — the biggest problem right now isn’t too many robots, it’s too few. Taxing new technology, however it’s done, could make that slowdown worse.

The problem with Gates’ basic proposal is that it’s very hard to tell the difference between new technology that complements humans and new technology that replaces them. This is especially true over the long term. Power looms replaced human weavers back in the Industrial Revolution, but people eventually became more productive, by learning to operate those looms. If taxes had slowed the development of power looms, the eventual improvements would have come later.

This is a powerful argument against the taxation of automation. Gates is right to say that we should start thinking ahead of time about how to use policy to mitigate the disruptions of automation. But given the importance of sustaining innovation, we should look at alternative policies.

One idea is a wage subsidy for low-income workers. This basically puts a thumb on the scale in the human-robot struggle, by making human workers cheaper. The easiest way to do that is to cut payroll taxes, which disproportionally fall on low earners. That would mean paying for Medicare and even Social Security out of other revenue sources, such as higher income taxes on the rich or a value-added tax.

Another idea is to simply redistribute capital income more broadly. Income from capital gains, land rents and dividends now is highly concentrated among the wealthy. But policy could change that. One idea, suggested by economist Miles Kimball, is a sovereign-wealth fund. The government could use tax revenue to buy stocks and real estate, and distribute the profits to the populace. This would essentially redistribute some of the income produced by the robots, giving every citizen a stake in the new automation economy. The wealth fund could be split into many smaller funds, each with different managers, in order to prevent concentration of ownership.

So there are probably better ways than taxing robots to help humans avoid the harms of automation. Instead of slowing innovation, the government should think about taxing humans less and redistributing the income of robots more.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Related story: Driverless Cars

About the Author: Noah Smith is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

Source: Posted February 28, 2017; retrieved March 15, 2017 from: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/contributors/AR3OYuAmvcU/noah-smith

This drama is aligned with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, asserting that the region needs to better prepare and contribute in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) plus related fields of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT). The book examines strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster more technologies and grow the economy. This quotation – from Page 57 – is most representative of the focus on technology:

Technological change is more than just internet & communications (ICT); though this field is dynamically shifting the world. There are also industrial changes taking place, as in more efficient manufacturing methods, automation/robotics, and transportation options …

There are specific CU agencies will manage the other areas of technological change. The community ethos is no not just to consume technology products but to produce them as well. This allows us to better compete with the rest of the world, having both an “offense and on defense”.

But according to the foregoing articles, the raised concerns are our reality: there is no plan to tax robots-automation above and beyond to replace the lost human tax incomes.

Consider this simple scenario of self-driving/autonomous vehicles; the foregoing articles identified how truck drivers could be displaced by self-driving vehicles. The Go Lean movement have addressed these advances many times; consider this sample:

‘Olli’ – The Self-Driving Public Transit Vehicle

Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims

Pleas to Detroit on Technology in Cars

Here come the Drones … and the Concerns

The need for Google’s highway safety innovations

Autonomous Ghost Ships

Ah, the art and science of autonomous vehicles.

This is not science fiction; this is today’s science. It will take a technocratic administration to shepherd these advances through Caribbean society. The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This book is a complete roadmap, turn-by-turn guide for elevating Caribbean society. There is a plan for adapting government revenue options and for creating jobs to these global changes. Early in the Go Lean book, these responsibilities were identified as important functions for the CU with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 & 14):

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

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

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.

The Caribbean fully understands the effect of losing large swaths of tax-paying citizens. We have an atrocious rate of societal abandonment, especially among our college-educated citizens; that figure has been reported at 70%. Even before talk of a Robot Apocalypse, the Caribbean region had suffered this dysfunction. We have fallen behind with all the ‘Agents of Change’ in society.

These ‘Agents of Change’ are affecting everyone, everywhere. The Go Lean book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce – fix the broken eco-systems – so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. We need jobs; we need tax revenues (normally based on wages). The foregoing news articles therefore are very relevant … and fear-inspiring.

The book Go Lean/CU roadmap posits that ICT (Internet & Communications Technology) can be a great equalizer for the Caribbean to better compete with the rest of the world. This technology-job-creation focus is among these 3 prime directives of CU/Go Lean:

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

According to previous blog/commentaries, computers are reshaping the global job market; also there is a great demand for STEM-related jobs. So we cannot just “stick our head in the sand” and ignore these issues. We are already affected. There are other communities that have already prepared themselves for tax revenues from other sources. The Go Lean book considers (Page 194) the example of Southern California (Los Angeles County). That one municipality collects tax revenues from real property (land) and personal property, and in 2007 they enjoyed a gross revenue stream of over $1 Trillion – see Appendix.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean details the effort of optimizing government revenue sources. It features the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. Consider this preview (Page 172) of 10 Revenue Sources for the CU federal administration – the CU will generate-collect its own revenue streams – as follows:

The Caribbean Single Market adds a new federal Economic Pie for distribution back to member-states.
E-Payments Settlement
In-sourcing e-Government Services
Property Tax Surcharge
Income/Sales Tax Add-ons
Industry Licensing (Security, e-Learning, Health Care Monitoring, Postal)
Regional Services: GPO, Lottery, Spectrum Auctions, Underwater Cables, Mining/Drilling Rights
Prison Industrial Complex
Natural Disaster Insurance Fund
Capital Markets for Treasury Bonds

The primary ingredient for success in the Go Lean/CU roadmap will be Caribbean people, not Caribbean machines – robots have no personage or tax expectation in this roadmap. This community attitude would lead to fostering more development and growth with automated solutions in the region and for the rest of the world (export).

This is new for us. The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but jobs and government revenues are obviously missing. This Go Lean roadmap is conceivable, believable and achievable for turning around our dire disposition. Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. This provides the guidance to get to the region to its desired destination: a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

—————–

Appendix – The Bottom Line on ‘$1 Trillion Dollar Budget’

The Los Angeles County Assessor Office establishes a taxable value for all property [real and personal] subject to property taxation. The 2007 Roll value in Los AngelesCounty was over $1 trillion dollars. That’s correct, 1 trillion dollars. This amount was greater than the gross national product (GNP) of all but 9 countries in the world. – www.assessor.lacounty.gov

Los Angeles County is commonly associated with the entertainment industry; all six major film studios—Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios—are located within the county. Beyond motion picture and television program production, other major industries of Los Angeles County are international trade supported by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, music recording and production, aerospace, and professional services such as law and medicine.

—————–

Appendix VIDEO – Amazing Robot Becomes Self-Aware (Explained) – https://youtu.be/jx6kg0ZfhAI

Published on Jul 18, 2015 – Roboticists at the RPI in New York have built a trio of robots that were put through the classic ‘wise men puzzle’ test of self-awareness – and one of them passed.

Further details here: http://bit.ly/1HxmZrN

Video via: RAIR Lab

Music via: Ultimate Relax Club

Category: People & Blogs
License: Standard YouTube License

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March Madness 2017 – ENCORE

Posted on March 14, 2017 in Industries, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

March Madness is not about the month of March; nor is it about Madness. It is about basketball, college basketball to be exact.

This is the time for the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament. This is where 68 teams come together in a single-elimination tournament to determine who would be the National Champion. It is one team playing against each other until the winner is crowned. The number 68 is deceptive; it is really a tournament of 64, with 60 secured teams and 8 teams having to compete in “play-in” games to determine the last 4.

Then it is simple math:

64 => 32 => Sweet 16 => Elite 8 => Final 4 => 2 Finalists => 1 Champion

This simple math is indicative of the simple sport of basketball; it is just 5 players on each side playing against each other with one ball and 2 baskets. The expense of fielding a basketball team is so low that in many places, there is organized play even at the Middle School level.

And yet … the eco-system for College Basketball in the Caribbean is … non-existent.

Too sad!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – and accompanying blog-commentaries – posits that the eco-system of sports is deficient in the Caribbean region. There is so much more that can be done. This subject was divulged in full details in a previous blog on March 20, 2014. That submission is encored here below.

But first, enjoy the NCAA’s March Madness 2017. Submit your own bracket; mine is shown here.

Also view a VIDEO here of a preview of this year’s tournament by legendary College Basketball Analyst Dick Vitale, “Dickie Baby”:

VIDEO – Dickie V breaks down March Madness – USA Today

Posted March 14, 2017 – Legendary broadcaster Dick Vitale was in our studios breaking down all the NCAA tournament story lines.

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

ENCORE Title: Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean

Sports play a big role in Caribbean culture. Education plays a big role in the empowerment of communities. There is a junction between sports and academics; this is the sphere of college athletics.

Cuba has 37 universities…alone. In total, the Caribbean has 42 million people (2010 figures) in all 30 member-states. So surely there is enough of a student population to field sports teams.

More so, there is a fan base in the communities to complete the eco-system of sports spectators and community pride. Yet, there is very little college sports being facilitated in the region right now. Despite the breadth and talent base to form leagues and rivalries among the established universities within the Caribbean. Any system for college athletics is noticeably lacking.

This is the mission of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); to function as a Caribbean version of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US. We have much to learn from this organization’s history, successes & failures.

“The NCAA was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time,” so states the NCAA on its official website.^[a]

According to Dan Treadway, Associate Blog Editor for the Huffington Post online news magazine^[b]:

The NCAA often likes to harp on tradition and the sanctity of the term “student-athlete,” but it fails to recognize its true roots.

The association in fact got its start because, at the time of its creation, football was in danger of being abolished as a result of being deemed too dangerous a sport. During the 1905 season alone, 18 college and amateur players died during games. In response to public outcry, Theodore Roosevelt, an unabashed fan of the sport, gathered 13 football representatives at the White House for two meetings at which those in attendance agreed on reforms to improve safety. What would later become known as the NCAA was formed shortly after on the heels of this unifying safety agreement.

Collegiate Sports is now big money; an economic eco-system onto itself. How much money does the NCAA make?

For the 2010-11 fiscal year, the NCAA revenue was $845.9 million, (not including College Football). Total rights (broadcast & licensing) payment for 2010-11 was $687 million, of all NCAA revenue. The remaining revenues are mostly event ticket sales.

How did the NCAA go from being an agreement to promote safety standards so as to prevent death on the playing field, to a multi-million dollar enterprise? Chalk that up to 100 years of social evolution.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap to advance to the end of the evolutionary process and establish the economic engines to empower the Caribbean region, even in areas like sports and culture.

So how to build sports franchises anew? How will colleges & universities create success from collegiate athletics? It’s a complex “art and science”, but first, it starts with facilities – the CU’s Fairground administration will fund, build and manage sports venues. The CU will be the landlord; the academic institutions, the tenants.

The Go Lean roadmap navigates the changed landscape of globalization and pronounces that change has come to the Caribbean but the region is not prepared. Despite the great appreciation for sports, and the excellent talent of its athletes, there is no business model for the consumption of Caribbean collegiate athletics.

Now, for much of the Caribbean, the population tunes in and pays for cable/satellite TV service to consume American collegiate athletic programming. But how many people in the region are watching Caribbean college sporting activities? None. Though there is a demand, undoubtedly, there is no supply process in place.

In the adjoining table in the Appendix, 36 schools are identified that are capable of fielding credible sports teams, if the appropriate facilitations were in place.

There is the demand. What’s missing is the organized market for consumption. The implementation of this Go Lean roadmap fills this void. This completes the supply!

Applying the model of the NCAA, much can be learned. We can copy their success, and learn from their pitfalls. The NCAA credits tremendous revenues for itself, but not necessarily for all of their members. Under NCAA supervision, the majority of athletic programs, in fact, lose money and are subsidized by funds from their respective university. While the NCAA is needed for academic integrity in college sports, many times, it fails at this responsibility. They lack the CU’s lean execution ethos.

After 100 years later, does the world still need the NCAA? Absolutely! For more than the collective bargaining/negotiations role for the business side of college athletics. They are also the governing body for college athletics, ensuring fairness and good sportsmanship. For the Caribbean Union, this role is to be assumed by the CU Sports Administration, to provide technocratic efficiencies. The resultant eco-system facilitates the CU mandate, to make the region a better place to live, work and play.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

———————-

APPENDIX A – References:
a – http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/About+the+NCAA/History
b – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ daniel-treadway/johnny-manziel-ncaa-eligibility_b_3020985.html

———————-

APPENDIX B – Caribbean Regional Colleges & Universities

Member-state	Legacy	Name
Antigua and Barbuda	British	Antigua State College
Aruba	Dutch	University of Aruba
Bahamas	British	College of the Bahamas
Barbados	British	University of the West Indies – Cave Hill, American University
Belize	British	University of Belize
		Galen University
Bermuda	British	Bermuda College (Community College)
Cuba	Spanish	University of Havana Universidad de Oriente, Polytechnic University José Antonio Echeverría
Dominican Republic	Spanish	Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) – (English: Autonomous University of Santo Domingo)
French Caribbean	French	University of the French West Indies and Guiana Guadeloupe Campus, Martinique Campus, French Guiana Campus
Guyana	British	University of Guyana
Haiti	French	Caribbean University / Université Caraïbe, Université d’Haiti
Jamaica	British	University of the West Indies – Mona, University of Technology (U-Tech), Mico University College, Northern Caribbean University (NCU), University College of the Caribbean (UCC), International University of the Caribbean (IUC)
Netherlands Antilles	Dutch	University of Curaçao
Curaçao
Sint Maarten		University of St. Martin
Puerto Rico	USA/ Spanish	Caribbean University, Metropolitan University, University of Puerto Rico, University of Turabo
Suriname	Dutch	University of Suriname Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago	British	University of the West Indies – Saint Augustine University of Southern Caribbean (USC) University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT)
US Virgin Islands	USA	University of the Virgin Islands

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Miami: Dominican’s ‘Home Away from Home’

Posted on March 13, 2017 in Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is something really wrong in the Dominican Republic (DR) in particular and all of the Caribbean in general:

Citizens are beating down the doors to get out!

This failing assessment is accelerating faster and faster as every year goes by. In 2010, there were approximately 1.41 million people of Dominican descent in the US; now the absolute latest number is an estimate from 2015: 1,873,097; see the full details in Appendix A below.

According to the book Go Lean…Caribbean, the population on the island for 2010 was reported at 9,523,209. So one-fifth of the population of Dominican heritage live in the US. There appears to be no progress in any movement for repatriation to the island, rather there is progress in movement to the South, to Florida. Of the Top 7 US states that the Dominican Diaspora lives in, Florida is the only one in the Sunbelt. The tropical landscapes in Greater Miami is reminiscent of the DR for many people. Now, the Miami neighborhood of Allapattah is emerging as the new Home away from Home and thusly branded: ‘Little Santo Domingo’ – see full details in Appendix B.

In a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, it was detailed how the Greater Miami area has benefited from failures in the Caribbean region. We saw this dynamic at work this weekend with the World Baseball Classic tournament in Miami. For this round in the tournament, these 4 teams were assigned to Miami for “Pool C” play:

Canada
Colombia
Dominican Republic
USA

Source: https://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/schedule?affiliateId=DC-9422074-109104352834-9906034-1161695674

See this news article here detailing the game between the Dominican Republic and the US – this article shows that despite the address, playing in Miami was a Home Game for the Dominican National Team:

Title: Miami, WBC are big winners as Team USA, Dominicans set records for attendance … and volume
By: Greg Cote
How perfect that the World Baseball Classic’s only first-round games in the United States are happening at Marlins Park. This event is so Miami.

It beams us to the rest of the world so accurately and with splendor, and I mean beyond the tourism/postcard aspect we saw Saturday night with the ballpark roof open, fresh breeze wafting in from the ocean and the downtown skyline majestic as a Goodyear blimp and a full moon floated overhead.

This international event speaks our language(s), reflecting the multi-ethnic, multi-national flavor that defines us. While much of the rest of the country recoils from diversity and retreats to jingoism — or I should say as our new government does — Miami remains steadfastly a savory, year-round gumbo of personalities and backgrounds.

On Saturday night, Dominican fans cheered a first-inning strikeout of Team USA’s Adam Jones as if it were the final out in a World Series Game 7. The sound was sonic, numbing. U.S. (and Marlins) fans countered with a roar of their own as Christian Yelich doubled to right field. I’m not sure a I had heard (or felt) such high-pitch passion at a South Florida sports event since the last time the Heat hosted an NBA Finals game.

The ballpark concourses filled with celebrating Dominicans before the game, a carnival of whistles and horns and sporadic, erupting chats of “Ole’!”

During the game there was The Wave undulating around the park. Of course there was. All that joy gotta go someplace.

Before the game I met a “house divided” couple. Ken Oliver, a South Florida attorney, wore Team USA colors and his friend, Josie Pichardo, those of the Dominican team. By arrangement I texted them during the game to get a sense of the atmosphere in the middle of it. They sat in Section 206, among far more fans who agreed with Josie’s team preference. I asked what it was like down there.

“Banging drums!” Oliver texted back.

Edison Cruz, 28, of Miami, had arrived with a handful of buddies — all wearing Dominican shirts.

“It is because baseball is our true national pastime,” he said. “In American there are all sports to love.”

Team USA and the Dominican both are favored to be the two teams of four in this Pool C to advance to the WBC’s next round, each fielding lineups filled with major-league stars. How good were these batting orders Saturday? The Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton, a threat to lead the majors in home runs, hit seventh for the United States.

There is a reason Miami attracts global sporting events like the WBC. It isn’t just our weather. It’s our welcome. It’s all the colors in our quilt. If sport truly is an international language, we are fluent.

It is why this same ballpark was reconfigured recently into a racetrack for a major annual auto race involving stars from NASCAR, Formula One and IndyCar — an international event choosing Miami for its first-ever U.S. appearance.

This week it was announced two of the most famous, celebrated club teams in global soccer, Real Madrid and Barcelona, would bring their El Clasico rivalry to Hard Rock Stadium this July. The place will be filled in a way the Dolphins rarely manage.

So Saturday it was Team USA and the Dominican Republic filling MarlinsPark with passion and fans.

Who won? You didn’t need a scoreboard to tell you.

Miami did.

This blog-submission is not just relating a newspaper article and commenting about events from a far. This writer was at the game, Section 32 – Left Field bleachers.

The purpose of the book Go Lean…Caribbean (GLC) is NOT to celebrate Diaspora life in American cities; rather it is to champion the causes of retaining Caribbean citizens in the Caribbean, and inviting the Diaspora back to their homelands. These intentions were pronounced early in the book with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13):

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

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

This quest – reversing the propensity for Dominican people to abandon their island home – is a “tall order”, heavy-lifting task. This was expressed by one fan at the WBC Baseball game on Saturday March 11. He – first name Pablo – explained the following:

Pablo: I completed high school in the DR and knew that I was to leave immediately at the end of high school. This was not just my scenario, but the majority of the students in my graduating class. I look back now and I personally know that at least 50 percent of the class is in the US, through legal or illegal means.

GLC: You are celebrating your love for the DR homeland by being here at this baseball game, so I assume your plan now is to just work in the US during your active years and then retire back in the DR. Is this correct?

Pablo: No. I would not want to retire in the DR. It is too costly a lifestyle. You spend a lot of money in the homeland but get very little to show for it. I simply wish to visit, but I would not live there again … ever.

GLC: We recognize that even with some success from our roadmap, repatriating to the DR may never appeal to Diaspora members like you; so our focus is on the next generation, we must dissuade future classes from leaving in the first place.

Pablo: Good luck…

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to bring positive change. The CU‘s prime directives are identified with the following 3 statements:

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

The Go Lean book posits that with the empowerments that come with this roadmap, the region will be a better place to live, work and play. But this quest is heavy-lifting. The book thusly details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to finally re-boot Caribbean society. Consider this sample:

Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Dominican Republic	Page 237

This commentary previously featured subjects related to the DR; consider this sample:

DR President Medina on the economy: ‘God will provide’

Low-cost Dominican surgeries spark warnings by US

As related previously, Miami is a better place to live, work and play … due to the contributions of the Caribbean Diaspora, including Dominicans. The new Marlins Park had never seen such a baseball fandom before the Dominicans made their impact on Saturday. (The stadium and Marlins owner is extremely disliked in the Miami community).

Dominicans are good for Miami and Miami is good for Dominicans. See the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/article137986623.html

Dominican fans dance to the music before Saturday’s World Baseball Classic game between the United States and the Dominican Republic at Marlins Park on Saturday, March 11, 2017. Pedro Portal The Miami Herald

Now, the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to foster that exact same prosperous spirit among Dominicans, but to prosper where planted in their Caribbean homeland, not in this foreign city (Miami). We urge all Dominican stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap, those residing in the region and those in the Diaspora. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————

Appendix A – Dominican Americans

Dominican Americans are Americans who have full or partial origin from the Dominican Republic.^[5] Although their emigration began in the sixteenth century,^[6] thousands of Dominicans passed through the gates of Ellis Island in the 19th and early 20th centuries.^[7]The most recent movement of emigration to the United States began in the 1960s, after the fall of the Trujillo regime. In 2010, there were approximately 1.41 million people of Dominican descent in the US, including both native and foreign-born.^[8] Dominican Americans are the fifth-largest Hispanic group in the United States.

…

The absolute latest number in terms of size of this Diaspora is an estimate from 2015: 1,873,097^[1][2]; this is 0.6% of the U.S. population (2015).^[3]

As of the 2010 census, the top 10 US states with the largest Dominican populations are the following:^[24]

New York – 674,787 (3.5% of statal population)
New Jersey – 197,922 (2.3% of statal population)
Florida – 172,451 (0.9% of statal population)
Massachusetts – 103,292 (1.6% of statal population)
Pennsylvania – 62,348 (0.5% of statal population)
Rhode Island – 35,008 (3.3% of statal population)
Connecticut – 26,093 (0.7% of statal population)
North Carolina – 15,225 (0.2% of statal population)
Georgia – 14,941 (0.2% of statal population)
Maryland – 14,873 (0.3% of statal population)

Source: Retrieved March 12, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Americans_(Dominican_Republic)

————

Appendix B – Allapattah

Allapattah is a neighborhood mostly in the city of Miami, Florida, and partly in metropolitan Miami, United States. As of May 2011, the county-owned portion of Allapattah, from State Road 9 to LeJeune Road, is being annexed by the city proper.^[1]

The neighborhood was nicknamed Little Santo Domingo in 2003 … to honor the sizable Dominican American population in the community.^[2]

History
The name is derived from the Seminole Indian language word meaning alligator. The initial settlement of the Allapattah community began in 1856 when William P. Wagner, the earliest documented white American permanent settler, arrived from Charleston, South Carolina and established a homestead on a hammock along the Miami Rock Ridge, where Miami Jackson High School presently stands. Development ensued from 1896 and into the 20th century in the area with the completion of the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC).^[3]

Allapattah was predominantly populated by whites from early in the 20th century until the late 1950s, when there was a large influx of black Americans displaced by the construction of I-95 (then, the North-South Expressway) in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to white flight to suburban Miami-Dade County and Broward County. Cubans migrated to Miami neighborhoods like Allapattah in large numbers following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, hosting one of Miami’s largest Cuban American populations. The 1980s brought influxes of Dominican Americans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Haitians in the aftermath of various refugee crises in those nations. Now, a melting pot of residents from all across the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America reside in the area.

Demographics
As of 2000,^[5] Allapattah had a population between 40,406 and 43,860^[6] residents, with 12,508 households, and 8,224 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $19,141.53. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 72.23% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 18.33% Black or African American, 6.89% White (non-Hispanic), and 2.55% Other races (non-Hispanic).

The zip codes for Allapattah include 33136, 33125, 33127, and 33142. The area covers 4.653 square miles (12.05 km²). As of 2000, there were 23,967 males and 19,894 females. The median age for males was 33.9 years old, while the median age for females was 36.0 years old. The average household size had 2.8 people, while the average family size had 3.4 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 36.4%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 16.6%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 14.5%. 8.0% of the population were in correctional institutions, 1.0% of the population were in nursing homes, and 1.2% of the population were in other group homes. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 24.5%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 12.4%.^[6]

As of 2000, the percentage of people that speak English not well or not at all made up 33.0% of the population. The percentage of residents born in Florida was 30.5%, the percentage of people born in another US state was 9.2%, and the percentage of native residents but born outside the US was 4.3%, while the percentage of foreign born residents was 56.1%^[6]

Source: Retrieved March 12, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allapattah

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