May 2017 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Month: May 2017

Lean-in for ‘Wonder Woman Day’

Posted on May 31, 2017 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Heroes and ‘Sheroes’ …

… we need them all in the Caribbean. We must reform and transform our Caribbean society. We know that one person – a Hero or a ‘Shero’ – can make a difference, and we need to encourage those contributions … from Caribbean men and women.

As related in a previous blog-commentary, according to noted Mythologist Joseph Campbell, heroes are not born, they are forged; the candidates go through a consistent pattern of a journey to become bona-fide heroes.

When people think of Super Heroes they tend to think of men, but this week, the world is being reminded that Super Heroes can be women. The first-ever female full-length movie, Wonder Woman is opening this week, on Friday June 2, 2017; see the trailer in the Appendix below. But despite the first time as a full movie, the character of Wonder Woman has been around … for 75 years.

This is a big week for Wonder Woman, not only the movie but also the end of the 75th Anniversary Commemoration. See this news article here:

Title: DC Sets ‘Wonder Woman Day’ Celebration for June 3

Sub-title: The iconic superhero will be honored across comic book stores, libraries, bookstores and the internet.

The first weekend in June will belong to Wonder Woman.

Not only does the iconic superhero have her own Warner Bros. movie opening June 2, but DC Entertainment has declared the following day “Wonder Woman Day,” with more than 2,000 comic book stores, bookstores and libraries participating in a celebration of the beloved character. DC will partner with outlets including Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Walmart, Costco and Amazon for exclusive in-store and digital promotions, while Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Warner Bros. Consumer Products will also push the event.

Comic book creators who have worked on the character, including Greg Rucka, Cliff Chiang, Marc Andreyko, Shea Fontana and Cat Staggs, will be participating in special Wonder Woman Day events to talk about their love for Diana, with details to be announced soon.

To mark Wonder Woman Day, DC will release two special issues to be given away free by partners — a reprint of the first issue of the current Wonder Woman series by Rucka and Liam Sharp, and DC Super Hero Girls Wonder Woman Day Special Edition, featuring an excerpt of the upcoming third book in Fontana and Yancey Labat’s series of young reader graphic novels. Additionally, a Wonder Woman Day Activity Kit, including coloring pages and games, will be released digitally for download.

Ahead of June 3, DC’s online DC All Access series will launch a weeklong Wonder Woman Week of programming on May 29, highlighting the character’s history with interviews with comic book and movie talent. A sale of digital comics centering around the character will also begin on May 30.

Wonder Woman Day concludes DC’s yearlong celebration of the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman’s first appearance. The hero debuted in 1941’s All-Star Comics No. 8. In addition to the release of her first solo movie, June 2017 also marks the 75th anniversary of the first solo Wonder Woman comic book.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter – posted May 15, 2017; retrieved May 31, 2017 from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dc-sets-wonder-woman-day-celebration-june-3-1003939

No doubt Wonder Woman is a ‘Shero’. But as “life imitates art and art imitates life”, we see that many Caribbean women can be heroes without any Super Powers; they only need to make contributions – despite the obstacles – in support and love of their homelands. But this will not be easy; there are villainous forces and pressures working against them. A previous Go Lean blog-commentaries identified the obstacles, starting with:

Orthodoxy – the generally accepted theory, doctrine, or practice that women are inferior and inadequate.

This is why we need movies; the art form can be a powerful source of messaging to impress new theories, doctrines and practices on the masses of people. This is what is meant by “life imitating art”. In a previous blog-commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

With women comprising 50 percent of the population, it is only logical that we would expect women to comprise 50% of the effort in reforming-transforming the Caribbean societal engines of economics, security and governance. We need women to lean-in to this cause; and, we need men to lean-in with support of those women that do present themselves for engagement. This is the assertion of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, that one person – a woman … or a man – can impact the region’s societal engines, so as to elevate their community. The book – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). These statements here present the prime directives of the roadmap:

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.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Caribbean region needs to include more women in leadership roles in business, government and all security institutions. We need ‘Sheroes’ in the stewardship of Caribbean society. We need their voices as policy-makers and participants. We need their insights and investment of their time, talent and treasuries. With their earnest contributions, the whole community will benefit.

The Go Lean roadmap solicits full participation from women and men as stakeholders in a new Caribbean. This is a mandate! The Go Lean book asserts that we can no longer marginalize women in our society. Otherwise, we run the risk of losing them; watching them abandon their ancestral homelands to seek refuge in foreign countries. This has been happening far too often, such that it has created a crisis. We experience a brain drain or abandonment of 70 percent of our highly educated citizenry. Why do they leave? For “push-and-pull” reasons!

“Push” refers for deficient conditions at home, like the identified orthodoxy, that makes people want to flee.
“Pull” refers to the presumption of better conditions abroad. Our Caribbean women may glean that they can be ‘Sheroes’ abroad rather than at home.

Dissuading this human flight and incentivizing the Diaspora to repatriate are missions of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. These points are pronounced early in the book with this Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14), with these opening statements:

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. …

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. …

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.

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 …

The subject of fostering gender equality, equal access and equal protections for women have been directly addressed and further elaborated upon in previous blog/commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9216	‘Time to Go’ – No Respect for our Hair
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8306	Women Get Ready for New Lean-In Campaign
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8155	Bahamas Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7490	Push Factor: Interpersonal Violence / Domestic
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6937	Women in Politics – Yes, They Can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6836	Role Model – #FatGirlsCan – Empowering Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6434	‘Good Hair’ and the Strong Black Woman
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6422	Getting More Women Interested in Science/Technology Careers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5720	Role Model/Disability Advocate Urging Reasonable Accommodations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3078	Bad Case Study: Bill Cosby’s Accusers – Why They Weren’t Believed
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2709	Caribbean Study: 58% Of Boys Agree to Female ‘Discipline’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2201	Students developing nail polish to detect date rape drugs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809	Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=695	Help for Abused Women Depicts Societal Defects

The Go Lean book posits that every woman has a right to work towards making their homeland a better place to live, work and play. The Caribbean community needs their participation. So the book details the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates to help women to impact the homeland:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Anti Bullying & Mitigations	Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalizations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Fix the broken systems of governance	Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Member-states versus CU Federal Government	Page 71
Implementation – Reason to Repatriate	Page 118
Advocacy – Anatomy of Advocacies – Sample Role Models	Page 122
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Law Enforcement Oversight	Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora – Encourage Repatriation	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Foundations – NGO’s for Women Causes	Page 219
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Women’s Rights	Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care – Needs of Widows	Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth – Steering Young Girls to STEM Careers	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Persons with Disabilities	Page 228

There are serious issues impacting the Caribbean; these must be addressed . Since many of these issues affect women, it is better to have women as equal participants, as leaders and policy-makers. The Go Lean movement is calling for the ‘Sheroes’ and Heroes to lean-in, to contribute to our societal engines.

There is no need for Super-Powers; just a need for commitment and engagement, despite any obstacle.

There will be obstacles; the Caribbean orthodoxy guarantees it; this is why ‘Sheroes’ must endure the heavy-lifting to overcome the villainy of orthodoxy. This expectation – the ethos, strategies, tactics and implementations of the Go Lean/CU roadmap – is conceivable, believable and achievable. With the right commitment of time, talent and treasuries from women (and the men who support them), we can succeed in making the Caribbean region better homelands to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – WONDER WOMAN Final Trailer (2017) – https://youtu.be/qeZ8X5FKl78

Published on May 7, 2017 – Official “Wonder Woman” Movie Trailer 5 2017

“Wonder Woman” is released in cinemas around the world this summer as Gal Gadot returns as the title character in the epic action adventure from director Patty Jenkins. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, Princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

#WonderWoman is the new adventure movie by Patty Jenkins, starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Robin Wright. The script was written by Jason Fuchs.

Category: Entertainment
License: Standard YouTube License

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Arts, Gender, Model

R.I.P. Noriega – Lessons Learned from Panama – ENCORE

Posted on May 30, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Government

The world is acknowledging the passing of Manuel Noriega (1934-2017), the General and former Military Dictator of Panama (1983–1989), the Central American country with a Caribbean coastline. His life experience is one of highs and lows, ascending to great heights and depressing depths. There is so much for the planners of the new Caribbean to learn considering the historicity of Noriega.

… and the historicity of Panama.

One lesson – from Panama – was presented before in a previous Go Lean blog-commentary from February 10, 2015, encored here.

This previous blog-commentary, and the life of Noriega, portrays the duplicity and complexity of operating in the shadows of/for the United States of America. The theme is consistent:

American interest is not always Caribbean interest.

“From the 1950s until shortly before the [1989] U.S. invasion, Noriega worked closely with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Noriega was one of the CIA’s most valued intelligence sources, as well as one of the primary conduits for illicit weapons, military equipment and cash destined for U.S.-backed counter-insurgency forces throughout Central and South America. Noriega was also a major cocaine trafficker, something which his U.S. intelligence handlers were aware of for years, but allowed because of his usefulness for their covert military operations in Latin America.”^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

See the full blog-commentary regarding the Panamanian currency – Balboa – here:

————-

Go Lean Commentary – A Lesson in History – Panamanian Balboa

America has surely changed over the past century!

The people, institutions and governance of the US are now more tolerant of minorities and their communities. As such, there are no more American complexities in overthrowing Latin American & Caribbean governments.

Wink-wink …

This hypothesis is validated with the lesson in history from 1941 in the Republic of Panama. This Central American country is a young nation; they were formed in 1903 after seceding from the Republic of Colombia, with US backing. The new country immediately signed a treaty with the US to allow the construction of the Panama Canal, by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and a perpetual lease* for its operations. The country’s separation from Colombia also included changing from the Colombian Peso currency. So in 1904 the Panamanian Balboa currency was launched, but as coins only; the country used the US Dollar as banknotes.

A basic tenant of macro-economics is that countries should issue their own currency and banknotes so as to better influence the economic engines in their communities. By manipulating the banknote quantity and the “Discount Rate” in a Fractional Central Banking System, monetary supply can be regulated, interest rates controlled; credit markets tamed; and yes, money can be created from “thin air”. Panama had none of this control, due to its lack of banknotes.

In 1941, the then-President Dr. Arnulfo Arias pushed the government to create the Central Bank and to issue paper currency.^[2] The bank was authorized, constitutionally, to issue up to 6 million Balboas worth of paper notes, but only 2.7 million Balboas were issued on 2 October 1941. Seven days later, Arias was deposed in a military coup – supported by the United States – and replaced by Dr. Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango as President. The new government immediately closed the bank, withdrew the issued notes, and burned all unissued money stock. In the 74 years since then, the country has never re-attempted to issue its own paper money currency; they continue to use US Dollars, even today.

A bit extreme?

This lesson in history is presented in a consideration of the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to provide better stewardship in ensuring that the currency and economic failures of the past, in the Caribbean and other regions, do not re-occur here in the homeland. The book posits that we must NOT fashion ourselves as an American parasite economy, but rather pursue a status as a protégé.

The full details of the Panamanian Balboa history is provided here:

Title: Panamanian Balboa
(Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (Retrieved 02/09/2015) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_balboa)

The Balboa (sign: B/.; ISO 4217: PAB) is, along with the United States dollar, one of the official currencies of Panama. It is named in honor of the Spanish explorer / conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa. The Balboa is subdivided into 100 centésimos.

The history of the Panamanian Balboa

The Balboa replaced the Colombian Peso in 1904 following the country’s independence. The Balboa has been tied to the United States dollar (which is legal tender in Panama) at an exchange rate of 1:1 since its introduction and has always circulated alongside dollars.

Coins

In 1904, silver coins in denominations of 2½, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centésimos were introduced. These coins were weight-related to the 25 gram 50 centésimos, making the 2½ centésimos coin 1¼ grams. Its small size led to it being known as the “Panama pill” or the “Panama pearl”. In 1907, copper-nickel ½ and 2½ centésimos coins were introduced, followed by copper-nickel 5 centésimos in 1929. In 1930, coins for ¹⁄₁₀, ¼, and ½ Balboa were introduced, followed by 1 balboa in 1931, which were identical in size and composition to the corresponding U.S. coins. In 1935, bronze 1 centésimo coins were introduced, with 1¼ centésimo pieces minted in 1940.

In 1966, Panama followed the U.S. in changing the composition of their silver coins, with copper-nickel clad ¹⁄₁₀ and ¼ Balboa, and .400 fineness ½ Balboa. 1 balboa coins, at .900 fineness silver, were issued that year for the first time since 1947. In 1973, copper-nickel clad ½ Balboa coins were introduced. 1973 also saw the revival of the 2½ centésimos coin, which had a size similar to that of the U.S. half dime, but these were discontinued two years later due to lack of popular demand. In 1983, 1 centésimo coins followed their U.S. counterpart by switching from copper to copper plated zinc. Further issues of the 1 Balboa coins have been made since 1982 in copper-nickel without reducing the size.

Modern 1 and 5 centésimos and ¹⁄₁₀, ¼, and ½ balboa coins are the same weight, dimensions, and composition as the U.S. cent, nickel, dime, quarter, and half-dollar, respectively. In 2011, new 1 and 2 balboa bi-metal coins were issued.^[1]

In addition to the circulating issues, commemorative coins with denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, and 500 Balboas have been issued.

Banknotes

In 1941, President Dr. Arnulfo Arias pushed the government to enact Article 156 to the constitution, authorizing official and private banks to issue paper money. As a result, on 30 September 1941, El Banco Central de Emission de la Republica de Panama was established.^[2]

The bank was authorized to issue up to 6,000,000 Balboas worth of paper notes, but only 2,700,000 balboas were issued on 2 October 1941. A week later, Dr. Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango replaced Arias as president in a coup supported by the United States. The new government immediately closed the bank, withdrew the issued notes, and burned all unissued stocks of same. Very few of these so-called “Arias Seven Day” notes escaped incineration.

Reference Notes:
1. http://worldcoinnews.blogspot.com/search/label/panama
2. Linzmayer, Owen (2012). “Panama”. The Banknote Book. San Francisco, CA: www.BanknoteNews.com.

Panama is out-of-scope of this Go Lean empowerment roadmap. They are not a member-state that caucuses with the Caribbean Community (CariCom), and they do not even have an “Observer” representation/status within the trade bloc. But since a part of their territory-coastline is on the Caribbean Sea, their dealings should generate review and monitoring from Caribbean planners. There are many issues for the Caribbean to consider – from an academic point-of-view – about this history of Panama: an obvious failed-state as recent as the 1980’s.

Is the American manipulations in Panama’s past reflective of the same America today? The assumption is No! The US no longer draws such “hard lines” in their interactions with peoples of different ethnicity. The country has endured deep soul-searching and reconciliation of its racial past, (Civil Rights Movement, Affirmative Action, etc.), and now even the President of the United States is a Black Man. On the surface today, America is a color-blind society.

On the surface!

Behind the scenes, under the covers, there is another reality. The current American experience is that Black-and-Brown is still institutionally disadvantaged and Wall Street, and by extension “Big American Business”, wields uncanny power over the socio-economic-political affairs of the country. For this and other reasons, the Go Lean movement advocates for Caribbean people and institutions to take their own lead for their own determination. We want to be a protégé of the US, not a parasite.

The roadmap calls for a cooperative entity of the existing regional Central Banks to foster interdependence for the regional Greater Good. We must issue Caribbean banknotes, branded Caribbean Dollars (C$). The totality of the regional market, 42 million people in 30 member-states, is large enough to allow for streamlining of the marketplace, creating the right climate for viable currency/financial/securities markets. While there might be some reticence for liberal currency operations, considering that so many Caribbean member-states had to learn hard lessons on currency over the decades – painful devaluations – the CU is to be structured as a technocracy, with the right mix of skilled talent, gifted genius and independent oversight to allow regional C$ currency markets to soar.

The strategy is not a pro-American stance, no pegging to the US Dollar, therefore no losses will be experienced when the US dollar drops value compared to other international currencies, a far too frequent an occurrence in the last 50 years. The US Dollar planners (Federal Reserve) do not have the Caribbean best-interest in mind for their technocratic decisions regarding their currency management; they have American self-interest in mind. Therefore the Caribbean region must overcome any “fear of math” because the C$ may become stronger, (see VIDEO below), in comparison to the US$. This is why e-Commerce and e-Payments schemes are strongly urged within the CU/Go Lean roadmap.

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

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

Early in the Go Lean book, this need for careful technocratic stewardship of the regional Caribbean economy was pronounced (Declaration of Interdependence – Page 12 – 13) with these acknowledgements and statements:

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.

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

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

The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, stressed the key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to regulate and manage the regional financial eco-system for the Caribbean currency. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Money Multiplier	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Fortify the Stability of the Banking Institutions	Page 45
Strategy – Provide Proper Oversight and Support for the Depository Institutions	Page 46
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Minimizing Bubbles	Page 69
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Caribbean Central Bank	Page 73
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Depository Institutions Regulatory Agency	Page 73
Anecdote – Turning Around CARICOM – Effects of 2008 Financial Crisis	Page 92
Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank as a Cooperative	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Planning –10 Big Ideas – Single Market / Currency Union	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices	Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Planning – Ways to Measure Progress	Page 147
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies	Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Control Inflation	Page 153
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street	Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Appendix – Controlling Inflation – Technical Details	Page 318
Appendix – Jamaica’s International Perception – “High inflation and currency dysfunction”	Page 297

The points of effective, technocratic banking/economic stewardship of regional currencies, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3889	RBC EZPay – Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3858	ECB unveils 1 trillion Euro stimulus program
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3814	Lessons from the Swiss unpegging the franc
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3743	Trinidad cuts 2015 budget as oil prices tumble
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Lessons Learned – Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2930	‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=949	Inflation Matters
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=518	Analyzing the Data – What Banks learn about financial risks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=378	US Federal Reserve Releases Transcripts from 2008 Meetings/Stimulus
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – #3: Quantitative Easing

Similar to Panama, there are a number of Caribbean member-states that use the US dollar as their sole paper currency:

British Virgin Island
Turks & Caicos Islands
Dutch Caribbean Territories: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
US Territories of Puerto Rico & US Virgin Islands

The Go Lean book reports that previous Caribbean administrations have failed miserably in managing regional currencies. Consider Jamaica for example, despite being pegged 1-to-1 with the US dollar in 1960’s, the J$ was trading at 87-to-1 with the US$ at press time for the book (November 2013). Other countries (like Trinidad, Dominican Republic, and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union states) experienced similar turmoil, though at lesser rates of devaluation. The book opens with the declaration that the Caribbean is in crisis because of episodes like these currency failings. In every case, the direct after-effect was increased societal abandonment, and now the reported brain-drain rate is estimated at 70%, with some countries even reporting up to 81%. This disposition is symptomatic of a Failed-State status.

Currency management includes details of more than just the paper-money people carry in their wallets. The book describes the 4 basic functions of money:

a medium of exchange
a unit of account
a store of value
a standard of deferred payment

These dynamics have an effect on inflation/deflation and trade facilitation with other countries. So Central Banks must strenuously manage currency issues to ensure economic progress and avoid financial dysfunction. This point is conveyed in the following VIDEO, as regards the Central Bank management of the Chinese Yuan.

VIDEO: Pegging the Yuan – http://youtu.be/S-9iY1OgbDE

Uploaded on Oct 25, 2010 – How the Chinese Central Bank could peg the Yuan to the dollar by printing Yuan and buying dollars (building up a dollar reserve). This lesson in macro-economics can be applied to any Central Bank, any other currency.

There are so many currency issues that have to be coordinated that the Go Lean book describes the effort as heavy-lifting. The roadmap (Page 5) declares that change has come to the Caribbean, and that new technocrats are ready to assume oversight of regional currency issues:

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won’t let show
You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

(Chorus)
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’d understand
We all need somebody to lean on

(Lyrics of song: Lean On Me, by Singer/Songwriter: Bill Withers)

This is not the same world as 1941 Panama, but still there are many lessons to learn and apply in the Caribbean. The goal is simple, to move the region to a new destination: a better homeland to live, work and play. Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people, banking establishments and the governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean.

🙂

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

———

* Appendix Footnote: Subsequent treaties added an expiration date for 1999; the Canal is now fully Panamanian.

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Banks, Crony-Capitalism, History, Model, Obituary, Power

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The Dynamics of Diaspora Voting

Posted on May 26, 2017 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

So you have an opinion? Good! Now here are the facts.

Did that move your opinion? If not, you’re dogmatic. If, on the other hand, the clarification of facts causes you to adjust your thinking then you have been enlightened.

Welcome to the club!

For the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, the planners of a new Caribbean, it has always been our position that the Diaspora should preserve their voting rights back in the homeland. Now that we have considered the facts below, our relationship status – assuming the ‘romance between man and his hometown’ – must be changed to:

“It’s complicated“; not just “divorced” nor just “separated”.

The primary driver of this position comes from this basic principle of democracy:

No taxation without representation

If this basic principle is accepted then the opposite must also be true:

No representation without taxation.

This may be a fitting analogy for the issue of Diaspora Voting: Imagine a man that divorces his wife, then still tries to dictate who she can subsequently date or marry; that ex-husband’s prerogative should justifiably be revoked.

Can a member of the Caribbean Diaspora leave his/her homeland, stop paying taxes, stop contributing to the community and yet still dictate who should assume leadership in their absence? This would include how to spend the tax dollars that they no longer contribute. (See the Letter to Editor – “Diaspora voting is the people’s rights to decide” in the Appendix below).

Thus, the “complicated” status.

There is a lot of details and complexities associated with Diaspora Voting. See this summary here of this White Paper; (the full White Paper can be accessed at: https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/files/The_History_and_Politics_of_Diaspora_Voting.pdf):

Title: The History and Politics of Diaspora Voting in Home Country Elections

Prepared by Andy Sundberg, based on information from Andrew Ellis and others sources in: ”Voting from Abroad”: The International IDEA Handbook, 2007.

The case for external voting is usually presented as a question of principle, based on the universality of the right to vote. In reality, however, the introduction of external voting is enacted or enabled by legislation passed by elected politicians. Although there have been a variety of reasons for the enactment of external voting provisions, almost all have been the result of political impetus, and many have been controversial and even nakedly partisan.

1. A Brief History of Diaspora Voting
… The reasons for introducing external voting also differ according to the historical and political contexts. Thus, in several countries the introduction of the right to vote for overseas citizens was an acknowledgement of their active participation in World War I or World War II. …Outside the military context, New Zealand introduced absentee voting for seafarers in 1890, and Australia adopted it in 1902, although under operating arrangements which made its use outside Australia practically impossible. …

2. Diaspora Voting In Democratic Transition Countries
The importance of political factors in the adoption and design of external voting provisions was accentuated during the democratic transitions of the 1990s. The inclusion of citizens abroad was often seen as a key element in the process of nation-building, for example, in Namibia in 1989 and South Africa in 1994.Diaspora communities may be active in seeking a post-transition role, and may be particularly influential when they play a role in the domestic politics of major donor countries. However, such pressure is not always successful. …The international community frequently plays a leading or significant role in mediating transitions and even in implementing transitional elections. Transition agreements may therefore contain important and sometimes controversial external voting provisions. …

3. Diaspora Voting and Electoral System Design
Political considerations are not only important in determining whether external voting takes place: they are also influential in defining its form. Many decisions relating to external voting are linked to electoral system design, another highly political aspect of democratic reform and democratic transition.Electoral system design is one of the most important elements in the institutional framework of a country, influencing as it does the political party system. Electoral system reform may be on the agenda as a result of vision or a motivation to improve democracy, or for more short-term, sectoral or even venal reasons on the part of some political participants. This is mirrored by external voting, which may be placed on the democratic agenda by those who believe strongly in the equal right of all citizens to participate—or by political forces which see potential advantage in it.The desire to promote external voting may constrain the options for electoral system design. Conversely, the adoption of a particular electoral system may limit the options for external voting mechanisms. This can be illustrated by considering the three basic options for external voting— personal voting at an external polling site in a diplomatic mission, for example; remote voting by post, fax or some form of e-voting; and voting by proxy.

3.1 Diaspora Voting in Person and Electoral System Design

3.2 Diaspora Remote Voting and Electoral System Design

3.3 Diaspora Voting by Proxy and Electoral System Resign

3.4 Diaspora Voting Timing Issues

4. Who Can Vote and How Voting Takes Place

4.1 The Number of National Diasporas Who Can Vote Today
Voting from abroad is now possible for Diaspora communities from 115 home countries. Of these, 28 come from home countries in Africa; 16 in the Americas; 20 in Asia; 41 in Western, Central and Eastern Europe; and 10 in the Pacific. Provisions for voting by Diaspora communities have been adopted by five additional countries, but rules and voting methods have not yet been decided.

4.2 Restrictions on Diaspora Members Who Can Vote from Abroad
Fourteen countries, who allow voting by their Diaspora communities, impose some time restrictions on such electoral participation. These restrictions are summarized in Table 1 below.

4.3 Different Types of Elections During Which Diaspora Voting is Currently Permitted
There are four principal types of elections where voting by Diaspora members can take place so far.Presidential Elections: Diaspora members from 64 countries can participate in their home country presidential elections.

Legislative Elections: Diaspora members from 92 countries can participate in their home country legislative elections.

Sub-National Elections: Diaspora members from 25 countries can participate in their home country sub-national elections.

Referendums: Diaspora members from 38 countries can participate in their home country referendums.

Diaspora Voting in Different Combinations of Elections: Each country has a different selection of elections that permit vote from their Diaspora members. These elections are shown in Table 2 below.

4.4 Different Types of Diaspora Voting Methods Used
Countries use five different methods of voting for their Diaspora members today.Voting in Person: Diaspora members from 79 countries can vote in person.

Voting by Post: Diaspora members from 47 countries can vote by postal ballot.

Voting by Proxy: Diaspora members from 16 countries can vote by proxy.

Voting by Fax: Diaspora members from 2 countries (Australia and New Zealand) can vote by fax.

Voting by the Internet: Diaspora members from 2 countries (Estonia and the Netherlands) have been able to vote by the Internet so far. (Note: American Diaspora members of Democrats Abroad (DA) were also able to vote in the 2008 overseas primary election by Internet and 48% of the total DA primary votes were cast this way).Different Combinations of Voting Methods: Each country has a different selection of voting methods that are available for their Diaspora members. Some offer only one voting method, but some offer several options. These different options are shown in Table 3 below.

Source: Posted 2007; retrieved May 25, 2017 from: https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/files/The_History_and_Politics_of_Diaspora_Voting.pdf

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – identified the Diaspora as stakeholders in the quest to reform and transform Caribbean society. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all 30 member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The failing of these above societal engines constitute one of the reasons why Caribbean people have left their homelands in the first place. This is identified as the “push” factor; in addition there is the “pull” factor, the lure that life may be more prosperous elsewhere, that the “grass is greener on the other side”. The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be engaged, and must be a regional pursuit, as the societal challenges are too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone to assuage. This regionalism was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like …. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/communities like ….

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. Consider the importance the book (Page 110) highlights as to the aforementioned democratic principle:

The Bottom Line on Taxation without Representation
“No taxation without representation” is a slogan originating during the late-1700s that summarized a primary grievance of the British colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution against Great Britain. Many in those colonies believed that as they were not directly represented in the distant British Parliament, any laws it passed taxing the colonists were illegal under the English Bill of Rights enacted in 1689 and were a denial of their rights. – http://www.notaxationwithoutrepresentation.com Retrieved September 2012.

Today, the phrase is used in Washington, DC, and in Ottawa, Canada as part of the campaign for a vote in Congress or Parliament, to publicize the fact that Capital District residents pay Federal taxes, but do not have a legislative vote. To alleviate this abuse, the CU intends to add 1 (voting) seat in the Legislative House of Assembly to represent residents of its Capital District.

What was your opinion? How has your opinion been altered based on the facts here? The overall assertion from the Go Lean movement (book and blog-commentaries) is that reforming politics-government alone will not reform Caribbean society – it is part-and-parcel with reforming economic and security engines – but we still do need to reform government. Reforming society is a heavy-lifting task; we must have “all hands on deck”, Diaspora included.

While we cannot just say “give us your money” and then “get lost” from our decision-making”, we must also accept that there is a difference for those that are “here” versus those that are not! The Go Lean book (Page 47) therefore identifies this role for the Diaspora as stakeholders in the Caribbean reform-transform heavy-lift:

Caribbean Diaspora
These emigrated citizens still identify with their homelands. Though they may live abroad, they congregate in pockets in urban areas. The CU will foster the development of this group so as to form them into an organized market; this includes individuals and institutions (for-profit companies, not-for-profit organizations and foundations). There is also the reality of the foreign-born children of the Diaspora, identified here as Legacies. These will be tapped for consumer products only.

In total, these stakeholders import foods and drink from the homeland; they demand expressions of Caribbean culture and they consume media produced by Caribbean artists targeting a Caribbean consumer-base. The number constituting the Diaspora is estimated between 6 and 8 million people – for some member-states, a majority of their citizenry lives abroad – this population is not to be ignored. A CU mission is to repatriate this group, for their time, talent and treasuries. Where this repatriation cannot be full-time, the CU proffers a part-time commitment: vacation homes, time-share condominiums, youth mentoring, community coaching, and season-ticket holders for sports and artistic events – in the islands or abroad for touring companies’ performances.

The CU will establish Trade Mission Offices closest to Diaspora pockets (for example: Flatbush in Brooklyn, NY, Jamaica Hill in Lauderhill, FL and Notting Hill, London) to allow efficient trade, visitor/convention promotion & planning and CU federal government interactions.

Yes, the Diaspora can help to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. We urge them to lean-in to this effort.

Consider some previous blog-commentaries here, that elaborated on the role of the Diaspora in the Go Lean roadmap:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11420	‘Black British’ and ‘Less Than’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11244	‘To Live and Die in L.A.’ …
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10820	Miami: Dominican’s ‘Home Away from Home’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657	Stay Home! Outreach to the Diaspora – Doubling-down on Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10494	A Lesson In History – Ending the US Military Draft Accelerated Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646	‘Time to Go’ – American Vices. Don’t Follow!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9017	Proclaim the Same ‘International Caribbean Day’ for All Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8155	Government Referendum Outcome: Exacerbating the ‘Brain Drain’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8099	Caribbean Diaspora Image: ‘Less Than’?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151	The Caribbean is Looking for Heroes … ‘to Return’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5088	Immigrants account for 1 in 11 Blacks in the US
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4613	Learning from Ireland about the Past, Present and Future of the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2547	Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1296	Remittances to Caribbean Increased By 3 Percent

But should these Diaspora members vote while still residing in their foreign abodes?

It’s complicated!

🙂

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

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

————–

Appendix – Letter to Editor – Diaspora voting is the people’s rights to decide

Dear Sir:

It is indeed one step closer to complete freedom of the Jamaican people the unshackling of the last vestige of slavery; a direct challenge to the ruling class who have openly opposed ordinary Jamaicans gaining significant political and economic power.

If you agree with me that ever since independence no government has actually sought to empower the people except under Michael Manley to some degree, then you must conclude that the country is not been governed in the interest of the ordinary people. Diaspora voting right is not an imposition of our will on the Jamaican people but rather the embodiment of the common man’s vision of the future for Jamaica outside of the colonial construct created to perpetuate the economic enslavement our people.

Crime in Jamaica is an instrument of social control to deplete the rising power of a middle-class by forcing them to “fly-out ” and oppress a captive underclass by using them as the dominant electorate subverted by criminal gangs and their “Don” leaders.

We, therefore, cannot assert our political and economic rights from within, our influence on transforming Jamaica can only be achieved under the protection of foreign democracies in which we live. There is no other solution to Jamaica’s crime problem than a political one. Diaspora Jamaicans must demand a vote and end the violence once and for all. This will strengthen our democratic institutions and shift the political dynamics away from garrison politics to allow for the repatriation of economic and human capital to Jamaica for economic development. Economic integration cannot be achieved without political and social integration.

One of the most frequent arguments against Diaspora voting is “they don’t have to live with the consequences”. But I say this, you are right! cause we don’t want to live with the consequences of continued poverty and crime, we want live with the consequences of Jamaica’s prosperity that is why we are demanding the vote.

We are not asking to change the laws, we are only demanding what the constitution guarantees us pursuant to the rights and duty of a citizen under the UN Charter of Rights and Freedom which Jamaica is a signatory. It is an agenda for change through the creation of a cooperative democracy (a real partnership) in which the poor is afforded a safety net, and government projects, programs, and policies are evaluated for sustainability goals.

Signed,
Silbert Barrett

Source: Posted May 16, 2017; retrieved May 25, 2017 from: http://www.caribbea nnewsnow.com/topstory-Letter%3A-Diaspora-voting-is-the-people%27s-rights-to-decide-34467.html

————–

Appendix – Reference Tables

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Oscar López Rivera: The ‘Nelson Mandela’ of the Caribbean?

Posted on May 25, 2017 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Here’s a not-so-fun fact about the First President of a pluralistic democratic Republic of South Africa, Nelson Mandela:

He spent 27 years in prison for terrorism.

Yet, he was hailed a hero upon his release in 1990, and eventually elected as President and a transcendent leader of that country.

Is history about to repeat itself, with Puerto Rican Nationalist Oscar López Rivera?

Hardly!

While the object of animosity – villain – in the Mandela drama was the racist-bigoted government of South Africa, the object of animosity for López Rivera is … the United States of America, albeit a racist-bigoted iteration from the annals of recent history.

Same crime – same disposition? Hardly!

South Africa was never amongst the “Great Powers” of the Earth. (For much of its history – until 1961 – it was a member of the British Dominion and Commonwealth). It is also located at the Southern tip of the African continent – out of sight, out of mind. Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) had righteous indignation and accepted sabotage (a form of terrorism) as a tactic to force change in his country. But … Mandela enjoyed wide international support and concurrence, even from the US … in the end; see his altruism in his motivation here:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realised. But if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. — Mandela’s Rivonia Trial Speech, 1964^[138][139]

Mr. López Rivera also had a quest of righteous indignation against his enemy – advocating for Puerto Rican independence^[6].

Oscar López Rivera (born 6 January 1943) is a Puerto Rican independence activist^[1] who was one of the leaders of the FALN – Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña, a Marxist-Leninist [organization] with a quest to make Puerto Rico an independent communist nation.^[9][10][6] Mr. López Rivera was a fugitive since 1976 and indicted in 1977 and 1979; he was arrested on May 29, 1980 and tried by the United States government for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. López Rivera maintained that according to international law he was an anti-colonial combatant and could not be prosecuted by the United States government. On August 11, 1981, López Rivera was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in federal prison. On February 26, 1988 he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for conspiring to allegedly escape from the Leavenworth federal prison. – Source: Wikipedia.

In truth, López Rivera had the wrong enemy if he wanted international support and concurrence. The US – since World War II – is the Super Power of the day, the #1 Single Market economy and #1 Military establishment. The US President is even considered the Leader of the Free World. But alas, In 2006, the United Nations (UN) called for the release of all convicted for actions related to Puerto Rican independence who had served more than 25 years in US prisons; these ones the UN deemed “political prisoners”.^[28]

On August 11, 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered clemency to López Rivera and 15 other convicted FALN members, subject to the condition of “renouncing the use or threatened use of violence for any purpose” in writing. … López Rivera rejected the offer because one of its conditions was that he [had to] renounce the use of terrorism.^[1][44] On January 17, 2017, President Obama commuted López Rivera’s sentence. His release was scheduled for May 17^[77] … one week ago. See VIDEO in the Appendix below.

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – tracks and monitors the developments of the US Territory of Puerto Rico – it is a Failed-State. Would Puerto Rico have fared better had López Rivera and his cohorts won their revolution?

Probably not!

Despite all the current failures in societies esteeming capitalism – include the US with its Crony-Capitalism and institutional racism – Communist states around the world have fared even worse. In fact the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 while López Rivera was in prison. Another Caribbean territory that defines itself as a Communist state, Cuba, has a terrible disposition, also a Failed-State that people are desperately fleeing from.

López Rivera is no Nelson Mandela! To some, he is not even a hero; see a story about the related protests and boycotts in the Appendix below.

The Go Lean book presents a better plan to finally reform and transform Puerto Rico and the Caribbean; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit, that the problems are too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone – Puerto Rico has been trying this whole time and continue to fail … miserably. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent Overseas Territory of imperial powers, the systems of governance can be instituted on a regional and local basis, rather than requiring oversight or accountability from distant masters far removed from their subjects of administration. The Federation must facilitate success in autonomous rule by sharing tools, systems and teamwork within the geographical region.

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.

Puerto Rico does need a savior, a hero, but López Rivera is not it!

The Go Lean movement calls on Puerto Rico and its neighbors to save itself; this is a call for all 30 Caribbean member-states to convene, collaborate and confederate to provide a better, more effective, technocratic stewardship for the societal engines of the region. Consider this sample of prior blog/commentaries where these points had been elaborated upon:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11812	State of Caribbean Union: Hope and Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11647	Righting a Wrong: Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10895	US President Trump’s Vision of the Caribbean: Yawn
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10700	Petition to Lean-in for the ‘Caribbean Union Trade Federation’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10585	Two Pies: Economic Plan for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043	Integration Plan for Greater Caribbean Prosperity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9595	Vision and Values for a ‘New’ Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7963	‘Like a Good Neighbor’ – Being there for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151	The Caribbean is Looking for Heroes … ‘to Return’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4551	US Territories – Between a ‘rock and a hard place’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3834	State of the Caribbean Union
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=599	Ailing Puerto Rico open to radical economic fixes

Overall, to Oscar López Rivera, we say (Go Lean book conclusion Page 252):

Thank you for your service, love and commitment to [Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans and] all Caribbean people. We will take it from here.

The movement behind Go Lean book, the planners of a new Caribbean stresses that a ‘change is going to come’, one way or another. We have endured failure for far too long; we have seen what works and what does not. We do not need to buy what López Rivera was selling in the 1970’s. We have looked, listened, learned and lend-a-hand since then. We are now ready to lead this country – Puerto Rico – and this region to a better destination, to being a homeland that is better to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————–

Appendix VIDEO – Oscar Lopez Rivera? Hero Or Villain? – https://youtu.be/eje-sPJkaHQ

Published on May 18, 2017 The freed Puerto Rican nationalist was mostly hailed as a hero as he returned to Chicago’s HumboldtPark. New York’s CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports.

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

————–

Appendix Title: Yankees among groups to boycott New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade

The New York Yankees joined the Fire Department of New York City and other high-profile organizations in dropping out of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in response to parade organizers’ plans to honor freed militant Oscar Lopez Rivera.

The Yankees organization didn’t elaborate on its decision, but a spokesperson said in a statement that the team still plans to financially support the parade’s scholarship program:

“The New York Yankees are not participating in this year’s Puerto Rican Day parade. However, for many years, the Yankees have supported a scholarship program that recognizes students selected by the parade organizers. To best protect the interests of those students, and avoid any undue harm to them, the Yankees will continue to provide financial support for the scholarships, and will give to the students directly.”

The June 11 parade, which draws 1 million people each year, also lost key sponsors because of the decision to honor a man considered to be the leader of the ultranationalist Puerto Rican group responsible for more than 100 bombings. Rivera, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 1981 after he was found guilty of seditious conspiracy, served 35 years until his sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.

Among the other organizations skipping the parade are the NYPD’s Hispanic Society and Rafael Ramos foundation.

“We understand that others may not be able to be with us,” a statement by the board of directors of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade said in reference to naming Rivera a national freedom hero. “However, we will continue to represent all voices, with an aim to spark dialogue and find common ground, so that we can help advance our community and build cultural legacy.”
Source: USA Today Daily Newspaper – Posted May 23, 2017; retrieved May 24, 2017 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/yankees/2017/05/23/yankees-to-boycott-new-york-citys-puerto-rican-parade/102058948/

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Rio Olympics – Athens Olympics: Same Strategy; Same Failure

Posted on May 24, 2017 in Government, Implementation, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

It’s simple: learn from mistakes or you repeat them.

This applies to other people’s mistakes as well.

There is the funny anecdote of an insane asylum located in the inner boroughs in some unidentified city. The inmates forced a hole in a border fence and one day they shouted out “Four, four, four …”. A stranger walked by, heard the shouts and peeked in the hole. An inmate poked him in the eye, then shouted “Five, five, five …”.

Mistake made, no lesson learned!

Unfortunately, this is the reality for many countries, in particular “poorer” countries that have hosted the Olympics. There was the clearly documented mistake – “bad” experience – of Athens-Greece hosting the 2004 Olympics. They built many permanent stadiums that were never used again – “white elephants” – they cost a lot of money to build and a lot to maintain. Fast forward to the 2016 Rio De Janeiro-Brazil Olympics and we see the Same Strategy; Same Failure – “the stranger unwisely peeks in the same hole and gets poked in the eye”.

The Rio De Janeiro-Brazil city, state and federal governments ignored the sage advice and built permanent stadia (plural of stadium) and venues for the 2016 Olympic Games and now are suffering the same “black eye”. See the details of this Same Strategy; Same Failure phenomena in the article and VIDEO here:

Title: Scathing report on 2016 Rio Olympics: venues ‘White Elephants’
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A federal prosecutor looking into last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics says that many of the venues “are white elephants” that were built with “no planning.”

The scathing report offered Monday at a public hearing confirms what was reported several months after the games ended. Many of the venues are empty, boarded up, and have no tenants or income with the maintenance costs dumped on the federal government.

“There was no planning,” federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri told the public hearing on the Olympics. “There was no planning when they put out the bid to host the Games. No planning.

“They are white elephants today,” Mitidieri added. “What we are trying to look at here is to how to turn this into something usable.”

Rio de Janeiro spend about $12 billion to organize the games, which were plagued by cost-cutting, poor attendance, and reports of bribes and corruption linked to the building of some Olympic-related facilities.

The Olympic Park in suburban Barra da Tijuca, which was the largest cluster of venues, is an expanse of empty arenas with clutter still remaining from the games. The second largest cluster, in the northern area of Deodoro, is closed despite plans to open it as a public park with swimming facilities for the mostly poor who live in the area.

Patricia Amorim, the undersecretary for sports in the city of Rio, said highly publicized plans were on hold to dismantle one arena and turn the remains into four schools. The arena was the venue for handball.

“It will be dismantled,” she said. “We are just waiting to know whether we will actually have resources to build these schools on other sites, or whether we will dismantle it and wait for the resources to come. Our schools need to be reformed and that’s our priority, not new schools.”

Nine months after the Rio Olympics ended, the local organizing committee still owes creditors about $30 million, and 137 medals awarded during the games are rusting and need to be repaired.

Former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, the moving force with the International Olympic Committee behind organizing last year’s Olympics, is being investigated for allegedly accepting at least 15 million reals ($5 million) in payments to facilitate construction projects tied to the games.

He denies any wrongdoing.

Organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said more than 100 medals awarded at the Olympics showed signs of rusting. He said many were bronze medals, and said many of the tarnished medals had been awarded to Americans.

“Most of the problems were due to handling, poor handling,” Andrada said. “Either they fell on the floor or they were touching each other so, it was a problem of handling. Whatever was the problem with the poor handling, it took the gloss off the medal and then you see rusting.”

He said the medals would be repaired at Brazil’s mint, called the Casa da Moeda.

He said more than 2,000 medals were awarded at the Olympics and said “several other games had problems with medals.”

Source: USA Today Daily Newspaper. Posted May 22, 2017; retrieved May 24, 2017 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2017/05/22/scathing-report-on-rio-olympics-venues-white-elephants/102041926/

—————–

VIDEO – Rio 2016 Olympic Venues Just 6 Months After The Olympics – https://youtu.be/Jh-s2rb1Ka0

Published on Feb 13, 2017 – Summer is over for Brazil’s ‘marvelous city’. In a series of eerie and depressing new photos released last week, the 2016 Summer Olympic venues in Rio de Janeiro are seen filthy and deserted just 6 months after the end of the games, including the legendary Maracana Stadium. In a city that hoped desperately to be lifted out of poverty and debt by making back the money they spent, these are the ruins of a shattered dream.

Rio 2016 was boiled in scandal before it had even began, including a Zika virus outbreak, reports of doping by Russian athletes, and the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff due to corruption. The second largest city in Brazil is millions of dollars in debt with international creditors, and now also owes over 900 thousand dollars to a local energy company.

Murky pools, worn terrain, and vandalism can be found all over the Olympic park. Seats have been torn from the once-iconic arena. The future of these shockingly neglected buildings remains uncertain, but they’re unlikely to be a high priority among Rio’s long list of coming challenges.

Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

Temporary stadium over permanent stadium – this is a familiar advocacy for the publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. These points are gleaned from this previous blog-commentary from June 5, 2014:

Learn from Greece – Why build expensive permanent stadiums for temporary (sports/cultural) events, when there is such an effective art and science with temporary stadiums?! This important lesson was ignored in Brazil for the FIFA World Cup 2014.
…
The subsequent article and [embedded] VIDEO (from the cable channel HBO’s documentary Real Sports) describes the folly for expensive permanent stadiums for short-term events; especially while the art and science of temporary stadiums is so effective.

VIDEO: Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Episode #206 Web Clip – White Elephants (HBO Sports) – http://youtu.be/lHUiyxKgg1s

…
The foregoing article discourages investment in permanent venues unless there is a solid long-term business plan. The Go Lean roadmap concurs – Greece did not recover from the flawed Olympic build-out for facilities that were never used again after the 2004 Games. On the other hand, here is the encouragement and recommendation to develop fairgrounds and deploy temporary stadia, arenas and theaters. Imagine a golf tournament; no one would expect bleachers and grandstands at the putting greens to be permanent structures. No, there is a place for temporary structures in the world of sports.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all the 30 member-states in the region. The roadmap asserts that there could be many economic and societal benefits by harnessing the potential from the world of sports. While sports are not the roadmap’s primary purpose, related pursuits are recognized as important strategies. A mission of the Go Lean roadmap is quoted as “forge industries and economic drivers around the individual and group activities of sports and culture” (Page 81). But make no mistake, there is NO recomendation for the Caribbean to host the Olympics … ever.

Overall, this CU/Go Lean roadmap describes these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs; 21,000 direct jobs at sports enterprises, venues and fairgrounds throughout the region.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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.

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

The Go Lean book avoids the Same Strategy; Same Failure pitfall; it provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, including the full opportunities in the world of sports.

There are a number of sports – Tennis, Auto Racing, Beach Volleyball, and Soccer/Football (i.e. 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany) – which fully explore temporary bleachers/grandstands. This is the wise course; the art-and-sciences of temporary structures is a best-practice.

Why would anyone consider expensive permanent stadia when temporary stadia is better? This would be stupid! But alas, a previous Go Lean commentary has posited that Stupidity persists when “someone is getting paid”. This is the lesson learned from Rio … and Athens.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – governing institutions and the people (athletes and fans) – to abide by best-practices and lean-in for this Go Lean roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation; Same Strategy; Same Failure no more! Now is the time to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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History, Model, Power, Sports

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Want Better Security? ’Must Love Dogs’

Posted on May 23, 2017 in Government, Implementation

Go Lean Commentary

So you want to secure your homeland against terror and other threats? Here’s a key requirement:

‘Must Love Dogs’

This is so true; man’s best friend can also be our best partner for mitigating threats of terroristic acts in public places. This is common sense … now that we have seen how devious the terrorists can be, exploiting soft targets right outside any hard target zones.

This is a fresh concern as there was a terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England last night (May 22, 2017). The attacker was an ISIS-backed suicide bomber who positioned himself among the exiting concert-goers for a show at the Arena. (The artist is American teen pop-sensation Ariana Grande, a fan-favorite among teenage girls and boys). He detonated his “Improvised Explosive Device” (IED) right outside the security zone while people were exiting to leave. So far, the death toll is 22, with 59 injuries. See full details on the story, aftermath and investigation here:

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Manchester Concert Attack; 22 Dead

Manchester Arena – Situation Normal

Manchester Arena – Monday Night May 22, 2017

Expect more revelations of the motives and bitter consequences of this attack against “innocence”.

This is a matter of serious concern for planners of a new Caribbean. This is Terrorism 101; this is affecting the whole world and our world. Though this attack was far away from the Caribbean islands, it was not far away from Caribbean people, as related in a previous blog-commentary from the promoters of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, there is a large Caribbean Diaspora in Manchester.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The book asserts that the needed security apparatus to better defend against the modern threats of terrorism is too much for any one Caribbean member-state alone. There must be a regional integrated and confederated solution. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

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

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

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

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

Is there anything more that could have been done to prevent this Manchester Terrorist Attack? Let the post-trauma analysis begin! For one, the planners of the new Caribbean security apparatus have always presented this ingredient to the recipe for security success:

Must love dogs!

In a previous blog-commentary, it was related how specially-trained canines can help to better secure the Caribbean homeland. Consider this quotation:

The subject of animals and animal companionship is also pivotal in the roadmap for elevating Caribbean society, especially for the security engines. The Go Lean book posits (Page 185) that better command of Animal Husbandry can facilitate better security around the region’s economic engines. Dogs feel a lot less intrusive and less intimidating than formal security screening, or personnel patrolling with AK47 automatic rifles. Imagine a beautiful Caribbean beach scene with a plain clothes “officer” walking along with specialty dogs, or more exactly:

Drug Sniffing Dogs

Bomb Sniffing Dogs

Service/Therapy Dogs

This is one implementation that could have been deployed to mitigate the terrorism threat in Manchester … and everyday here in the Caribbean. Yes, this is in hindsight; this is “Monday Morning Quarterbacking“. This is not fair to the 22 lives lost in Manchester, but this is most importantly a pledge, not to let those lives die in vain. Let’s apply the lessons-learned.

This implementation with service dogs is just one “how”. The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to better ensure homeland security in the Caribbean region.

Consider this one chapter (and Case Study) … where the Go Lean book fully detailed the advocacy of Animal Husbandry; see these headlines from Page 185:

Case Study: Trikos K9 Warriors
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon [in April 2013], highly trained dogs were rushed to the scene to search for more explosives. Boston Police have said dogs swept the streets in the morning and a second time just an hour before the first marathoners crossed the finish line. It’s considered likely that the bombers planted their devices well after the dogs finished sweeping the area. Since 9/11, dogs have been used more than ever because nothing has proven more effective against hidden bombs than the nose of a working dog. The best of them serve with U.S. Special Operations, so much of what they do is classified, but by looking at the trainers, Trikos K9 Warriors (www.trikos.com) – on a 20-acre ranch in rural Cooper, Texas – one gets a rare glimpse inside the secretive world of these elite dogs. Most of them are from one breed, Belgian Malinois.
Dogs and their handlers work as a team, train as a team, and they go through so much together their bond is as strong as a band of brothers. In Afghanistan, they led their units and protected them in battlefields littered with hidden bombs. Per former Navy SEAL and Trikos Founder Mike Ritland: “same thing that they do for [the troops] overseas, detect explosives, they can do on American streets; plus they can run faster than 30 miles an hour so they can help take down suspects”.
See Appendix below for VIDEO from CBS News Magazine “60 Minutes”.

10 Ways to Improve Animal Husbandry

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration The CU treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby impaneling a federal layer for oversight of the economy and security of the 30 member-states and 42 million people. One CU mission is to facilitate better security around the region’s economic engines. Another mission is to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. In considering the needs of the 42-million population, there must be some consideration for their animals. Beyond the CU overseeing food-supply regulations and spearheading the security benefits of employing specially trained service animals, the CU will spur philanthropy for more animal husbandry efforts, such as foundations advocating Spay/Neuter goals for dogs/cats. Lastly, the CU will coalesce with local authorities to ensure “dog parks” in urban/suburban areas.
2	Plantations for Bomb Sniffing Dogs The CU assumes the responsibility to assuage systemic risks and economic crimes. This includes marshaling defensive support for events/festivals, against terrorism and cross border gangs. The US model of Trikos K9 Warriors will be adopted with Belgian Malinois dogs, to breed them on plantations and train them to detect and interdict explosives.
3	Cadaver Dogs / Drug Sniffing Dogs / Drug Sniffing Pigs The CU will install plantations for dogs and pigs (Vietnamese Potbellies are especially acute) to train them to detect drugs/contraband and cadavers. The CU will maintain animals on-the-ready for acquisition by local and federal police.
4	Police K9 Units Each member-state may currently have a platoon of K9 police dogs, but their average service life is less than 10 years. So there is always a constant need for service animals. These needs will henceforth be fulfilled locally within the region.
5	Horses for Mounted Police Many polices forces have a Mounted Police Squad. These are especially critical for patrols at events and crowded locales. The CU will facilitate the acquisition and training of horses for the region’s Mounted Police units. These breeding and training plantations are ideal for rural area development, thus spurning an economic benefit.
6	Water Focus – Seals and Dolphins Service animals are not only the land variety. There are aquatic mammals as well: seals and dolphins. These species are excellent for securing maritime and naval operations – the CU are all islands and coastal states. The best practice is to mount mobile cameras on these mammals and have them patrol a specified grid. The economies of scale of the CU will allow for the deployment of these creative solutions while any one member-state alone cannot justify the investment. These deployments should not be secretive, but rather exposed to local/foreign media for image promotion.
7	Service Dogs for the Blind / Disabled – Domestic and Tourists
8	Comfort Animals for Therapies and Treatment
9	Bio-Medical Farms (Pigs, Baboons)
10	Agricultural Considerations – Animals for Foods

The Go Lean movement (book and preceding blog-commentaries) relate that security is not automatic, innate nor natural – Freedom is not Free. There is heavy-lifting involved in protecting the homeland for Caribbean stakeholders: residents and visitors. This point was detailed in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11332	Boston Bombing Anniversary – Learning Lessons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10959	See Something, Say Something … Do Something
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on Terrorism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103	Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
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=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=392	Jamaica received World Bank funds to help in crime fight

The quest of the Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. This means measurable reduction (mitigating and remediation) of crime, interpersonal violence and systemic threats in the region. The Go Lean book presents a regional solution to remediate and mitigate crime and terrorism in the Caribbean, featuring details of strategies, tactics and implementations designed based on best-practices from around the world. The book’s vision is quite simple:

If we fail to plan, then we plan to fail.

The premise in the Go Lean book is that “bad actors” will always emerge, from internal and external origins. We must be prepared and on-guard to defend our homeland against all threats, foreign and domestic, including terrorism and interpersonal violence. Plus, we must accomplish this goal with maximum transparency, accountability, and commitment to due-process and the rule-of-law. Thusly, there is a place for many tools and techniques, think: closed-circuit TV (CCTV), dashboard and body cameras.

The title on this commentary – ‘Must Love Dogs’ – puns the title of the 2005 Movie of the same name. That movie was not about Terrorism nor about dogs. (It was about a couple who met through an internet dating site that matched their dog-loving profiles).

See a review of the movie here: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/must-love-dogs-2005.

Yes, we can – with our “love for dogs” – make our homeland a better-safer place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

—————

Appendix VIDEO – Sniffing Out Bombs: America’s most elite dogs – https://youtu.be/FsnPAQ137fY

Published on Apr 21, 2013 – Lara Logan gets a rare look into the secretive world of working dogs — some of whose capabilities are military secrets — and their handlers.

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

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Events, Model, Security, Terrorism, UK

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State of the American Union – Indian Termination Policy

Posted on May 22, 2017 in Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World on his initial voyage in 1492, he brought along with him Benedictine Priests as missionaries for any native people encountered.

Encounter they did!

From this start, the quest to assimilate native people (dubbed “Indians” by all European colonizers) – to make them civilized Christians – had started in earnest and didn’t end until …

… what time is it? 🙁

The experience of European colonizers versus indigenous tribes is similar throughout the New World, but the historic model of the quest to assimilate native people is best represented by the American experience. There were the colonial efforts and early American efforts – make that wars – but eventually there was a compromise for the “White” people to co-exist with the native people, to grant them “tribal sovereignty”. This quest is codified in the American Constitution and further expanded in the Tenth Amendment (Bill of Rights); see this quotation here:

It may be noted that while Native American tribal sovereignty is partially limited as “domestic dependent nations,” so too is the sovereignty of the federal government and the individual states – each of which is limited by the other. The will of the people underlies the sovereignty of both the U.S. federal government and the states, but neither sovereignty is absolute and each operates within a system of dual sovereignty. According to the reservation clause of the Tenth Amendment, the federal state possesses only those powers delegated to it by the Constitution (expressly or implicitly), while all other powers are reserved to the individual states or to the people. For example, the individual states hold full police powers. On the other hand, the individual states, like the Indian tribes, cannot print currency or conduct foreign affairs, or exercise other powers assigned by the Constitution to the federal state. Viewed in this light, tribal sovereignty is a form of parallel sovereignty^[1] within the U.S. constitutional framework, constrained by but not subordinate to other sovereign entities. – Source: Wikipedia

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – details a study of the Native American efforts to preserve and elevate their society while amongst the general American population. They failed (and continue to fail) miserably. The US has a long bad history of ethnic genocide and discrimination – see the VIDEO in Appendix B below – this had been the State of their American Union.

The Go Lean book asserts that there are lessons from Indian Reservations for the Caribbean region to learn and apply in our efforts to elevate our Caribbean region. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. A CU mission is to integrate resources to field a confederated response to economic challenges and security threats. This strategy was not applied by the Indian-Native American tribes during their history. After losing many one-on-one battles against the stronger US Army; they were forced into treaties that relegated them to these Reservations.

The official American policy did not stop with Reservations; it migrated to an Indian Termination Policy – an attempt to assimilate Native American people into mainstream society, into the American Union. See more here:

Indian Termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.^[1] It was shaped by a series of laws and policies with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American society. Assimilation was not new. The belief that indigenous people should abandon their traditional lives and become “civilized” had been the basis of policy for centuries. But what was new was the sense of urgency, that with or without consent, tribes must be terminated and begin to live “as Americans”.^[2] To that end, Congress set about ending the special relationship between tribes and the federal government. The intention was to grant Native Americans all the rights and privileges of citizenship, reduce their dependence on a bureaucracy whose mismanagement had been documented, and eliminate the expense of providing services for native people.^[3]

In practical terms, the policy ended the U.S. government’s recognition of sovereignty of tribes, trusteeship over Indian reservations, and exclusion of state law applicability to native persons. From the government’s perspective Native Americans were to become taxpaying citizens, subject to state and federal taxes as well as laws, from which they had previously been exempt.^[4]

From the native standpoint, Northern Cheyenne former U.S. Senator from Colorado Ben Nighthorse Campbell said of assimilation and termination in a speech delivered in Montana^[5]:

“If you can’t change them, absorb them until they simply disappear into the mainstream culture. …In Washington’s infinite wisdom, it was decided that tribes should no longer be tribes, never mind that they had been tribes for thousands of years.” – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Opening Keynote Address.

The policy for termination of tribes collided with the Native American peoples’ own desires to preserve native identity, reflected in an activism that increased after World War II and survived through the anti-collectivism era of Joseph McCarthy. The termination policy was changed in The Sixties and rising activism resulted in the ensuing decades of restoration of tribal governments and increased Native American self-determination.

See the links to the detailed Table of Contents on the Indian Termination Policy in Appendix A below.

The Go Lean book posits that if the Native American tribes were able to integrate and consolidate to one unified effort they would have been so much more successful. This is not our contention alone.

Today – May 22, 2017 – marks the 75^th birthday of the late Native American Activist Richard Oakes; this is the Google Doodle in his honor. His quest was to unite all Native American tribes in their struggle for civil rights. This was a noble gesture on his part, worthy of his devotion and sacrifice; (he was assassinated on September 20, 1972).

See the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Activist Richard Oakes delivers the Alcatraz proclamation – http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/807660/richard-oakes-activist-biography-death-michael-morgan-assassination-google-doodle

Richard Oakes has been honoured with a special Google Doodle – today May 22, 2017 – which shows him alongside three locations that defined his life and legacy.

The illustration features the Mohawk Indian reservation in Akwesasne – where Oakes was born, Alcatraz Island – where he launched a 19-month occupation, and Pit River – where he helped to recover tribal land.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean has a similar quest as the foregoing activist and advocacy, for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region to convene, collaborate and confederate. There are many benefits to flow from such an unification effort.

These benefits are pronounced in the Go Lean/CU roadmap as the prime directives, with these 3 statements:

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

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14):

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

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

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

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like East Germany, Detroit, Indian (Native American) Reservations, Egypt and the previous West Indies Federation. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/communities like New York City, Germany, Japan, Canada, the old American West and tenants of the US Constitution.

Consider this one chapter … where the Go Lean book fully detailed the lessons learned from Native American Reservations; see these headlines from Page 141:

10 Lessons from Indian Reservations

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration The CU treaty calls for the unification of the 30 member-states in a Single Market of 42 million people. The CU mission is to integrate resources to field a confederated response to economic challenges and security threats. This strategy was not applied by the Indian tribes. After losing many one-on-one battles against the stronger US Army; they were forced into treaties that relegated them to Reservations. While the CU gets its legal authority through national treaties, these can be counted as assets (strengths), guaranteeing specific rights and privileges, rather than weaknesses. The synergy from inter-tribe cooperation was never a feature of Indian life – no benefits from brotherhood and confederation. US integration of multiple cultures led to economic prosperity, while the Reservations never enjoyed the American Dream.
2	Image Management
3	Heritage As Hostage More than 80 years after the [original 1890] battle, beginning on February 27, 1973, Wounded Knee [Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation] was the site of another incident, a 71-day standoff between militants of the American Indian Movement (AIM) — who had chosen the site for its symbolic value — and federal law enforcement officials. The legacy of the 1890 massacre had lingered up to that point, and continues even now. The Lakota strategized their engagement in the US as if they are Prisoners-of-War rather than full American citizens. The lesson for the CU is to facilitate the future, not burden children with anguish against past sins.
4	Sovereignty – *Subject Only to Congress* All Indian Reservations were codified by treaties with the US federal government. This allows semi-autonomousjurisdiction from any domicile State. This is the basis for the establishment of casino gambling on reservations, though not legal in that state. The CU advocates the establishment of Self Governing Entities that are regulated only by the CU.
5	Casinos – *Managed by Gaming Professionals*
6	Economic Empowerment – Audacity of Hope Treaties (and subsequent statues) between Reservation tribes and federal government have strived for new economic empowerments: fishing, hunting, some tribes have even begun herding buffalo and catching wild salmon for market.
7	Alcoholism – Absence of Hope Reservations suffer from a disproportionately high rate of poverty and alcoholism – a continuing problem since founding. These are symptoms of the hopelessness that stems from societal isolation. Some tribes now try to police alcohol on and off the Reservation. The CU accepts that Prohibition tactics do not work and it dissuades economics, like tourism.
8	Brain Drain – Absence of Hope Reservations have historically been economically depressed, with minimal job prospects. The end result, like the CU, people leave/flee. [For example,] today, one half of all identified Lakota live off the Reservation (55,000 of 103,255 from 1990 census).
9	Reservation Health and Suicides – Absence of Hope The population on Reservations, like Pine Ridge, SD [in South Dakota], has among the shortest life expectancies (male: 47 years; female: 52) in the Western Hemisphere. The infant mortality rate is five times the US national average, and sadly, the suicide rate for adolescents is four times the national average. The CU mitigation is to promote a better place to live/work/ play.
10	Entitlements – Absence of Hope Reservations residents are entitled to a share of tribal revenues from gaming, hunting and other economic activities. Plus with additional federal benefits, there is a weakened, work ethic. The CU advocates “work-fare” over welfare.

The Go Lean movement (book and preceding blog-commentaries) relates that cultures and countries are not guaranteed to survive: many native tribes and cultures have been assimilated. In fact, in a recent blog it was detailed how the Central Pacific island-nation of Kiribati is on course to lose all of its land territory due to global warming and the resultant higher sea-levels. They have thusly used their national treasuries to buy land elsewhere (Fiji) with the intent of relocating their people there. This will undoubtedly result in all new children being awarded Fiji birth certificates; and after 2 – 3 generations, the original culture of Kiribati will be extinct, lost to time and tides.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean and accompanying blogs have asserted that without remediation and mitigation efforts, there is no guarantee that countries and/or cultures can survive. The book therefore urges the Caribbean region to act! Already, the English-speaking nations have lost 70 percent of the tertiary educated populations to the Brain Drain, while the US Territories experience an even higher rate of societal abandonment. The Dutch and French Caribbean countries, with their automatic EU citizenship status have the same cultural extinction concerns. Notice these points further developed in these previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11858	Welcome to Kiribati – Say “Hello” and “Goodbye”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10554	Welcoming the French to these Cultural Extinction Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151	The Caribbean is Looking for Heroes … ‘to Return’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4613	Lessons from Ireland – Diaspora Past, Present and Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4551	US Territories – Between a ‘rock and a hard place’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4263	The State of Aruba’s Economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4185	Caribbean Ghost Towns: It Could Happen…Again
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2818	DR President Medina on the economy: ‘God will provide’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2602	Guyana and Suriname Wrestle With High Rates of Suicides
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433	Region loses more than 70% of tertiary educated to Brain Drain

The foregoing is a true and accurate history of the United States of America. Considering their treatment of Native Americans, there should be no rush for the Black-and-Brown of the Caribbean to seek refuge in the US. The book Go Lean posits that fleeing the Caribbean homeland equates to “jumping from the frying-pan into the fire”. What’s more, the Go Lean book asserts – in the quest to lower the rate of societal abandonment – that it is easier to remediate social defects in the Caribbean homeland than to attempt to remediate the American eco-system. The “grass is not greener on the other side”.

We must learn from the experiences of the Native American Tribes and Reservations – in the US and other countries – and reboot our homeland to reform and transform our societal engines, to avoid any possible cultural termination-extinction fate.

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders –governments and people (residents and Diaspora) – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to continue to accentuate our culture. We must work against extinction and societal abandonment by making our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————–

Appendix A – Indian Termination Policy Contents

[The detailed content on the Indian Termination Policy is catalogued as follows:]

Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia; retrieved May 22, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_termination_policy

————–

Appendix B VIDEO – The Tragedy of Wounded Knee – https://youtu.be/0EdRT56WK7Q

Uploaded on Jan 22, 2011 – Not even the powers of the Ghost Dance could save the victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Category: Education
License: Standard YouTube License

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Welcome to Kiribati – Hello and Goodbye

Posted on May 18, 2017 in Government, Planning, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Islands are the greatest places to live … until they are not.

There is nothing better than being surrounded by water on all sides: beach or bay, just having that vista is preferred. Until, higher tides come in … and stay.

Welcome to Kiribati, an island nation (archipelago of 33 atolls and reef islands) in the central Pacific Ocean. This nation is strategically located at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, straddling the equator and the International Date Line; so it is the only country in all 4 hemispheres. (Source: Wikipedia)

Say ‘Hello’ to Kiribati.

Kiribati is also the first country expected to lose all its land territory to global warming. In June 2008, the then-President Anote Tong said that the country has reached “the point of no return.” He added, “to plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that.”^{[31][32][33][34]}

This just got real …

The book Go Lean…Caribbean and accompanying blogs have asserted that there is no guarantee that countries and/or cultures must survive. Some of them do not!

Remember the Babylonians, Mayans, Lucayans, and others. Despite the array of archeological evidence of their historicity, their culture (language and traditions) simply no longer exist.

Kiribati can also no longer exist. In fact, in early 2012, the government of Kiribati purchased the 2,200-hectare Natoavatu Estate on the second largest island of Fiji, Vanua Levu. At the time it was widely reported^[35][36][37] that the government planned to evacuate the entire population of Kiribati to Fiji. In April 2013, President Tong began urging citizens to evacuate the islands and migrate elsewhere.^[38]

We could … say ‘Goodbye’ to Kiribati. See the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Kiribati: The country killed by Climate Change – Truthloader – https://youtu.be/-jMddhJNr9U

Published on Jun 18, 2014 – Kiribati is a tiny nation of 100,000 people living on dozens of islands over a huge area of the South Pacific. And it is set to become the first state completely destroyed by climate change. The government estimates the country will vanish beneath the waves by 2050 due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion, and has an official policy of evacuating the native population. At the same time, it is doing everything it can to protect the pristine ocean environments within its territorial waters, so that even once the country is gone the nature will survive. It’s a pretty sad story.
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The fate of Kiribati is a cautionary tale for the Caribbean. “There but for the Grace of God go I”.

The Go Lean book anticipated the Agents of Change impacting the region, Climate Change is most prominent. This is the direct result of the excessive amount of carbon emitted into the planet’s atmosphere. The Small Islands States like Kiribati and the Caribbean are not the BIG polluters most responsible for this disposition – the US is #1 and China is #2 – but we are among the most affected. So we need to be front-and-center in the protests and advocacy for Climate Change mitigations.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – prepares the Caribbean region for the heavy-lifting of monitoring, managing and mitigating the acute risks of Global Warming, Climate Change and rising sea-levels. We must act now!

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

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

The book stresses that there are external and internal considerations. As any one country in the Caribbean region may be too small to get attention of the watching world, the whole region on the other hand – 30 member-states and 42 million people – operating as a Single Market and One Voice can have more of an impact. Internally, we must “get our own house in order”, so the effort is to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines as part of this regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):

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

iii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our society is that of an archipelago of islands, inherent to this nature is the limitation of terrain and the natural resources there in. We must therefore provide “new guards” and protections to ensure the efficient and effective management of these resources.

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to monitor, manage and mitigate the challenges of Climate Change.

In addition, these previous blog-commentaries detailed a lot of the issues and developments for the Caribbean’s Climate Change efforts:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11442	Caribbean Roots: Al Roker – ‘Climate Change’ Defender
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455	Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449	Due to Climate Change, ‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7103	COP21 – ‘Climate Change’ Acknowledged
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6893	A Meteorologist’s View On Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6016	‘Hotter than July’ – Reality in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4673	‘Climate Change‘ Merchants of Doubt … to Preserve Profits!!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2465	Book: ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2276	Climate Change May Affect Food Supply Within a Decade
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2119	Cooling Effect – Oceans and the Climate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1883	Climate Change May Bring More Kidney Stones
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense cycles of flooding & drought
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=926	Conservative heavyweights have solar industry in their sights
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=915	Go ‘Green’ … Caribbean

We must learn from Kiribati – and other locales – and prepare our homeland as well. We must prepare for the good, bad and the ugly (think extinction). Things can get better, we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play – but this is not automatic; this quest will require a lot of heavy-lifting. 🙂

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

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

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Blog # 600 – State of Caribbean Union: Hope and Change

Posted on May 17, 2017 in Ethos, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Here’s a fact of life: Young people always need Hope and Change.

To ensure this, there have been protest movements – around the world – in recent times where young people have engaged to get attention, to foment their prospects for Hope and Change. Consider:

Arab Spring – Young people in one Arab & North African country after another stood-up in protest of their political & economic status quo.
Occupy Wall Street – Young people in the US complained in enduring street and sleep-in protests outside Wall Street.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – chronicled the rise of these protest movements (Pages 143, 160, 200 & 224). It showed how people at the grass-roots level are able to effect change on the policies and priorities of their country. This is the bottoms-up strategy for forging change; there is also the top-down strategy: getting the political leaders to propose new legislation. Both approaches could be effective in the quest to elevate the 30 member-states in the Caribbean region. The State of our Caribbean Union is that we are in crisis; we must reform and transform our region; it is not optional; it must be done in order to offer Hope and Change to the young people of the Caribbean.

The book states this urgency in the opening (Page 3):

Our youth, the next generation, may not be inspired to participate in the future workings of their country; they may measure success only by their exodus from their Caribbean homeland.

Nine years ago (2008), young voters in the US thronged rapturous rallies for then-presidential-candidate Barack Obama. Then again, early in the 2016 Presidential campaign, young people flocked to candidate Bernie Sanders. Despite the end-result, the natural idealism of youth always looks for political expression. Usually …

Currently, there is no grass-roots change-protest movement in the Caribbean – this is the State of the Caribbean Union. There needs to be … such a movement! This is according to this commentator-columnist scanning this region’s political landscape. See his strong urging here:

Title: Why the concerns of Caribbean youth matter
By: David Jessop

In much of the world, young people feel economically marginalized, politically alienated and in a struggle against insecurity and inequity.

In the Caribbean, it is little different. Lack of opportunity, the absence of generational change, high levels of unemployment, discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, and the slow pace of change, are abiding aspects of the lives of many in the younger generation.

However, unlike their counterparts in other regions of the world, where frustration with the political class and anger with the old order have led to new political movements and protest, no similar region-wide or sustained manifestation of dissent has occurred. Instead, in recent years, protests have been limited and disconnected.

Part of the answer as to why this should be seems to lie in the Caribbean’s smallness and fragmentation. While life in micro-states offers proximity to political and economic opportunity, size also imposes limits on dreams and aspiration. When set alongside the seemingly boundless prospects for material gain in North America and US cultural penetration, the same smallness is almost guaranteed to heighten frustration with the slow pace of national development.

The consequence is a sense of disillusion among many young people, and a desire by many of the best, brightest and better educated to seek avenues of escape to other parts of the world.

Dr Terri-Ann Gilbert Roberts, a UWI/SALISES research fellow who was recently nominated by Caribbean youth to be the UN secretary general’s youth envoy, and who is engaged in research, policy and programme formulation on issues affecting children and youth, speaks with knowledge of the topic.

She believes that while young people in the Anglophone Caribbean may not express their frustrations in traditional highly-visible ways, their concerns are palpable, and can be seen and heard in their online and offline conversations in their communities, and in student and youth organisation debates.

She says that the reason that the views of Caribbean youth do not manifest themselves in large-scale anti-government street protests of the type seen in other parts of the Americas, is not because young people do not share the same concerns about their future, the inclusiveness of Caribbean society, or the accountability of public officials. Instead, she believes that because the Anglophone Caribbean has relatively stable democratic traditions, freedom of expression, a free press, and smallness, young people feel that that their shared concerns are known, but are not adequately addressed.

She argues that because “many young people have lost confidence in the capacity of formal governance processes and structures to address their concerns”, they “question the practical value of investment in large-scale protests in which their voices may be ignored and their actions will not influence change”.

While others believe that the absence of protest in the region is a good thing and reflects the homogeneous nature of Caribbean society, the absence of any real basis for public dialogue with those who may lead or vote for tomorrow’s Caribbean, says much about the region’s malaise, and more importantly its future development.

In common with other societies, many in the older generation in the Caribbean seem to want to hold on to the past and the status they have achieved, sometimes making it seem that all that matters is the jealous guarding of privilege.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in an absence of progress, and bestows legitimacy on defending the political and economic status quo. The consequence is that many nations and regional structures remain locked into thinking that is well past its sell by date, whether it be in relation to politics, the public sector, or business. The effect is to create responses that are inward looking, deeply protective, and lacking leadership, or ambition when it comes to the future for the young. It is reflected in the falling youth voter numbers in many Caribbean nations.

Dr Gilbert-Roberts argues that these frustrations have resulted in a clear majority of Caribbean young people refocussing on what she describes as “self-regulated, constructive and pragmatic spaces for online and offline dialogue” to form a basis for their everyday politics.

Putting this another way, she says that, in the Caribbean, young people are now seeking change in those parts of society over which they have power and influence. She cites as the political expression of this, youth movements in some parts of the region that are calling for public transparency and accountability that seek to audit government processes rather than make generic criticisms of government; environmental clubs; youth clubs that offer homework programmes for children; and offers of peer counselling and mentorship.

There are of course regional variations.

In the Dominican Republic, there is generational mobility but this largely only applies to the well-educated sons and daughters of the elite and the county’s expanding professional classes. In Cuba, its government has belatedly recognised the need to make strenuous efforts to include young people who want more in the way of personal freedoms and materially, while keeping the country’s social gains.

In other parts of the region there are exceptional, often female free thinkers in politics and business. There are young entrepreneurs in the services sector and agriculture who see Caribbean opportunity in new ways. There are very able individuals who in private acknowledge they would seek positions of leadership if politics was less tribal. And there are also large numbers of young men who feel uncertain about their place in society and feel threatened.

Dr Gilbert-Roberts, and others who prefer to speak off the record, observe that the level of frustration may now be growing faster than the capacity of youth groups to respond to the needs in their communities.

“We are already seeing increasing numbers of peaceful civil society protests involving young people: for example, marches in Jamaica against violence against children and women, alongside more disruptive protests, for example in Dominica in relation to oppositional politics… If and when these youth movements join up, and connect with the broader frustrations of other segments of the society, we will begin to see new and more visible forms of expression which could also become catalysts for change,” she observes.

Addressing youth alienation, declining educational standards, and the glass ceiling on aspiration, requires high level leadership and action. If the concerns of the region’s young people are not recognised and embraced by its political and business class, change and new thinking could well be driven by unmanaged events.

About the Author: David Jessop is a consultant to the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at
david.jessop@caribbean-council.org. Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org
Source: Caribbean News Network – Posted May 13, 2017; retrieved May 16, 2017 from: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Commentary%3A-The-View-from-Europe%3A-Why-the-concerns-of-Caribbean-youth-matter-34441.html

It is important to glean these main points from this foregoing article by David Jessop (Caribbean Council Consultant), to better understand the State of the Caribbean Union and the lack of Hope and Change aspirations here:

The Caribbean status quo is failing from the perspective of young people – there is a “glass ceiling of aspiration”:
- Lack of opportunity
- Absence of generational change
- High levels of unemployment
- Discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation
- Slow pace of change
Other regions – i.e. Arab Spring – have active or recent political movements and protests
Caribbean youth do complain … in small voice and online
The smallness of most of the Caribbean member-states lead to fragmentation and disunity
Entrenched leaders want to conservatively hold on to the status privilege
There is a foundation for change: democratic institutions, freedom of speech and press; even small starts in Cuba.
These ones are challenging orthodoxy, particularly many female free thinkers in politics, business and entrepreneurism.
But young people seem settled on only changing the periphery: demanding transparency, accountability and audits
There is the need for more disruptive transformation: “out with the old; in with the change”.

These main points of the foregoing article correspond to the Go Lean movement, the original book and blog-commentaries, especially among the last 100 or so, the most recent milestone. This submission is a new milestone; this is blog-commentary # 600. These prior entries posit that the Caribbean status quo is truly in crisis, and that any alternative destination (North America or Western Europe) is not a fitting refuge for the Caribbean Black-and-Brown.

Really, the assertion is that the best option for Hope and Change in the Caribbean is to work to reform and transform the Caribbean, all 30 member-states for the full population of 42 million people. (This is the quest of the Go Lean movement, to forge a Single Market and a technocratic government for the 30 Caribbean member-states). Consider these consistent themes from these previous blog-commentary samples:

The Caribbean status quo is failing…
… there is a long list of societal defects:
- Stupidity
- Orthodoxy
- Rent-seeking practice
- Complexity with Terrorism mitigation
America is failing … for many of its own people and definitely the Black-and-Brown Caribbean people
- Strong Abusing the Weak series
- President Trump plan / no plan for Caribbean region shows: We must act ourselves
- President Trump even opposed a bailout for Puerto Rico, an American territory.
Europe is failing for Caribbean people
Canada is too cold!
- This country is a Great model of modern pluralistic democracy, just too cold
- Second Class Citizens as Guest Workers
- Chilly Attitudes towards Caribbean Banking
- But Climate Change is making Northern locales less unbearable
The Go Lean roadmap seeks to not waste this Caribbean crisis.
- Righting the Wrongs – Consider this series on lessons learned.
The Caribbean must prosper where planted … in the homeland
- Stay Home! Consider this series.
- The Change to the Two Pies.
- Focus on our youth!

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs studied the good, bad and ugly lessons from a number of communities around the world – see the most recent American protest movement in the Appendix VIDEO below – and then presented a plan to grow the Caribbean regional economy, create jobs, secure the homeland and optimize governance.

Yes, we can.

But the Go Lean book asserts that this effort is too big a task for just one Caribbean member-state alone, so the book urges all 30 member-states to convene, confederate and collaborate in order to effect change. As such, the Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. (The issue of jobs alone is paramount to any Hope and Change movement in the region).
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

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

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book accepts that the current (failing) State of the Caribbean Union does not have to be a permanent disposition. Under the Go Lean roadmap, a 5-year plan, we can do better; all of the Caribbean can do better. This roadmap (370-page book) provides the “how”, the turn-by-turn details of the community ethos to adopt, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

This commentary is 1 of 5 in a non-sequential series on the State of the Caribbean Union. This series depicts the dysfunctional and defective state of affairs (economics, security and governance) throughout the entire region; there are some common traits. These have been assessed by the Go Lean movement. The full entries of all the blog-commentaries in this series are as follows:

State of the Caribbean Union – Lacking Hope and Change
State of the Caribbean Union – Dysfunctional Spanish Caribbean
State of the Caribbean Union – Deficient Westminster System
State of the Caribbean Union – Unstable Volcano States
State of the Caribbean Union – Self-Interest of Americana

Can we change the State of the Caribbean Union? Yes, we can. We need our own Hope and Change movement … anew … here at home. We need to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – Trump inspires grassroots protest movement – http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/02/03/trump-grassroots-protest-movement-todd-tsr-dnt.cnn

Posted February 3, 2017 – CNN’s Brian Todd reports on the surge of anti-Trump protests across the United States. – Source: CNN

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ENCORE: ‘Concussions’ hit home

Posted on May 16, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Miami, Florida – If you’re a fan of American football (NFL or the National Football League) then you know how impactful it is to go undefeated from the beginning to the end of the season, playoffs included. Only one team has done it … ever: the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The 50 players on that team became heroes to every football-loving kid anywhere near the broadcast waves of Miami.

There was a time when these guys were my heroes.

But “time and unforeseen occurrences befall us all” – The Bible (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

There is a connection between Miami and the Caribbean; the city has become much more than a shopping destination; it has redefined itself as the financial, political and sports capital of the Caribbean and Latin America.

So this news is shocking to receive, as the Miami Herald newspaper reports that many of the players on the 1972 Dolphins team now suffer from CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).

Say it ain’t so …

It seemed like this CTE disease was so far-off; an affliction on people “over there” … somewhere. But to hit the 1972 Dolphins players means that this disease has come home…to our local heroes.

🙁

See the story here in this recent Miami Herald article:

Title: Football’s toll: At least eight members of 1972 Dolphins affected by cognitive impairment

They called him Captain Crunch, and the name was fitting. Mike Kolen packed a punch.

Now, 45 years after the Dolphins’ No-Name Defense ran through the 1972 season undefeated, Kolen and his perfect teammates are tied together again. But instead of celebration, there’s heartache.

South Florida’s most legendary team has become a cautionary tale, a poignant symbol of the concussion saga that threatens the future of America’s favorite sport.

“Within the last month or so, I’ve been diagnosed with the initial stages of Alzheimer’s,” Kolen, a starting linebacker on Miami’s two Super Bowl-winning teams, told the Miami Herald.

And was football the cause?

“I think that’s about the only way I’d have cognitive issues,” replied Kolen, 69, who has no family history of dementia.

Kolen’s story is not unique for Miami’s most historic team.

Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated detailed how Kolen’s better-known 1972 teammates Nick Buoniconti and Jim Kiick have both deteriorated mentally in the past few years.

After quarterback Earl Morrall’s death in 2014, an autopsy revealed he had Stage 4 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease more commonly known as CTE that researchers have linked to football.

Bill Stanfill, the Dolphins’ first sack king, suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease when he died last fall at age 69.

Three others from that famed roster — cornerback Lloyd Mumphord, defensive back Tim Foley and running back Hubert Ginn — have quietly dealt with cognitive impairment in recent years, teammates tell the Herald.

That makes at least eight members of a roster of roughly 50 men who have experienced loss of acuity. And that figure includes only those who keep in regular contact with the organization; several do not.

Roughly a quarter of the ’72 team has passed away, including five from cancer. Manny Fernandez, a defensive lineman who was the star of Super Bowl VII, has had eight surgeries on his back alone. Center Jim Langer, 68, said his “legs are bad and my knees are shot” after six operations.

…

Even the NFL acknowledges – see VIDEO below – that there is a link between football-related head trauma and neurological diseases like CTE after denying any such connection for years. …

Continue reading the full article here; (it is lengthy):

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article150311157.html retrieved 05-11-2017.

———

VIDEO – NFL acknowledges link between football and brain disease CTE – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4503362/Seven-members-72-Dolphins-suffered-brain-injuries.html#v-6189767714419658422

Relating Miami to the Caribbean makes this story relatable to the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. One purpose of this movement is to engage business models so that Caribbean communities can better take advantage of the economic benefits of sports. There are few expressions of professional sports in the Caribbean now – there is no eco-system for collegiate athletics at all. Due to the territorial status and the border proximity, there are 3 member-states with organized American Football league play in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.

With the advantages of professional sports (money from ticket sales & broadcast rights, pride, athletic fitness, etc.), come disadvantages as well. CTE, as one, is only now begrudgingly been accepted as a direct consequence of the often times brutal game of American Football.

This was the warning from this previous blog-commentary that marked the release of the movie “Concussion”, chronicling the David-versus-Goliath-like advocacy of the Pathology Doctor who “blew the whistle” on the systemic “willful” ignorance and Crony-Capitalistic abuse in the NFL. This excerpt highlights some main points from that blog:

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

These descriptors actually describe the latest production from Hollywood icon Will Smith (the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). This movie, the film “Concussion”, in the following news article, relates the real life drama of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born medical doctor – a pathologist – who prepared autopsies of former players that suffered from football-related concussions. He did not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo, and now, he is celebrated for forging change in his adopted homeland. This one man made a difference. (The NFL is now credited for a Concussion awareness and prevention protocol so advanced that other levels of the sport – college, high schools and Youth – are being urged to emulate).

Beyond the excerpt, see the entire blog-commentary from August 31, 2015 on the movie ‘Concussion‘ and the dreaded CTE disease being encored here:

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Go Lean Commentary – ‘Concussions’ – The Movie; The Cause

“Are you ready for some football?” – Promotional song by Hank Williams, Jr. for Monday Night Football on ABC & ESPN networks for 22 years (1989 – 2011). See Appendix below.

This iconic song (see Appendix) and catch-phrase is reflective of exactly how popular the National Football League (NFL) is in the US:

“They own an entire day of the week”.

So says the new movie ‘Concussions’, starring Will Smith, referring to the media domination of NFL Football on Sundays during the Autumn season. The movie’s script is along a line that resonates well in Hollywood’s Academy Award balloting: “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”.

In the case of the NFL, it is not just about power, it is about money, prestige and protecting the status quo; the NFL is responsible for the livelihood of so many people. The book Go Lean … Caribbean recognized the importance of the NFL in the American lexicon of “live, work and play”; it featured a case study (Page 32) of the NFL and it’s collective bargaining successes (and failures) in 2011. An excerpt from the book is quoted as follows:

Football is big business in the US, $9 billion in revenue, and more than a business; emotions – civic pride, rivalries, and fanaticism – run high on both sides.

Previous Go Lean commentaries presents the socio-economic realities of much of the American football eco-system. Consider a sample here:

Socio-Economic Impact Analysis of [Football] Sports Stadiums

Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Levi’s® NFL Stadium: A Team Effort

Sports Role Model – College Football – Playing For Pride … And More

Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network

Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean – Model of NCAA

10 Things We Want from the US: #10 – Sports Professionalism

10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #10 – ‘Win At All Costs’ Ethos

While football plays a big role in American life, so do movies. Their role is more unique; they are able to change society. In a previous blog / commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

Yes, movies help us to glean a better view of ourselves … and our failings; and many times, show us a way-forward.

These descriptors actually describe the latest production from Hollywood icon Will Smith (the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). This movie, the film “Concussion”, in the following news article, relates the real life drama of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born medical doctor – a pathologist – who prepared autopsies of former players that suffered from football-related concussions. He did not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo, and now, he is celebrated for forging change in his adopted homeland. This one man made a difference. (The NFL is now credited for a Concussion awareness and prevention protocol so advanced that other levels of the sport – college, high schools and Youth – are being urged to emulate).

See news article here on the release of the movie:

Title: ‘Concussion’: 5 Take-a-ways From Will Smith’s New Film

Will Smith, 46, is definitely going to get a ton of Oscar buzz portraying Dr. Bennet Omalu in the new film “Concussion.” NFL columnist Peter King of Sports Illustrated got an exclusive first peek at the trailer and it has been widely shared on social media since. And it’s very chilling.

Here are five take-aways and background you need to know before checking out the clip:

1 – It’s Based on a True Story

Omalu is the forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players who got hit in the head over and over again, according to the Washington Post.

In the clip, he says repetitive “head trauma chokes the brain.”

Omalu was one of the founding members of the Brain Injury Research Institute in 2002. He conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, played by David Morse in the film, which led to this discovery.

2 – Smith’s Version of Omalu’s Accent Is Spot On

Omalu is from Nigeria and Smith has been known to transform completely for a role. He was nominated for an Oscar for 2011’s “Ali,” playing the legendary Muhammad Ali.

For comparison, here’s Omalu’s PBS interview from 2013.

3 – Smith Is a Reluctant Hero

“If you don’t speak for them, who will,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Prema Mutiso in the film, tells Smith’s character.

He admits he idolized America growing up and “was the wrong person to have discovered this.”

4 – Alec Baldwin and Luke Wilson

“Concussion” brought in some heavyweights for this movie. Baldwin plays Dr. Julian Bailes, who advises Omalu, and Wilson, who will reportedly play NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to IMDB. There’s no official word on this. He’s seen at a podium in the trailer, but doesn’t speak.

5 – “Tell the Truth”

Smith captures Omalu’s passion to have the truth told about this injury and disease.

“I was afraid of letting Mike [Webster] down. I was afraid. I don’t know. I was afraid I was going to fail,” Omalu told PBS a couple years back.

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VIDEO Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322364/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Will Smith stars in the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player.

The subject of concussions is serious – life and death. Just a few weeks ago (August 8), an NFL Hall-of-Fame inductee was honored for his play on the field during his 20-year professional career, but his family, his daughter in particular, is the one that made his acceptance / induction speech. He had died, in 2012; he committed suicide after apparently suffering from a brain disorder – chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a type of chronic brain damage that has also been found in other deceased former NFL players^[4] – sustained from his years of brutal head contacts in organized football in high school, college and in his NFL career. This player was Junior Seau.

Why would there be a need for “David versus Goliath”; “a small man speaking truth to power”? Is not the actuality of an acclaimed football player committing suicide in this manner – he shot himself in the chest so as to preserve his brain for research – telling enough to drive home the message for reform?

No. Hardly. As previously discussed, there is too much money at stake.

These stakes bring out the Crony-capitalism in American society.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (and subsequent blog/commentaries) relates many examples of cronyism in the American eco-system. There is a lot of money at stake. Those who want to preserve the status quo or not invest in the required mitigations to remediate concussions will fight back against any Advocate promoting the Greater Good. The profit motive is powerful. There are doubters and those who want to spurn doubt. “Concussions in Football” is not the first issue these “actors” have promoted doubt on. The efforts to downplay concussion alarmists are from a familiar playbook, used previously by Climate Change deniers, Big Tobacco, Toxic Waste, Acid Rain, and other dangerous chemicals.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Sports are integral to the Go Lean/CU roadmap. While sports can be good and promote positives in society, even economically, the safety issues must be addressed upfront. This is a matter of community security. Thusly, the prime directives of the CU are described as:

Optimize the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs, including sports-related industries with a projection of 21,000 direct jobs at Fairgrounds and sports enterprises.
Establish a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

The CU/Go Lean sports mission is to harness the individual abilities of athletes to not just elevate their performance, but also to harness the economic impact for their communities. So modern sports endeavors cannot be analyzed without considering the impact on “dollars and cents” for stakeholders. This is a fact and should never be ignored. There is therefore the need to carefully assess and be on guard for crony-capitalistic influences entering the decision-making of sports stakeholders. The Go Lean book posits that with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent”. These points were pronounced early in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 &14):

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy – as the landlord of many sports facilities (within the Self-Governing Entities design), and the regulator for inter-state sport federations. The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize sports enterprises in the Caribbean:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices / Incentives	Page 21
Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Light-Up the Dark Places	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Mitigate Suicide Threats	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-States into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Foster Local Economic Engines for Basic Needs	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for Natural Disasters	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Disease Management	Page 86
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs into a Single Market Economy	Page 96
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Sports Stadia	Page 105
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Unified Command & Control	Page 103
Implementation – Industrial Policy for CU Self Governing Entities	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver – Project Management/Accountabilities	Page 109
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact	Page 122
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 Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Arts & Sciences	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs declare that the Caribbean needs to learn lessons from other communities, especially when big money is involved in pursuits like sports. These activities should be beneficial to health, not detrimental. So the admonition is to be “on guard” against the “cronies”; they will always try to sacrifice public policy – the Greater Good – for private gain: profit.

Let’s do better. Yes, the Caribbean can be better than the American experiences.

The design of Self-Governing Entities allow for greater protections from Crony-Capitalistic abuses. While this roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of sports and accompanying infrastructure, as demonstrated in the foregoing movie trailer, sport teams and owners can be plutocratic “animals” in their greed. We must learn to mitigate plutocratic abuses. While an optimized eco-system is good, there is always the need for an Advocate, one person to step up, blow the whistle and transform society. The Go Lean roadmap encourages these role models.

Bravo Dr. Bennet Omalu. Thank you for this example … and for being a role model for all of the Caribbean.

RIP Junior Seau.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This roadmap will result in more positive socio-economic changes throughout the region; it will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Appendix VIDEO: Hank Williams Jr. – Are You Ready for Some Football – https://youtu.be/dKPZEMu7Mno

Uploaded on Jan 28, 2019 – Official Music Video

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1.	A Brief History of Diaspora Voting … The reasons for introducing external voting also differ according to the historical and political contexts. Thus, in several countries the introduction of the right to vote for overseas citizens was an acknowledgement of their active participation in World War I or World War II. …Outside the military context, New Zealand introduced absentee voting for seafarers in 1890, and Australia adopted it in 1902, although under operating arrangements which made its use outside Australia practically impossible. …
2.	Diaspora Voting In Democratic Transition Countries The importance of political factors in the adoption and design of external voting provisions was accentuated during the democratic transitions of the 1990s. The inclusion of citizens abroad was often seen as a key element in the process of nation-building, for example, in Namibia in 1989 and South Africa in 1994.Diaspora communities may be active in seeking a post-transition role, and may be particularly influential when they play a role in the domestic politics of major donor countries. However, such pressure is not always successful. …The international community frequently plays a leading or significant role in mediating transitions and even in implementing transitional elections. Transition agreements may therefore contain important and sometimes controversial external voting provisions. …
3.	Diaspora Voting and Electoral System Design Political considerations are not only important in determining whether external voting takes place: they are also influential in defining its form. Many decisions relating to external voting are linked to electoral system design, another highly political aspect of democratic reform and democratic transition.Electoral system design is one of the most important elements in the institutional framework of a country, influencing as it does the political party system. Electoral system reform may be on the agenda as a result of vision or a motivation to improve democracy, or for more short-term, sectoral or even venal reasons on the part of some political participants. This is mirrored by external voting, which may be placed on the democratic agenda by those who believe strongly in the equal right of all citizens to participate—or by political forces which see potential advantage in it.The desire to promote external voting may constrain the options for electoral system design. Conversely, the adoption of a particular electoral system may limit the options for external voting mechanisms. This can be illustrated by considering the three basic options for external voting— personal voting at an external polling site in a diplomatic mission, for example; remote voting by post, fax or some form of e-voting; and voting by proxy.
3.1	Diaspora Voting in Person and Electoral System Design
3.2	Diaspora Remote Voting and Electoral System Design
3.3	Diaspora Voting by Proxy and Electoral System Resign
3.4	Diaspora Voting Timing Issues
4.	Who Can Vote and How Voting Takes Place
4.1	The Number of National Diasporas Who Can Vote Today Voting from abroad is now possible for Diaspora communities from 115 home countries. Of these, 28 come from home countries in Africa; 16 in the Americas; 20 in Asia; 41 in Western, Central and Eastern Europe; and 10 in the Pacific. Provisions for voting by Diaspora communities have been adopted by five additional countries, but rules and voting methods have not yet been decided.
4.2	Restrictions on Diaspora Members Who Can Vote from Abroad Fourteen countries, who allow voting by their Diaspora communities, impose some time restrictions on such electoral participation. These restrictions are summarized in Table 1 below.
4.3	Different Types of Elections During Which Diaspora Voting is Currently Permitted There are four principal types of elections where voting by Diaspora members can take place so far.Presidential Elections: Diaspora members from 64 countries can participate in their home country presidential elections. Legislative Elections: Diaspora members from 92 countries can participate in their home country legislative elections. Sub-National Elections: Diaspora members from 25 countries can participate in their home country sub-national elections. Referendums: Diaspora members from 38 countries can participate in their home country referendums. Diaspora Voting in Different Combinations of Elections: Each country has a different selection of elections that permit vote from their Diaspora members. These elections are shown in Table 2 below.
4.4	Different Types of Diaspora Voting Methods Used Countries use five different methods of voting for their Diaspora members today.Voting in Person: Diaspora members from 79 countries can vote in person. Voting by Post: Diaspora members from 47 countries can vote by postal ballot. Voting by Proxy: Diaspora members from 16 countries can vote by proxy. Voting by Fax: Diaspora members from 2 countries (Australia and New Zealand) can vote by fax. Voting by the Internet: Diaspora members from 2 countries (Estonia and the Netherlands) have been able to vote by the Internet so far. (Note: American Diaspora members of Democrats Abroad (DA) were also able to vote in the 2008 overseas primary election by Internet and 48% of the total DA primary votes were cast this way).Different Combinations of Voting Methods: Each country has a different selection of voting methods that are available for their Diaspora members. Some offer only one voting method, but some offer several options. These different options are shown in Table 3 below.