Month: October 2017

After Maria, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction and Defection for Puerto Rico

Posted on October 27, 2017 in Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Independence, Statehood or the Status Quo?

These are the choices for Puerto Rico today. There is no doubt that the Status Quo is unbecoming! It is time for a change! But change to what?

Statehood; becoming  the 51st American State is an option. But, this commentary asserts that maybe the problem is the American affiliation in the first place; it may be more of the same.

Remember this advice from a loving parent:

Never beg someone to love you!

If you’re successful, it is not love that you will get; its pity.

Where is your pride Puerto Rico? “Have you no sense of decency?” You are not being loved right now; you are being pitied. No wait, even the pity is gone – compassion exhaustion after the prior hurricanes of Harvey and Irma; plus forest fires in California. This is what the American affinity has gotten you:

You “cannot win; cannot break-even and cannot get out of the game”.

See Photos here of destruction from Hurricane Maria:

This is a familiar cry from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Just last month (September) we published a series of blog-commentaries assailing the inadequate response to Hurricane Irma. Those submissions were entitled:

After Irma, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction and Defection 

After Irma, the Science of ‘Power Restoration’ 

After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’ 

After Irma, America Should Scrap the ‘Jones Act’

It would be so easy to just publish Encore‘s at this time and change the name from Irma to Maria. But no, as so much more has transpired in these past weeks. Puerto Rico is now at the cross roads; things will get worse before it gets worse! That previous blogs warned that the outcome for Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands, would be defection – “forced uprooting-displacement of large communities”. Truly, this is what has happened.

See this sad manifestation here, reported by a local news broadcast in Tampa, Florida from Tuesday October 24:

VIDEO 1 – Nearly 70,000 Puerto Ricans relocated to Florida after Hurricane Maria – http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/almost-70-thousand-have-arrived-in-fl-from-puerto-rico-after-mara/485479136

Posted October 24, 2017 – WTSP TV, Tampa, Fla. – Anxious relatives stand around switching between staring at their phones and the shuttle drop off at Tampa International Airport.

Some have watery eyes out of nervousness and anticipation.

The tears streamed once they embraced their loved ones arriving from Puerto Rico.

This scene plays out at least once a day after a flight from San Juan lands in Tampa. …

ALERT! We estimate now that Puerto Rico (PR) will lose over 500,000 people directly and indirectly because of Hurricane Maria. So it is time now for a reboot! It is time for PR to change its status, away from US Territory; perhaps to consider an American Divorce, or Independence, yet stilled aligned as an American Protectorate.

In a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, we warned that there is no guarantee that Caribbean communities – like PR – will survive their current crises, that Failed-State status is imminent. See this excerpt here:

What happens after a community is devastated by a catastrophic hurricane? Many things; mostly all bad:

This is not just theoretical; this is the current disposition in the Caribbean after the recent Category 5 Hurricane Irma; [make that Hurricane Maria]. These descriptors are all indicative of a Failed State status. This is a familiar theme for this movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (and the subsequent blog-commentaries). The book opens (Page 3) with this introduction to the subject of failure in the Caribbean:

    Failure is just too familiar. Already we have member-states …  on the verge of a ‘Failed-State’ status… . These states are not contending with the challenges of modern life: changing weather patterns, ever-pervasive technology, and the “flat world” of globalization. To reverse the fortunes of these failing states, and guide others in the opposite direction to a destination of prosperity, the Caribbean must re-boot the regional economy and systems of commerce.

Hurricanes are tied to failure and Failed-State Indicators. The consequences of hurricanes are more than just natural, there is also the preponderance for people to leave their homelands afterwards – to defect. …

In Failed-State formal-speak, the Go Lean book (Page 271) details 2 indicators or indices: Mounting Demographic Pressures (DP) and Massive Movement of Refugees (REF). These downward movements are indicators of Failed-State status – a bad report on the Fail-State index is simply a reflection of a miserable existence in society:

  • Mounting Demographic Pressures
    Pressures on the population such as disease and natural disasters make it difficult for the government to protect its citizens or demonstrate a lack of capacity or will. This indicator include pressures and measures related to: Natural Disaster, Disease, Environment, Pollution, Food Scarcity, Malnutrition, Water Scarcity, Population Growth, Youth or Age Bulge, and Mortality
  • Massive Movement of Refugees or IDPs
    Forced uprooting of large communities as a result of random or targeted violence and/or repression, causing food shortages, disease, lack of clean water, land competition, and turmoil that can spiral into larger humanitarian and security problems, both within and between countries. This indicator refers to refugees leaving or entering a country. This indicator include pressures and measures related to: Displacement, Refugee Camps, IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) Camps, Disease Related to Displacement, Refugees per capita, and IDPs per capita.

So rather than an American affinity, this commentary asserts that maybe the subject of “Puerto Rico Independence” should be re-visited. How about this twist: an independent Puerto Rico with a Caribbean interdependence.

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 30 member-states, Puerto Rico included. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives for regional integration:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. Puerto Ricans have been defecting for decades looking for jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. This security pact encompasses an emergency planning/response apparatus to deal with the reality of natural disasters. The CU mandate is to protect against any Failed-State encroachments.
  • Improve 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 – 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.

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.

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 assuage the miserable existence; to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, to reverse the trending towards Failed-State status (Page 134).

The Caribbean must foster a better disaster preparation and response apparatus than the Puerto Rico Status Quo. That island seems to be counting on the kindness of strangers – the American Super Power. They are looking to Washington as the cure.

The Way Forward for Puerto Rico must be more and better than their previous stance. Perhaps, the American colonial status is the problem … and not the cure.

This is not our opinion alone!

Many others – including the United Nations, who have declared PR technically “a colony” – feel that the Puerto Rico-Washington relationship is dysfunctional, that there should be a friendly divorce.

See this VIDEO here, showcasing the blatant Crony-Capitalism of this storm recovery:

VIDEO 2 – Tiny Trump-Linked Company Gets $300 Million Puerto Rico Contract – https://youtu.be/kUbyWrfg22g

Published on Oct 25, 2017 – The Trump administration awards a $300 million contract intended to get power back on in Puerto Rico to Whitefish Energy, a small Montana company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown that had only two full-time employees the day Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.

Subscribe to The David Pakman Show for more: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c… Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day, 6-8 stories! Make sure to subscribe! Broadcast on October 25, 2017.

Here are some related facts about US-PR dysfunctions, that have been detailed in previous blog-commentaries:

Puerto Rico can do “bad” all by itself; it does not need to be America’s Failed-State!

They do not need the American Hegemony to create an unbearable situation for them. This is NOT an assessment based on the fact that Donald Trump is in the White House now, no rather, this is an summary-analysis based on 120 years of US-PR history. Like many abusive marriages, the US has reserved its most abusive behavior for its own family member, the island territory of PR. This, despite the President or the administration. (See “American Colony” VIDEO in the Appendix below).

No one should be expected to tolerate 2nd Class Citizenship status … for 120 years!

So what’s next? This recommendation:

PR should wipe-out the previous debt and start anew as an independent country / American Protectorate. The island should apply this strategy … based on lessons learned from Detroit. They should expect the defection of 500,000 people and downsize accordingly. Who ever wants to leave, let them leave; build a new society with the remainders.

PR should do this, in order to be better, here in the Caribbean, to make this 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 – WTSP-TV Transcript Excerpt … and Beyond

Sub-title: Influx of evacuees 

Nearly 70,000 people have arrived in Florida from Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria, according to state officials.

Hillsborough county schools have enrolled at least 50 students from Puerto Rico. And local agencies are getting calls every day with questions about affordable housing and jobs.

“I’m hoping I will find a job quickly,” García said with a sigh.

Her husband will also need a job when he arrives, but they don’t know when he will reunite with them.

“We’re a team and after this we’re more united than before so it’s going to be hard,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard but we’re going to make it. After everything we still feel blessed.”

Those seeking information on assistance for Puerto Ricans following Hurricane María can call the State of Florida information line at 1-800-342-3557 or visit the Disaster Recovery Center at The Regent, 6437 Watson Rd., Riverview. The center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Appointments are not necessary.

More than a dozen agencies are providing resources at the center, including:

  • Federal Emergency Management Administration
  • U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
  • Florida Department of Children and Families
  • Florida Department of Health
  • Hillsborough County Aging Services
  • Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Services
  • Hillsborough County Health Care Services
  • Hillsborough County Homeless Services
  • Hillsborough County Social Services
  • American Red Cross
  • Career Source Tampa Bay
  • Central Florida Behavioral Health Network
  • Senior Connection from Area Agency on Aging

© 2017 WTSP-TV

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Appendix VIDEO – Satirical Government Ad: “PR – An American Colony” – https://youtu.be/g-GYqakwHdg

Published on Jul 3, 2017 – thejuicemedia

 

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West African Case Study: ECOWAS to Launch ‘Single Currency’

Posted on October 25, 2017 in Economics, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean has the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: Haiti. But even that is not the poorest (least developed) country in the world; that distinction belongs to 34 countries in Africa; see the full list in the Appendix below.

Yet still, there are lessons that some countries in Africa can teach us here in the Caribbean. One such lesson – Case Study – is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); see the full news article here of the endeavor for a Single Currency:

Title: ECOWAS leaders agree on single currency by 2020
The 4th meeting of the Presidential Taskforce on a common currency for the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) has taken place in Niamey, the capital of Niger, with the firm commitment towards the acceleration of the processes leading to the use of the single currency by 2020.

The meeting was attended by the members of the Presidential Taskforce, namely the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari; the President of Cote d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara; and the host, Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger.

Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President of the Togolese Republic, was also present, and took part in the proceedings.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the 1-day meeting, on Tuesday, 24th October, 2017, the members of the Taskforce took note of the report of the Ministerial Committee meeting held earlier, and acknowledged the quality of the conclusions as well as the relevance of the recommendations made, whose substantive parts relate to the measures for the acceleration of the ECOWAS single currency programme.

The Taskforce appreciated the progress made by all ECOWAS institutions involved in the conduct of ECOWAS Single Currency Roadmap activities, and reaffirmed its commitment to the pursuit and the acceleration of the economic, financial and monetary integration agenda of ECOWAS.

In endorsing the main recommendations of the Ministerial Committee, the Taskforce urged Member States to pursue the structural reforms of their respective economies, to help them deal with fluctuations in the prices of raw materials, and enable their economies to be more resilient to exogenous shocks.

Additionally, the Taskforce urged Member States to take the necessary measures, including the attainment of the convergence criteria, necessary for the creation of the ECOWAS single currency by 2020.

The Communiqué noted that the Taskforce has “instructed the Ministerial committee to meet within three months to propose a new roadmap to accelerate the creation of the single currency by 2020. In this framework, a gradual approach can be undertaken, where a few countries, which are ready, can start the monetary union, whilst the other countries join later.”

The Presidential Task Force will hold their next meeting in Accra, in February 2018.

Background
It will be recalled that at the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on 25th October, 2013, the Presidents of Ghana and Niger were appointed to oversee the creation of the single currency in a timely manner.

The two Presidents constituted a Task Force, whose membership included representatives of the President of Ghana and Niger; Ministers of Finance of Ghana and Niger; Governors of the eight Central Banks of ECOWAS member States; ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions; West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) and the West African Monetary Institute, to advise them periodically on the monetary integration programme.

The membership of the taskforce was reviewed in 2015 to include the Presidents of Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, as well as the Ministers of Finance of the two countries.

The inaugural meeting of the Presidential Taskforce was held on 20th and 21st February, 2014 in Niamey. Subsequently, two other meetings were held in Accra on 7th and 8th July, 2014, with the last meeting held in Niamey from 4th to 6th February, 2015.

The main objectives of the third meeting were to examine the revised roadmap on the realisation of the ECOWAS single currency by 2020; a proposal from the ECOWAS Commission on the creation of an ECOWAS monetary Institute by 2018; and the concern raised by the WAMZ Convergence Council on the revised macroeconomic criteria adopted by the 45th Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government held in Accra on 10th July, 2014.

After the third meeting, it was agreed, amongst others, that the Central Bank financing criterion be reclassified as a primary criterion because of its strategic importance to monetary and price stability. The revised roadmap on the realisation of the ECOWAS single currency by 2020 was to be costed, and sources of funding identified.
Source: Posted & retrieved on October 24, 2017 from: http://3news.com/ecowas-leaders-agree-single-currency-2020/

While ECOWAS has 15 member states, eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking and two Portuguese-speaking – as of February 2017, not all are participating in this Single Currency endeavor … yet. (See Appendix VIDEO below on ECOWAS). The member-states that have pledged to launch this Single Currency in time for 2020 are as follows:

  • Ghana
  • Nigeria
  • Cote d’Ivoire
  • Togo

Why is this endeavor important and how can it guide the Caribbean? The foregoing article cited the rationale with this one quotation:

“enable their economies to be more resilient to exogenous shocks”.

This is a familiar advocacy for the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. In a previous blog-commentary from May 9, 2014 the merits of Single Market economic integration were related as follows:

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

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

…

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

There are many benefits when multiple countries come together and form a Single Market economy. This is also the quest for the CU/Go Lean roadmap: to form a Single Market and make the Caribbean’s member-states “Pluralistic Democracies”. Pluralism – recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body – applies in this West African Community as well; as these countries have a diverse mix of tribal affiliation, colonial legacy and language prioritization. These African developments are therefore fitting for a Case Study for the Caribbean to consider.

This CU/Go Lean roadmap therefore urges the same Single Market effort with these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy 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.

A Single Currency in West Africa – eventually: Eco – is not so unfamiliar. There are two current currencies that fit the mold:

The West Africa Monetary Zone – identified in the foregoing news article – attempts to establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc, whose exchange rate is tied to that of the Euro and is guaranteed by the French Treasury. The eventual goal is for the CFA franc and “Eco” to merge, giving all of West and Central Africa a single, stable currency. The launch of the new currency – with a target date of 2020 – is being developed by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana.

Wow, for the BIG ideas… to elevate the economic engines for 155 million people in West Africa.

The Go Lean book also presents a BIG idea for reforming and transforming the economic engines of the 42 million people in our 30 Caribbean member-states; the book stresses that our effort must likewise be a regional pursuit, and it must also optimize our currency landscape. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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

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. There is a lot of consideration in the book for optimizing the currency and monetary eco-systems. Consider this excerpt detailing the Money Multiplier concept; from Page 22:

b-1. Money Multiplier

In monetary macroeconomics and banking, the money multiplier measures how much the money supply increases in response to a change in the monetary base. The multiplier may vary across countries, and will also vary depending on what measures of money are considered. For example, consider M1 as a measure of the U.S. money supply, and M0 as a measure of the U.S. monetary base. If a $1 increase in M0 by the Federal Reserve causes M1 to increase by $10, then the money multiplier is 10.

A money multiplier is one of various closely related ratios of commercial bank money to central bank money under a fractional-reserve banking system. Most often, it measures the maximum amount of commercial bank money that can be created by a given unit of central bank money. That is, in a fractional-reserve banking system, the total amount of loans that commercial banks are allowed to extend (the commercial bank money that they can legally create) is a multiple of reserves; this multiple is the reciprocal of the reserve ratio, and it is an economic multiplier.

Banks are allowed to lend out the monies on deposit up to some regulated maximum. If banks lend out close to that maximum allowed by their reserves, then the inequality becomes an approximate equality, and commercial bank money is central bank money times the multiplier. If banks instead lend less than the maximum, accumulating excess reserves, then commercial bank money will be less than central bank money times the theoretical multiplier.

As a formula and legal quantity, the money multiplier is neither complicated nor controversial – it is simply the maximum that commercial banks are allowed to lend out. However, there are various theories/tools/techniques concerning the mechanism of money creation in a fractional-reserve banking system, and they all have implications on monetary policy. As such this sphere of concern is normally managed by the professionals, classically-trained technocrats.

The conclusion of this consideration is straight forward – there is a multiplier associated with the currency in the money supply. Therefore it goes without saying that if the Caribbean member-states trade in US dollars, then the multiplier effect is extended to the United States of America. By contrast, if the Caribbean member-states trade in Euros, then the multiplier effect goes to the stakeholders of the European Central Bank – no Caribbean state. Therefore the communities of the Caribbean must embrace, as an ethos, its own currency, the Caribbean Dollar (managed by a technocratic Caribbean Central Bank), thereby bringing local benefits from local multipliers.

There have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that have highlighted Case Studies on monetary and currency best practices. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10513 Case Study from India: Transforming Money Countrywide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7140 Case Study from Azerbaijan: Setting its currency on free float
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6800 Case Study from Venezuela: Suing Black Market currency website
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4166 Case Study from Panama: History of the Balboa Currency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3858 Case Study from ECB: Unveiling 1 trillion Euro stimulus program
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3814 Case Study from Switzerland: Unpegging the franc
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360 Case Study on Central Banks: Creating Money from ‘Thin Air’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833 Case Study from the Euro: One Currency, Diverse Economies

In summary, shepherding the economy is no simple task. It requires the best practices of skilled technocrats. Hopefully these West African States will thrive with this new Single Currency effort as they embrace monetary best-practices.

We will be watching!

Hopefully too, the Single Currency efforts in our region – Caribbean Dollar – will manifest before 2020. The benefits are too alluring to ignore: growing the monetary supply, expanding the availability of investment capital and leveraging across a larger base to absorb the shocks naturally associated with a Free Market Economy. Wow; let’s get started.

We are past the time of needing Central Banking reform. We now need to Catch-Up and transform our own society to derive some of these benefits and innovations.

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – government officials, bankers and ordinary citizens – to lean-in for the empowerments detailed in this Go Lean roadmap. These are best practices! These can 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.

———–

Appendix – Current Least Developed Countries

Click on Photo to Enlarge

Source: Retrieved Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia October 25, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_Developed_Countries#Africa_.2834_countries.29  

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Appendix VIDEO – About ECOWAS – https://youtu.be/f2m2UCuEYAs

Published on Jan 29, 2016 – MULTI-MEDIA ECOWAS.COMMUNICATION

  • Category: Comedy
  • License: Standard YouTube License
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Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities

Posted on October 24, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

So, what has happened in our Caribbean region of 42 million people and 5 colonial legacies (American, British, France, Netherlands, Spain) was inevitable:

Multilingual society!

There is no getting around it. If the planners for a new Caribbean want to form a unified, integrated community, they will have to select one of these language options:

  1. Dutch
  2. English
  3. French
  4. Spanish
  5. All of the Above

The answer must be #5. This is because the Caribbean is not a singularity; not in language, ethnicities nor culture.

In fact, the planners, the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean has presented that quest: to first make the Caribbean’s member-states a “Pluralistic Democracy”; and form a Single Market economy.

This “Pluralistic Democracy” would mean a society where the many different ethnic groups (and languages) have consideration, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority. The expectation of this Pluralism is for any one person to be treated like everyone else. The legal definition of Pluralism as a political philosophy is as follows …

… the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles.[1] While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is most common as democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between the discrete values.[2] – Wikipedia

This vision of a Caribbean “Pluralistic Democracy” should be more than words, but action too. The truth of the matter is that while this writer is English-speaking, the majority of the Caribbean’s population is not. Notice the correct Population and Language Distribution summary here and the full details in the Appendix below (based on 2010):

  Population: Dutch English French Spanish
Totals 42,198,874 809,834 6,747,229 9,887,899 24,753,912
Percentage 100.00% 1.92% 15.99% 23.43% 58.66%

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean has repeatedly related that there is a need for new stewardship of the Caribbean societal engines (economics, security and governance). Our region – collectively and individually – is in crisis due to our many societal defects and dysfunctions. The book opened with this declaration:

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

The Go Lean book posits that the best-practice for reforming and transforming our society will come from confederating and collaborating a regional response to our local inadequacies; that the problems in Caribbean society are too dire for any one member-state to assuage on its own; there is the need for a regional technocracy. Further, the book explains that an integrated collective is the only way to contend with the Agents of Change (Page 57) that have dynamically affected the Caribbean eco-systems. These Agents of Change include:

  • Technology
  • Globalization
  • Aging Diaspora
  • Climate Change

The Agent of Change of Globalization implies trade of goods, services and capital with stakeholders in any location around the world. It goes without saying that the natural language of Globalization will be …

… it is what it is!

Here in the Caribbean, we must contend with the above 4 primary languages, plus a number of Creole spin-offs (think: Haitian Creole French and Papiamentu in the Dutch Caribbean). So we are not able to declare any one language standard. And this is OK, as we are ready for this Brave New World! We have spanned the globe and identified the best tools and techniques for managing a multilingual society.

In terms of tools, notice below this innovative technology being introduced in the North American marketplace, this year:

VIDEO 1 – Google Pixel Buds are wireless headphones that translate in real time – https://youtu.be/KE_DtGgovjc

Tech Insider

Published on Oct 4, 2017 – Google Pixel Buds are $160 wireless earbuds introduced during their October Pixel event. Designed to wrap around the back of a user’s neck, the headphones can use Google Assistant to answer questions and translate languages in real-time.

——–

VIDEO 2  – See how Pixel Buds translate languages on the fly – https://youtu.be/B_BQjRs94ec

CNET

Published on Oct 5, 2017 – Read the CNET review article here – http://cnet.co/2yJA95f
CNET’s Lexy Savvides and Sean Hollister try out the real-time translation feature for Google’s new Pixel Buds.

In terms of techniques, since our Caribbean territory is not the first region to contend with a multilingual population – and we will not be the last – we have great role models to consider.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean presents … Canada as such; a great role model that provides lessons-learned for a multilingual society. The Go Lean book – 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 30 member-states – to foster a “Pluralistic Democracy”. The reference to Canada’s role-model continues further:

  • 10 Lessons from Canada’s History (Page 146)
    #3 – Multiple Cultural Legacies and Languages
    Canada is officially bilingual (English/French) & multicultural at the federal level. The need to structure legal frameworks for diversity was a compelling motivation for confederation, (and an example for the CU to model). The[ir] constitution allows for individual provinces to reflect realities of their populations & cultural differences.

VIDEO 3 – O Canada in 11 different languages – https://youtu.be/1jROsqdrLdk

Published on Jul 1, 2017 – Canada’s national anthem sung in 11 different languages

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

For more than 75 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

This vision is very though-provoking for the Caribbean. It asserts that if we want to elevate our societal engines then we must do the heavy-lifting of reforming our value systems or our community ethos – the spirit that informs our beliefs, customs and practices –  to embrace all people in the region – despite the language – into an integrated brotherhood. This is the charter of the CU/Go Lean roadmap; it 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 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. There is a lot of consideration in the book for optimizing communications to the masses. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines from this sample on Page 186 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Communications

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) Initiative: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).
2 CU Defense Pact: State Militias & Naval Operations
The collective security agreement of the CU will allow the creation of a Homeland Security Department, to defend the member states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The size of the CU market will allow it to afford cutting edge equipment, systems and training …
3 Media Industrial Complex

The CU will oversee the radio spectrum used for radio, television and satellite communications. The radio spectrum must be regulated on a regional level, because the islands are so close to each other and foreign states, that there must be coordination of the common resource pool – the spectrum is limited. This FCC-style (USA) oversight will also extend to internet broadband (wireless & wire-line) governance. With the CU’s financial reforms, the emergence of card-based and e-payment systems will allow for the full exploitation of the media business models. Also, the CU, through licensing, can mandate a certain amount of programming of the educational, inspirational and public service variety.
4 4 Simultaneous Languages – SAP-type Channels

The technology used for SAP (Secondary Audio Programming) channels will be deployed extensively to cover all four languages (Dutch, English, French and Spanish) in broadcasts to multi-state markets. Official websites, by the CU administration will be published in the four languages and this practice encouraged for private websites.
5 Public Broadcasting
6 Press Secretary / Public Relations Officers
7 Journalism Industry Certifications
8 Libel and Slander Due Process
9 Internet & Social Media
10 Libraries and Archives

The CU will build and maintain libraries throughout the region, in a hub-and-spoke fashion. The central library, in the CU’s capital seat, will maintain the domain for all the official archives for the governmental administration, and then further provide intranet access to all the satellite library branches. The libraries are also pivotal for e-Learning in the CU.

In order to ensure success for the Caribbean’s future, the region must foster a better landscape for communicating to all people everywhere. (This includes sign-language for the hearing-impaired as well). Imagine hurricane and tsunami warnings, lives could be at stake!

Yes, this Go Lean roadmap considers the heavy-lifting of structuring Caribbean society to be a “Pluralistic Democracy”. This is far better than the unsustainable status quo. “Unsustainable” is an understatement; we have a crisis; we are bleeding our populations front-and-center. Communicating with our citizens in their Mother Tongue does feel more welcoming. There are direct references to jobs as well, with this multilingual advocacy.

The Go Lean book describes (Page 212) the Call/Contact Center industry that can be fostered in the Caribbean. Wherever there are people speaking the same language, local Caribbean Call Centers can be utilized to communicate with these people. The book specifically identifies 12,000 new …

Direct and indirect jobs at physical and virtual call centers

Imagine telemarketing, collections and customer service calls to Dutch-speaking people in Amsterdam … from Aruba. Or calls to French Canadians … from Martinique. This multilingual-based industry helps the people in the Caribbean to prosper where planted.

This – a “Pluralistic Democracy” – is indeed a Brave New World.

  • Welkom – Dutch
  • We welcome it – English
  • Bienvenue – French
  • Bienvenido – Spanish

Now is the time for all stakeholders in the Caribbean – in all language groups – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. We can  just be ourselves, speaking our Mother Tongue. This is pivotal for our quest for a “Pluralistic Democracy”; this commentary is the final Part 3 of the 3-part series on this subject. The full collection is as follows:

  1. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Respect for Diwali
  2. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Freedom of Movement
  3. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Multilingual Realities

Yes. this “Pluralistic Democracy” vision is a BIG deal, yet it is conceivable, believable and achievable for making the Caribbean homeland better 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 – Caribbean Population and Language Distribution

Member Language Population Dutch English French Spanish
Anguilla English 13,477 13,477
Antigua and Barbuda English 85,632 85,632
Aruba Dutch 106,000 106,000
Bahamas English 342,000 342,000
Barbados English 279,000 279,000
Belize English 320,000 320,000
Bermuda English 67,837 67,837
British Virgin Islands English 24,000 24,000
Cayman Islands English 56,000 56,000
Cuba Spanish 11,236,444 11,236,444
Dominica English 72,660 72,660
Dominican Republic Spanish 9,523,209 9,523,209
Grenada English 110,000 110,000
Guadeloupe French 405,500 405,500
Guyana English 772,298 772,298
Haiti French 9,035,536 9,035,536
Jamaica English 2,825,928 2,825,928
Martinique French 402,000 402,000
Montserrat English 4,488 4,488
Netherlands Antilles
(Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eust, St Maarten)		 Dutch 231,834 231,834
Puerto Rico Spanish 3,994,259 3,994,259
Saint Barthélemy French 8,938 8,938
Saint Kitts and Nevis English 42,696 42,696
Saint Lucia English 160,765 160,765
Saint Martin French 35,925 35,925
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines English 120,000 120,000
Suriname Dutch 472,000 472,000
Trinidad and Tobago English 1,305,000 1,305,000
Turks and Caicos Islands English 36,600 36,600
US Virgin Islands English 108,848 108,848
Totals 42,198,874 809,834 6,747,229 9,887,899 24,753,912
Percentage 100.00% 1.92% 15.99% 23.43% 58.66%

 Source: Page 66 of book Go Lean … Caribbean; Published November, 2013.

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Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Freedom of Movement

Posted on October 23, 2017 in Economics, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

I have a personal confession!

At one point, recently, I had a California address, Michigan Drivers License and Florida car registration; all at the same time. This is demonstrative of a country – United States of America – where stakeholders have ‘Freedom of Movement’. This is a feature of a Single Market.

Live here … work there … play everywhere …

There are planners for a new Caribbean that wants a Single Market economy, where citizens have ‘Freedom of Movement’ from one member-state to another. This would be part-and-parcel of a “Pluralistic Democracy”, which means a society where the many different ethnic groups (or national origins) have respect, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority, despite the border or language consideration. This is pure Pluralism, whose legal definition of the political philosophy is as follows:

… the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles.[1] While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is most common as democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between the discrete values.[2] – Wikipedia

This vision of a Caribbean “Pluralistic Democracy” should be more than words, but action too. This need has manifested in recent days with the devastation of two Category 5 Hurricanes in the region: Irma and Maria. Consider the news article here depicting the post-hurricane ‘Freedom of Movement’ among the 6 OECS countries (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines):

Title – Antigua prepares for influx of Dominicans
Barbados Today – Antigua says it is anticipating an influx of Dominicans in the wake of catastrophic Hurricane Maria which has decimated that country.

Acting Prime Minister, Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin, on Saturday convened a meeting of the sub-committee of Cabinet responsible for managing the planning for natural disasters and their aftermath.

Government Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst described the meeting as “a proactive drive, intended to manage efficiently the anticipated flow of people from Dominica”.

Also in attendance where Ministers Molwyn Joseph, Asot Michael, Minister Melford Nicholas, Arthur Nibbs, the chief immigration officer and her deputy, law enforcement authorities, representative of the airlines association including LIAT, the head of the Red Cross, and officials from the ministry of social transformation.

The Acting Prime Minister directed the group to present a fixed set of policies that would apply to all those who are leaving Dominica for Antigua, and to plan the reception of those OECS/Dominican citizens who may choose Antigua.

It was agreed that there will be only two legitimate ports of entry – the V.C. Bird International Airport and the Montserrat Ferry Dock at Heritage Quay.

“The Coast Guard is to ensure that no vessel entering Antigua’s waters discharges its passengers at any other dock. Since no vegetables or other food items will be shipped from Dominica in the foreseeable future, all vessels must proceed to Heritage Quay,” Hurst said.

Citizens of Dominica have a right of entry into Antigua and other OECS countries and an automatic six-month stay and must present their passport, driver’s license or voter’s identification card to allow entry.

“A database of the Dominicans entering will be developed. Those citizens of Dominica who do not have any of the agreed identification will be permitted to enter Antigua, after completing a form which the Antigua and Barbuda Immigration Department has constructed specifically to meet the needs of those who have lost their documents in the hurricane. Those persons leaving Dominica who are not Dominican citizens must have onward tickets, or be prepared to purchase tickets for onward travel to their own countries,” Hurst said.

He added that the police and the ONDCP are to work closely to determine if any of the persons leaving Dominica are law-breakers. In this regard, the Dominica Police Force will also be asked to assist.

All Dominican citizens who enter Antigua will also be asked to provide certain health information so that continuing services can be provided or secured, in order to protect their health and the population’s.

“It is anticipated that women and children, the elderly of both genders and the infirm, are likely to be among the first wave of Dominican citizens to arrive [in] Antigua. It is also believed that many will choose to stay with family and friends, especially since a supportive group has already been formed. The entrants will be asked to provide names, addresses, telephone numbers and other contact information to the immigration authorities at both ports,” Hurst said.
He said consideration has been given to preparing shelters at various sites should the flow exceed the provision of housing by family and friends of the Dominicans who live on Antigua.

Hurst noted that the other four OECS countries – St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada – are also likely to welcome Dominican citizens to their shores during this crisis.

Source: Posted September 24, 2017; retrieved October 22, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/09/24/antigua-prepares-influx-dominicans 

Normality is disrupted in Dominica  – due to Hurricane Maria – so the people, societal engines and systems of commerce have to transfer over to Antigua. While this is not good for Dominica’s economy, it is better than losing the population permanently to some foreign location – the Diaspora. The Dominican people going to Antigua for hurricane recovery is not the “One Way” societal abandonment, it is just ‘Freedom of Movement’.

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean has repeatedly related that there is a need for new stewardship of the Caribbean societal engines (economics, security and governance). The world has changed; the “World is Flat“! The Go Lean book considers these Agents of Change (Page 57) that have dynamically affected the Caribbean economic eco-systems:

  • Technology
  • Globalization
  • Aging Diaspora
  • Climate Change

The Agent of Change of Globalization implies that people can easily move from place-to-place to live, work or play; everywhere is “virtually” next door. Ours, in the Caribbean, is not the first region to contend with this ‘Freedom of Movement’ option. In fact, this practice for the OECS is modeled after the European Schengen Area – ‘Freedom of Movement’ of people, goods, services and capital across 26 European borders, not the USA. See more in the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Schengen Area: History, Facts and Benefits – https://youtu.be/xffvPWmoWsQ

Europe Guide

Published on Apr 13, 2016 – Today, Schengen Area signifies a zone where the free movement of people, goods, services and capital between 26 European countries is not just a concept any longer. Watch this very interesting video about the chronological history of Schengen Area to learn about how the dream for a borderless Europe came true, leaving the opportunity for more than 400 million citizens to travel freely inside the Europe without any border check control.

Website: http://www.schengenvisainfo.com

Follow us on Facebook: http://smarturl.it/SchengenVisaInfoFCB

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://smarturl.it/EuropeGuideChannel

Imagine this Caribbean-wide version of the Schengen Area, for all 30 member-states, not just the 6 OECS countries. Imagine a Caribbean-wide Single Market. Imagine how beneficial before, during and after a natural disaster … like Maria.

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 in good times and bad – 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 book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit, “all for one and one for all” member-state-wise. 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.

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

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

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. There is a lot of consideration in the book for the free movement of people, goods, services and capital in the Caribbean region. In fact, the organizational structure of the CU includes a “federal” Department of Labor with the charter to coordinate regional labor dimensions. Since one of the prime directives of the CU is the economic empowerment of the member-states – jobs – there are a lot of angles and views about delivering jobs that needs to be coordinated on a regional level. As such, there are proactive and reactive measures that this department will shepherd.

As related in the book (Page 89), this federal department also coordinates the activities for Labor Certifications in the region. This effort will be collaborated and in cooperation with the many member-state Labor Relations agencies. The CU‘s focus will be towards interstate activities and enterprises, as opposed to an intra-state focus. This Labor Certification is an important role for this agency as it requires monitoring the labor needs of the region to ascertain where skills are needed and where and who can supply the skills. The certification role involves rating the level of expertise needed for job and rating workers skill sets. (Consider a 10-point grading system for positions and personnel, where “apprentice” level ranges from 1 – 3, “journeyman” level ranges from 4 – 6, and “master” ranges from 7 – 10).

This certification role is vital to the strategy of preserving Caribbean human capital in the region, even if this involves some movement among the member-states. Notice these treatments from the book:

  • 10 Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce (Page 129)
    #8 – Labor Markets – Freedom of Movement
    The CU seeks to improve the transparency and mobility in the Caribbean labor markets to contend with the challenges of scarcity of skilled labor (openings can be staffed by any CU resident), innovation deficits (solutions come from a large educated market), and financial risks in social pension systems (need more young workers). The CU strives to offer an alternative Caribbean state to residents looking for a new address/dream. This will assuage risks of brain/capital drains.
  • 10 Ways to Model the EU (Page 130)
    #9 – Labor Issues
    The EU seeks to improve the transparency and mobility in European labor markets to contend with the challenges of an aging population, scarcity of skilled labor, innovation deficits, and financial risks in social security systems. The CU will have to contend with many of the same challenges plus the goal of repatriation. The EU model provides great lessons [for the Caribbean].
  • 10 Ways to Mitigate Black Markets (Page 165)
    #4 – Caribbean Dollar Realities
    The [CU] Federation plan … allows for mobility of labor from one Caribbean state to another. The CU will ensure protections for the work force (unemployment and health insurance benefits) thereby nullifying “black markets” for labor.
  • 10 Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration (Page 174)
    #1 – Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy Initiative
    The Single Market structure allows for the controlled movement of labor from state to state, and the opportunity to correct actuarial imbalances. … The skills needed for today’s global economy may not be plentiful in the Caribbean and thus the need to invite empowering immigrants.
  • 10 Ways to Promote Contact Centers (Page 212)
    #6 – Capitalize on Multi-lingual Society
    With Dutch, English, French and Spanish speakers proliferating in the region, the CU will catalog bilingual (or multilingual) skills as an asset in the labor market. This will create more of a demand for this talent base as supply systems are implemented to showcase their skills. In macro-economics, the readiness of the labor market is called “capital”, and an offer (or fulfillment) of tele-services to foreign markets like Holland, France, Quebec (Canada), (Border States) and other former Dutch/French colonies will lead to growth of the industry and the CU’s GDP.
  • 10 Ways to Re-boot Haiti (Page 238)
    #8 – Labor, Immigration and Movement of People
    The recovery plan for Haiti would discourage the emigration of the population. Haiti has a population base (10 million) that can imperil other islands if too many Haitians relocate within the Caribbean. As a result, the CU will expend the resources and facilitate the campaign to dissuade relocation for the first 10 years of the ascension of the CU. During these first 10 years, Haitians visiting other CU member states, with Visa’s, with careful monitoring to ensure compliance.
  • 10 Ways to Impact The Guianas (Page 241)
    # 6 – Emigration Circuit Breaker
    Some chronic problems related to economic progress has been the shortage of skilled labor and a deficient infrastructure. The CU seeks to offer an alternative to citizens abandoning the region for EU or US shores. A diverse, well-managed economy of 42 million people, rather than the minimal 200,000 of Guyana alone and 160,000 of Suriname, offer more options to assuage pressures for Guianian talent fleeing. The whole CU can provide solutions to contend with the scarcity of skilled labor, innovation deficits, and financial risks in social pension systems.

The Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap presents the advocacy for Benefiting from Globalization (Page 119). Globalization has been exacerbated thanks to Free Trade Agreements – the CU Trade Federation is a Free Trade Agreement – so the goal is to master the art-and-science of Free Trade and the Free Movement of people, goods and capital. So these subjects are part-and-parcel of this comprehensive roadmap to elevate Caribbean society to be a better place to live, work and play..

Yes, this Go Lean roadmap considers the heavy-lifting of structuring Caribbean society to benefit more from Globalization. As individual member-states, there is no chance for success, but together, as a unified region, there is so much to leverage. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to unite the people of the entire Caribbean region (leveraging all 42 million people), diversify the regional economy (to create new 2.2 million jobs) and reverse the trend for our people to seek refuge in foreign lands. Let’s do better here at home. Let’s allow our citizens to prosper where planted here in the Caribbean.

Live here … work there … play everywhere …

Now is the time for all stakeholders in the Caribbean – governments and citizens – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. We can do better and be better. This is part of our quest for a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’; this is Part 2 of a 3-Part series. The full collection is as follows:

  1. Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Respect for Diwali
  2. Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Freedom of Movement
  3. Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities

This ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ vision is a BIG deal, yet this is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

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.

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Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Respecting Diwali

Posted on October 19, 2017 in Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Respecting Diwali - Making a Pluralistic Democracy - Photo 3What is the ethnic composition of the Caribbean?

Not a singularity!

Our quest now is to make the Caribbean a Single Market and a “Pluralistic Democracy”. This means a society where the many different ethnic groups (and religions) have respect, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority. The expectation is for anyone person to be treated like everyone else. The legal definition of Pluralism as a political philosophy is as follows …

… the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles.[1] While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is most common as democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between the discrete values.[2] – Wikipedia

This vision of a Caribbean “Pluralistic Democracy” should be more than words; it must be action too!

Yet we fail so miserably in respecting non-standard traditions. The truth of the matter is that while religious toleration appears to be high in the Caribbean, this is really only true of European-styled Christian faiths. Other non-White religious traditions (let’s consider Hindu) are often ignored or even ridiculed in open Caribbean society, despite the large number of adherents. Of the 30 member-states to comprise the Caribbean Single Market, 3 of them have a large Indian-Hindu ethnicity. As a result, in these communities, though lowly promoted, one of the biggest annual celebrations for those communities is Diwali or Divali:

Diwali (or Deepavali) is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated every year in autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in southern hemisphere).[4][5] It is an official holiday in Fiji, Guyana, India,[6] Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, it spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair.[7][8][9] Its celebration includes millions of lights shining on housetops, outside doors and windows, around temples and other buildings in the communities and countries where it is observed.[10] The festival preparations and rituals typically extend over a five-day period, but the main festival night of Diwali coincides with the dark night of the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika in Bikram Sambat calendar (the month of Aippasi in Tamil Calendar), on the 15th of the month. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali night falls between mid-October and mid-November.[11]

Before Diwali night, people clean, renovate, and decorate their homes and offices.[12] On Diwali night, people dress up in new clothes or their best outfits, light up diyas (lamps and candles) inside and outside their home, participate in family puja (prayers) typically to Lakshmi – the goddess of fertility and prosperity. After puja, fireworks follow,[13] then a family feast including mithai (sweets), and an exchange of gifts between family members and close friends. Deepavali also marks a major shopping period in nations where it is celebrated.[14]

The name of festive days as well as the rituals of Diwali vary significantly among Hindus, based on the region of India. – Wikipedia.

See the VIDEO’s in the Appendix below.

While Diwali is a religious celebration, many aspects of this culture spills-over to general society; see the detailed plans of a previous year (2009) in Appendix A below. This celebration, in many ways, is similar to Christmas spilling-over to non-Christian people in Christian countries. So the festivities carry a heavy civic-cultural “feel” as opposed to religious Hindu adherence. Plus, these values here are positive community ethos that any stewards in any society would want to promote:

“the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair”.

This year Diwali is celebrated between October 18 – 22, 2017. It is a public holiday only for Wednesday October 18 in Trinidad and Guyana; plus on Thursday October 19 in Suriname.

This celebration of Diwali is only MEDIUM in these 3 Caribbean member-states; but with the proper fostering it could be BIG; it could be an impactful event! Imagine Event Tourism targeted to the 1.2 Billion people of the emerging economy of India; plus the 35 million people in the Indian Diaspora world-wide.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean presents the advocacy of Event Tourism (Page 191). This is fundamental to elevating Caribbean society to be a better place to live, work and play; (or live, work and pray). The Go Lean book – 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 30 member-states – to foster a “Pluralistic Democracy”. 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 Go Lean roadmap posits that events can be fostered so as to better impact the economic, security and governing engines of society. This was this declaration from a previous blog-commentary, that touristic events could be so much more lucrative, if only there was a whole-souled commitment by the full community – everyone show respect. Think of the success in Sturgis, South Dakota where a small town of 10,000 hosts up to 600,000 visitors (Page 288). Imagine the economic impact!

The movement behind the Go Lean book has repeatedly related that there is a need for new stewardship of the Caribbean tourism apparatus. The world has changed; our target markets have changed. We cannot just advertise to the Northeast corner of North America for the peak winter season (January & February) anymore. No we must now look to alternate markets and target alternate calendar days so as to expand our product offering.

Imagine the prospect of marketing Diwali – see VIDEO’s below – usually in the tourist-slow month of October.

Beautiful Sky Lantern

This is what is needed to expand the region economically. There is no longer the need for tourism stewards to just “rub shoulders” with travel agents, but rather, there is the need for e-Commerce strategies and tactics (think: Search Engines Optimization) and for efficient execution of events. Welcome to Technocracy 101.

A previous blog-commentary (from September 15, 2015) regarding Tourism Stewardship related these details:

The book Go Lean…Caribbean calls for the elevation of Caribbean society, to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize all the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.  The category of “play” covers the full scope of tourism, which is the primary economic driver for our Caribbean region; the book estimates 80 million visitors among the region. (Since that number includes cruise passengers that may visit multiple Caribbean islands on one itinerary, each port is counted separately; without cruise passengers, a figure of 68 – 69 million is perhaps more accurate).

This commentary is a consideration of tourism, not travel. Tourism is a subset of the travel eco-system, so any Agent of Change in the world of travel must be carefully considered on tourism, on Caribbean tourism. …

The Go Lean book considers these Agents of Change (Page 57) that have dynamically affected the Caribbean economic eco-systems:

  • Technology
  • Globalization
  • Aging Diaspora
  • Climate Change

…

Technology, the Internet-Communications-Technology (ICT) in particular has furnished alternative and better options for travel enterprises to find passengers-guests-travelers-tourists…. Travel agents are now inconsequential. ….

The book Go Lean…Caribbean and the underlying movement seeks to re-boot the strategies and tactics of tourism marketing for the entire Caribbean region. The book asserts Caribbean member-states must expand and optimize their tourism outreach but that the requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state … alone. Rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book thereafter introduces the CU and provides a roadmap for its implementation into a Single Market for the Caribbean economy … and tourism marketing.

The goal of the CU is to bring the proper tools and techniques to the Caribbean region to optimize the stewardship of the economic, security and governing engines.  The book posits that the economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, with technocratic management and stewardship better than the status quo. While the goal of the roadmap is to pursue a diversification strategy, the reality is that tourism will continue to be the primary economic driver in the region for the foreseeable future. The publisher of the book Go Lean…Caribbean convenes the talents and skill-sets of movers-and-shakers in electronic commerce [and project management] so as to forge the best tools and techniques for this new ICT-based marketing.

Lessons need to be learned from the execution of events in these Hindu-populated Caribbean countries. Can the Caribbean flare of a dynamic Hindu culture be exploited further for global marketing and appeal? The Hindu Diaspora is huge, comprising sizeable populations in many countries, including BIG numbers (millions) here:

Australia Nepal
Canada Saudi Arabia
Fiji Singapore
India South Africa
Ireland Sri Lanka
Malaysia United Arab Emirates
Mauritius United Kingdom
Myanmar United States

This is the charter of the Go Lean roadmap, to deploy the technocratic administration to optimize Caribbean Event Tourism. The Go Lean book specifically details the community ethos Caribbean communities need to adopt to be successful in Event Tourism; plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to ensure successful deployments; see a sample here:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Celebrate the Music, Sports, Art and Culture of the Caribbean Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Agencies versus Member-State Governments Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better Page 131
Planning – Lessons from Omaha – College World Series Model Page 138
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music Page 231
Appendix – Case Study of “The Rally” in Sturgis, South Dakota Page 288

In summary, the Caribbean is in good position to show respect to the Indian-Hindu community and their Festival of Lights – Diwali. In doing so, we double-down on our quest to be a “Pluralistic Democracy” and optimize our economic engines for Event Tourism.

 “Make happy those who are near, and those are far will come” – Chinese Proverb.
gonna-change-photo-2

What a contrast this is to the Climate of Hate that is so prevalent in so many Caribbean communities, towards people who are different or hold alternative viewpoints.

Yes, the Go Lean roadmap is different … and better.

It seeks to unite the people of the entire Caribbean region, diversify the regional economy (to create new 2.2 million jobs) and make our communities better places to live, work and play. This is why we have a quest for a “Pluralistic Democracy”. This is Part 1 of 3 in the series on this topic; the full collection is as follows:

  1. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Respect for Diwali
  2. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Freedom of Movement
  3. Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Multilingual Realities

Now is the time for all stakeholders in the Caribbean – governments, residents, religious devotee (Hindus, Christians, etc.), event planners, participants and tourists – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. We can do better and be better. This quest for a “Pluralistic Democracy” is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

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 A – Divali Festival in Trinidad and Tobago

By: Dr. Kumar Mahabir

Pakistani Hindu women light earthen lampTrinidad and Tobago is the land of Carnival, steel band, tassa, calypso and chutney. It is the same country that gives the world its unique brand of Divali. Indeed, the Hindu Festival of Lights has become Trinidad’s second largest national open-air festival after Carnival. Divali is a welcomed alternative to the rambunctious indulgence in meat, alcohol, party and “wine,” and is arguably the largest vegetarian alcohol-free festival in the Caribbean, if not the western hemisphere. Divali is an event that the Ministry of Tourism can market as a major attraction in the fastest-growing worldwide trend of spiritual tourism.

Divali is the defining event that marks Trinidad as a multi-religious, multi-ethnic society with Hindus comprising the second largest religious group (24 percent) after Roman Catholics in the twin-island population of 1.3 million people. While Divali is essentially a Hindu festival, people of all faiths actively join in celebrating the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. Non-Hindu adherents are attracted to the festival’s universal message as well as to the extravaganza that is not only unique but also provides a clean environment for the cultivation of a healthy body, mind and soul.

Nowhere else in the world do non-Hindus and non-Indians actively take part in the lighting of over 10 million deyas on a single night in the year. These tiny clay lamps are lit in homes, yards, streets, offices, public parks and playing fields. It is perhaps only in Trinidad that one can find split bamboo tubes transformed into magnificent works of art on which the deyas are placed. The split bamboo strips reach out toward neighboring houses, streets and communities to symbolize the popular local mantra “all ah we is one.”

The eagerness to decorate is everywhere, and payment is the pride of the finished product. Streamers of all colors and patterns are made with kite paper and plastic and strung from jhandi [flag] poles. Brightly colored fabric, balloons and bulbs decorate homes, offices and stages. Indeed, it is Divali that heralds the joy of the end-of-year celebrations. Strings of twinkling lights—clear and colored—are strung high on buildings, trees, and even across streets. Effigies of Mother Lakshmi are made from bamboo tubes and large cardboard cutouts. Calligraphy on signs and banners glitters with decorative paint. The starry designs of deyas and bulbs transform simple houses into magical kingdoms.

The nights are filled with free public performances in public parks and playing fields. Divali provides the perfect forum for showcasing the talent of both foreign and local performers in Indian song, music, dance and drama. Fashion shows are the highlight of all celebrations. Indeed, no celebration is considered complete or magnificent without a fashion show that is always eagerly anticipated by all. Indians in the Caribbean keep the tradition of Indian fashion alive by wearing dhotis, kurtas, Nehru jackets, saris, shalwars, nose-pins, necklaces, bangles, anklets, eyeliners, mehendi markings and forehead tikkas/bindis. Most Divali celebrations end with a competition for women in the crowd who vie to be the best-dressed fashion finalist. A Divali Queen is not only bestowed with a crown, but she is also showered with gifts and prizes.

Divali also boasts of Ram Leela/Lila, which is perhaps the oldest living form of outdoor folk theatre in the Caribbean. The worship of Rama takes many forms, but community devotion [Ramayana yagna] outside the temple has the most public impact. During Divali, tons of sweetmeats like parsad, kurma, burfi, pera, ladoo, jalebi, gulab jamoon and kheer [sweet rice] are made and distributed free.

Indian trade fairs during Divali have become the shopping hotspots for women who flock to the sites in thousands to buy mainly clothes and accessories. A kind of dizzy euphoria can also be seen in any one of the Indian apparel stores in the countdown to Divali. It is all part of the excitement that hums through the air during this pre-Christmas celebration as women try to dress their best and stores try to outsell one another. More than men, women dress in their finest traditional Indian wear with matching jewelry, as models of grace and elegance.

The hub of all Divali celebrations in the island is Divali Nagar in central Trinidad. Indeed, the Nagar is the most frequented entertainment center in the country during Divali, second only to the Grand Stand in the Queen’s Park Savannah during Carnival. The grand display of fireworks in the air at the entertainment park resonates with the thunder of bamboo cannons, the explosions of firecrackers, and the sparkle of “star-lights” in villages across the country. On Divali night, thousands of people take to the streets on foot and in vehicles to behold houses and communities that look like an illuminated fairyland.

Divali will be celebrated as a national holiday in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, October 17 [2009].

Dr. Kumar Mahabir is the chairman of the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council and assistant professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: Posted October 14, 2009; retrieved October 19, 2017 from: http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/3437.cfm

————

Appendix B VIDEO – Diwali – Festival of Lights | National Geographic – https://youtu.be/HrrW3rO51ak


Published on May 19, 2010 – In India, one of the most significant festivals is Diwali, or the Festival of Lights. It’s a five day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps.
Diwali – Festival of Lights | National Geographic https://youtu.be/HrrW3rO51ak

National Geographic https://www.youtube.com/natgeo

————

Appendix C VIDEO – Diwali – The Festival of Lights – https://youtu.be/mPwmXRws7FA


WildFilmsIndia

Published on May 30, 2013 – Diwali is certainly one of the biggest, brightest and most important festivals of India. While Diwali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”. The celebration of Diwali as the “victory of good over evil” refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance. While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration of the festival differ greatly depending on the region, the essence of the festival remains the same – the celebration of life, its enjoyment and goodness. …

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Dominica Diaspora – Not the Panacea

Posted on October 18, 2017 in Government, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

If only it was that simple!

You love your homeland, but you live abroad. You simply create a not-for-profit organization, execute a development plan to relieve, restore, recover, rebuild and boom: Instant success … back in the homeland.

If only?! It doesn’t work that way.

CU Blog - Dominica Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 2Yet still, this is what is transpiring on behalf of the Caribbean island of Dominica; see the profile of one such organization here (and more on the island nation in the Appendix below):

Rebuild Dominica, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit relief organisation based in the Washington, D.C. metro area. We were founded by humanitarians determined to help rebuild Dominica in the wake of the devastation wrought by Tropical Storm Erika. This effort continues in support of disaster relief post-Hurricane Maria — the most horrendous assault Dominica has ever experienced.
URL: https://rebuilddominica.org/

Make no mistake; Dominica needs all the help it can get, especially right now after the near total devastation from Category 5 Hurricane Maria; they must relieve, restore, recover and rebuild. See this reality manifested in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Small island of Dominica hit hardest by Hurricane Maria – https://youtu.be/FWbzgn3nHaU

Al Jazeera English

Published on Sep 25, 2017 – Hurricane Maria has killed at least 33 people so far, with the bulk of those deaths happening on the tiny island of Dominica. At least 80 percent of the buildings there have been damaged and most communication lines cut. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports from Dominica.

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Thank you Diaspora, for this fine start; yet still, the problems that Dominica have – with this storm recovery here and even larger issues above and beyond – can not be fixed by this island’s Diaspora alone. No, there is the need for a more comprehensive solution.

Above and Beyond – Yes, looking at the horizon and longing for a solution from above and beyond is the concern of this commentary. In fact, this is the theme of a series of commentaries from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. It has been consistent in urging the stakeholders (governments and citizen groups) of the Caribbean member-states to NOT put their hope and faith in their Diaspora to look back to their homelands and be the panacea – cure-all solution – that their societies need. There is preponderance for governments to pursue this strategy. Just recently we published commentaries on this Caribbean pre-occupation, with these entries relating these homelands:

The premise for the criticism of this Diaspora strategy is that the ones that have fled the region have done so for a reason; they have been “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland. They may still love their country, but can only do so much from abroad. While one person can change their community, it is near impossible for that one person if they are not in the community; there may be trust, accountability and transparency issues. Thusly, the Diaspora is less inclined to invest back in their country; and the historicity is that they have not! Thusly, all efforts to outreach the Diaspora are usually futile. All of these prior commentaries relate this basic truth about catering to the Diaspora:

The subtle [Diaspora outreach] message to the Caribbean population is that they need to leave their homeland, go get success and then please remember to invest in us afterwards.

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. … As a result, we have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

Yes, the problem of this Diaspora-outreach strategy is that it double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. When we look at Dominica and see the many failures of that country, we realize that the Dominicans on the island and the Dominicans in the Diaspora cannot, single-handedly or collectively, solve the problems on that homeland. No, something bigger and better is needed.

They are trying now, for that something better …

They are engaging help and support of different not-for-profits, foundations and non-government organization (NGO). See a related news article here:

Title: Rebuild Dominica Partners with Project C.U.R.E. & Other Global Allies Post-Hurricane Maria
Sub-title: Washington, D.C. Based Nonprofit Collaborates To Deliver Hurricane Relief Supplies to the Island Of Dominica
By: The Caribbean Current

CU Blog - Dominica Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 3Bowie, MD (October 8, 2017) – Since its inception in August of 2015, in direct response to Tropical Erika devastating The Commonwealth of Dominica, Rebuild Dominica holds steadfast to its mission of forming and sustaining long-term partnerships to address the unmet needs of communities in Dominica.

Dr. Sam Christian, Rebuild Dominica’s Coordinator of Medical Operations on-island, submitted reports to pronounce the discovery of three residents of Pointe Michel — whom he respectively met dead in a ravine, on the beach, and under debris of a porch. Hours after Hurricane Maria, Dr. Christian, a former U.S. Army Major, and combat surgeon was the only surgeon working with police and a search and rescue team in the south of Dominica. This continued for days, during the difficult hours post-Maria, before outside help came to the area of Point Michel and Soufriere.

These reports were used to secure medical supplies valued at approximately $400,000 USD as donated by Project C.U.R.E.: the largest provider of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world. The relief supplies will ship this week to Dominica, while Dr. Sam Christian continues to provide free medical treatment in anticipation of the delivery.

The cost of shipment of the medical supplies was funded under the direction of Rebuild Dominica and the nonprofit’s global supporters. A primary donation of $10,000 USD was received from Ethiopian financier and Advisor to Ethiopian Crown Council, Mel Tewahade. Additional assistance totaling $5,000 USD was pledged by from Saad Wakas and Omar Fisher: Rebuild Dominica allies based in Dubai. The President of Rebuild Dominica, Mr. Gabriel Christian, donated an additional $10,000 underwritten by his law firm in Maryland. The combined mobilization for the Project C.U.R.E. shipment is $20,000 – the sum directed to Project C.U.R.E. on behalf of Rebuild Dominica.

Founding member of Rebuild Dominica, Pastor St. Clair Mitchell of Evangel Assembly, along with Pastor Bell convened with the nonprofit on the evening of September 19, 2017, to mobilize the D.C. community. Carib Nation TV Director, Larry Sindass, and host Derrice Deane brought the Rebuild Dominica relief appeal to a global audience.

John Green, Delvin Walters, John Riviere, Colonel Koreen Parry, Captain Delvin Walters, Loema Sealey, Loughton Sargeant and Monique Joseph — all leaders of the Caribbean Disaster Relief and Recovery Alliance (CDRRA) — rushed to aid Rebuild Dominica; an early member of the CDRRA Diaspora disaster response collaborative. Caribbean Cargo DC again proved itself a solid community ally by reducing its shipping rates and donating storage space for relief supplies.

While facilitating the arrival and news coverage in Dominica by Al Jazeera TV and the Israeli Search and Rescue Team, Rebuild Dominica communicated with Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. A national medical services assessment, with guidance from Dr. Dale Dangleben and Dr. Sam Christian, is currently in progress for additional donations in the medical sphere.

Another shipment totaling three tons of food and medicine await shipment from Caribbean CargoDC and ATAS Roofing USA has committed to assist with supplies for roofing needs in Dominica. Greek-Ethiopian, Captain Demetrius Apokremiotis, has secured a short-term donation of a Convair 340 cargo plane on behalf of Rebuild Dominica to airlift 7,000 pounds of aid supplies from Miami to Dominica.

As of as of September 25, Rebuild Dominica is an official PayPal nonprofit partner. This status puts the nonprofit on par with all major US nonprofits dedicated to disaster relief.

A fundraiser is currently underway to secure monies needed to fuel and deliver the aid that awaits the displaced and starving citizens of Dominica. To that end, Rebuild Dominica has partnered with CDRRA for the upcoming ‘One Caribbean Hurricane Relief Concert’ slated for Sunday, October 8, 2017, in Bowie, Maryland. Proceeds will benefit the Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria.

To volunteer, share resources, or make a financial contribution to this nonprofit, please visit www.RebuildDominica.org.

Source: Posted October 11, 2017 from: https://www.thecaribbeancurrent.com/rebuild-dominica-partners-project-c-u-r-e-global-allies-post-hurricane-maria/

To relieve, restore, recover and rebuild Dominica after Hurricane Maria, we need these NGO’s, and the Diaspora, and the island’s government; and … something more …

… enter the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is presented as the organizational solution for Dominica; this is the panacea that Dominica and the rest of the Caribbean needs. But first, we need people to stay in their Caribbean homelands, not flee. We need them to prosper where planted here at home. Democratic governments – of the people; by the people; for the people – cannot expect to promote the best of their people, if the best people keep leaving – and joining the Diaspora.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU, for the elevation of Caribbean societal engines – economic, security and governance for all member-states. The book asserts that the region must work together – in a formal regional integration – to hold on to its populations – especially the highly educated ones – not see them leave for foreign shores. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents these 3 prime directives:

The Go Lean book – and many previous blog-commentaries – asserts that while conditions may be bad for Caribbean residents (i.e. Dominican) in their homeland, Black-and-Brown immigrants to far-away countries (think: North America and Western Europe) often have to contend with less than welcoming conditions in those countries. It is only with the Second Generation that prosperity is achieved, but by then, the children of the Caribbean Diaspora are not considered “Caribbean” anymore; they assume their residential citizenship. As conveyed in the foregoing VIDEO, it is not these Second Generation types – legacies – that are overcoming the obstacles to venture back to their ancestral homeland in the wake of hurricanes.

So it is the summation that it is better for Dominican people, and people of all the Caribbean for that matter, to work to remediate and mitigate the risks of Failed-State status in their homeland, but such work is heavy-lifting. It requires a reboot of the entire Dominican eco-system. The Go Lean roadmap calls for a technocratic reboot, to reform and transform regional society. Many people may argue – and they would be correct – that the reformation and transformation of Caribbean communities should come from Caribbean people first. But with such a high societal abandonment rate, the population of many Caribbean member-states – as in Dominica – is approaching a distribution where half of the citizens live on the islands and the other half live abroad – in the Diaspora. For some other countries, it is a vast majority of the educated populations that have fled; one report presents that abandonment rate of 70 percent. See the data references here:

According to the preliminary 2011 census results Dominica has a population of 71,293.[1] The population growth rate is very low, due primarily to emigration to more prosperous Caribbean Islands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. The estimated mid-year population of 2016 is 73,543 (the 2017 revision of the World Population Prospects[2]).- Wikipedia.

CU Blog - Dominica Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 0

When Caribbean people in general, and Dominicans in particular, emigrate and become aliens in a foreign land, life is not necessarily better in those countries. As related in a previous blog-commentary, those who live in the Diaspora know “both sides of the coin”, as most of them have lived in the ancestral lands at one point. But on the other half, those who still live in the homeland may have never lived abroad.

They do not know what they do not know!

Being a visitor to some North American or European city is different than being a resident, as visitors do not have the interactions of applying for jobs, housing, government benefits, paying taxes, co-existing with neighbors, etc.. These ones in the homeland may naturally assume that the “grass is greener on the other side”. Here’s the truth:

    It is not! (The grass in the northern cities may not even be green at all; it may be covered with autumn foliage or snow).

The Go Lean roadmap is not for the Diaspora to come to the rescue, but rather a Caribbean confederacy, constituted by all 30 member-states. This position leverages the Caribbean as a Single Market (42 million people); it asserts that this is better than just catering to the Diaspora of just one country. This is to be the panacea that Caribbean needs to assuage its defects and dysfunctions. Plus, it also includes the Diaspora, but for all the Caribbean nations combined – estimated at 10 to 25 million. This is a plan for interdependence! This was the motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) of the book:

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

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

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

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 goal of the Go Lean roadmap is for Caribbean people to prosper where planted; the book therefore 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 the region’s societal engines, for Dominica and other member-states. One advocacy for a Way Forward is the plan to optimize the roles and responsibilities of non-government organizations (Page 219):

10 Ways to Impact Foundations

1

 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and GDP of over $800 Billion (circa 2010). With the scale of this Single Market, the CU serves as a proxy to facilitate the economic engines, regional security initiatives and emergency management needs of the Caribbean. While the CU is not an advocacy for human rights or civil rights, there are many social causes that the CU will impact in a tangential manner (women, disabled, poverty, middle class, others). The CU allows for the regional oversight and promotion of Not-For-Profit foundations to execute their campaigns to impact the socio-economic causes of the region.

2

 NGOs to Deliver CU Social AgendaThe CU will facilitate the eco-system for not-for-profit foundations and non-government organizations. The CU’s Department of State will not just facilitate incorporations on the regional level, no need to repeat in every member-state, but also provide much of the NGO administration and oversight to satisfy the local governments and other stakeholders.

3

 Domestic ChartersOne of the missions of the CU is for the Diaspora to repatriate their time, talents and treasuries to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The CU will encourage the creation of micro-focused foundations and not-for-profit NGOs. This is a natural way for others to give back. Those desiring to contribute (and incentivized) can enable their causes and passions through local foundations, or petition the CU to discern new gaps needing fulfillment.

4

 “One Percent” AlignmentThere is a new spirit of philanthropy imbrued in the population of the world’s billionaires and millionaires (One Percent), many of them have signed a Giving Pledge to donate half of their estate to global charitable causes. Many of this group – see Appendix N on Page 292 – facilitates charitable contributions by means of their personal or otherwise aligned foundations.

5

 Foreign ChartersFoundations incorporated in foreign lands will find a “welcome mat” in the Caribbean. The CU will identify opportunities for these foundations to engage within this region. The CU will maintain a Special Interest Group to liaison with the “One Percent” of the world’s richest people. The CU will therefore solicit them for philanthropic manifestations in the CU.

6

 CU Reporting

7

 e-Delivery

8

 Education via e-Learning

9

 Intelligence Gathering and Big-Data AnalysisThe CU Intelligence Gathering and Analysis mechanism will track the progress of their activities, plus mitigate threats and risks for foundations and NGOs. The CU’s satellite and terrestrial surveillance systems, and predictive modeling/Big Data Analysis will help guide the focus of foundations – this way their investments and roles will be greatly enhanced.

10

 Failed-State Status – Monitoring and MitigationsThere are a few social factors (refugee, family reunification, brain drain) that are so pivotal that they are considered indicators for Failed-State status. The CU’s mission to improve these indices can be dovetailed with the foundations.

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean promoters that have detailed the functionalities of NGO’s and foundations as part of the Way-Forward – the best hope for a new eco-system for Dominica, and the whole Caribbean. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12949 Charity Management for the Caribbean – Grow Up Already
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11598 Plea to Philanthropists: Give us your Time, Talent and Treasuries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8243 Zuckerberg’s Philanthropy Project Makes First Major Investment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5462 Charity Dysfunction: The Red Cross’ $500 Million In Haiti Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1763 Gates Foundation: Changing the World

Confederating a regional response is by all means the best-practice for Dominica and other Caribbean hurricane victims. Good results are evident from the limited multilateral efforts that have been exerted thus far. See here:

… the response shows that in a region separated by language and geography, culture remains a strong tie.

“Caribbean culture understands that when a cousin or godson is hurting down the street, everyone puts in their little bit to make a pot of food,” said Marlon Hill, a Jamaican-born Miami attorney, who with the help of The Miami Foundation, is spearheading the U.S. Caribbean Strong Relief Fund with other South Florida Caribbean leaders. “Today it’s Dominica, but tomorrow it can be Saint Lucia, next week it can be Barbados and next year it can be Grenada.”

… whether the new spirit of cooperation will lead to deeper integration among Caribbean nations remains to be seen.

Anthony Bryan, a Caribbean expert now with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said that while the recent hurricanes represent a “common disaster” that has pulled nations together, he isn’t optimistic that it will lead to anything beyond the current functional cooperation among many countries on matters such as a common high school exit exam or health initiatives.

    “I think we tend to come together when there are either disaster responses or security measures and to coordinate foreign policies,” Bryan said. “Regional integration has been the hope for many years, but it takes political will. … Functional cooperation has always existed. But to carry it further to political integration? Not in my lifetime.”

Still, [Ronald] Jackson, the head of the regional disaster response – [Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management] – Agency, remains hopeful.

    “We have shown that it is possible,” he said.

Source: Posted September 26, 2017 by the Miami Herald

In summary, regional integration: Good; societal abandonment: Bad!

Any country growing their Diaspora is bad for that country and bad for the Diaspora members. Dominica – and every other country – needs its sons and daughters right now; actually this island needs “all hands on deck” for the Way-Forward. Any official policy to encourage emigration and living-working-abroad – on a permanent basis – is a flawed policy. Rather, it is better to have our citizens in the homeland. They can better help to relieve, restore, recover and rebuild the country.

So any policy that double-downs on the Diaspora is actually doubling-down on failure. We should never want people to have to leave then hope they remember us in our times of distress. No, we want and need them here at home at all times: good, bad and hurricane. We want and need them to “plant” … and prosper where planted.

We strongly urge every stakeholder of Dominica and all of the Caribbean to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland, Dominica and the remaining of the 30 member-states, better places 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 – Dominica Today

Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is a sovereign island country.[8] The capital, Roseau, is located on the leeward side of the island. It is part of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The island lies south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its area is 750 km2 (290 sq mi), and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 m (4,747 ft) in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.[5]

Source: Retrieved October 17, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominica

CU Blog - Dominica Diaspora - Not the Panacea - Photo 1

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Dominica is a member-state in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), along with the sovereign territories of: Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. (These British Overseas Territories are also associate members of OECS: Anguilla, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands).

All of these countries are opening their borders to welcome Dominican citizens to their shores during this hurricane recovery crisis.

“Citizens of Dominica have a right of entry into Antigua and other OECS countries and an automatic six-month stay and must present their passport, driver’s license or voter’s identification card to allow entry”. – St Lucia Times

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Dominica is also a member-state of CariCom or the Caribbean Community, in concert with the other 12 Anglophone sovereign countries, plus Haiti and Suriname.

Many of these countries – in a pledge of regional brotherhood – are opening their borders to welcome Dominican citizens to their shores during this hurricane recovery crisis.

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ENCORE: It’s a FAMUly Affair

Posted on October 15, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Social

It’s Homecoming 2017 at Florida Agriculture & Mechanical University (FAMU). Time to reflect …

CU Blog - It's a FAMUly Affair - Photo 1

There have been many considerations of the FAMU eco-system, the FAMU Family or FAMUly. The university is a fine model for what the Caribbean needs to do to elevate our society, to facilitate social mobility. This is an ENCORE of a previous blog-commentary from March 6, 2015 highlighting the school’s contribution to American society.

FAMU was established as an educational institution in 1887, so this Homecoming is the 130th anniversary for the school. Over the years, there have been some excellent individual contributors; consider the following 2 obituaries of impactful influencers:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12542 Dr. Thomas W. Mason – FAMU Professor & STEM Influencer – RIPA computer scientist, who happened to be Black, he worked on the networking efforts that became today’s Internet. He passed on this vision and his passion to his students and the whole FAMUly.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6593 Dr. Sybil Mobley – FAMU’s Business School Dean – RIPThis Dean’s impact was that societal elevation with her mission to embed Black Americans in the conference rooms and board rooms of major corporations. She molded, prepared, energized and guided the best-of-the-best of Black America (many of Caribbean heritage as well; this writer included) and sent them off to impact the corporate world.

CU Blog - Its a FAMUly Affair - Photo 2

With the participation of these FAMU advocates – and others – the university has assumed it position at the pinnacle of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU). But the university  considers itself more than just an educational institution, but rather a family, the FAMUly. Keep in mind that the FAMU life is not only hard work, it is fun too. See the VIDEO here depicting the commitment, dedication, love and joyality of the FAMUly:

VIDEO – A FAMUly Reunion – Homecoming 2017 – https://youtu.be/J32plKqmqK8

Published on October 3, 2017

 

The FAMU experience is demonstrative to the Caribbean on how to optimize the effort to live, work, learn and play. Our Caribbean needs this role model example. See this portrayed in the ENCORE of the original blog-commentary here:

———–

Go Lean Commentary – FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity

This commentary is a big proponent of a college education for Caribbean citizens.

This commentary is a big opponent of a college education for Caribbean citizens in American colleges and universities. The reason for the ambivalence on college education is consistent: the benefit of social mobility; facilitating new economic opportunities. We need this upward mobility for Caribbean citizens but in the Caribbean.

CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 1Some institutions are better at facilitating social mobility than others. On the National List of institutions, Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU) stands out. It is #3 on the list.

In the interest of full disclosure, this writer is a Rattler, an alumnus of FAMU. (The mascot for FAMU athletics is ‘Rattlers’).

The chief goal of the Social Mobility Index (SMI), according to their website, is to stimulate policy changes within US higher education to help arrest the dangerous and growing economic divergence between rich and poor in the country. The gap in the US between rich and poor grew since the Great Recession, reaching proportions not seen since the period leading to and contributing to the onset of the Great Depression and two world wars. The common attributes include crumbling infrastructure, destroying asset values, and forcing high taxation to pay for war efforts.

If we learned anything from the global fallout of the Great Recession (in 2008 and beyond), it was that getting economic policy right in the US may be necessary for long-term world stability. So while the much publicized student debt overhang, now in excess of $1 trillion, imposes distress and financial burden on millions of students and families, it is a symptom of the much greater problem of economic and social divergence in the country. The good news is that colleges and universities carry great potential to powerfully address this problem.

Economist Thomas Piketty stated: “the principal force for convergence [reduction of inequality] – the diffusion of knowledge – …depends in large part on educational policies, access to training and to the acquisition of appropriate skills, and associated institutions.” – Capital in the 21st Century, pp. 21-2. The SMI asserts that if colleges can begin aggressively shifting policy towards increasing access to higher education, particularly for economically disadvantaged students and families, they will establish themselves as a key force for economic and social convergence.

FAMU has accomplished this feat; placing #3 on a ranking of universities pursuing this endeavor.

The full article of the recognition of FAMU’s SMI  is provided here:

Title: Social Mobility Index Ranks FAMU as No. 3 Institution in the Nation for Facilitating Economic Opportunity for Underserved Students
(Source: FAMU News and Events Site – Official Communications – Posted 11-01-2014; retrieved 03-05-2015 from http://www.famunews.com/?p=2153)
CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 3TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Social Mobility Index (SMI) has ranked Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) the No. 3 institution in the nation for facilitating economic opportunity for underserved students. The University outpaced the nation’s leading Ivy League institutions such as Princeton, Harvard and Yale, which placed 360th, 438th and 440th, respectively, on the rankings list.

The SMI is a new, data-driven ranking system, focused on the problem of economic mobility in the United   States. Rankings are based upon an institution’s tuition rate, student economic profile, graduation rate, average early career salary, and endowment.

According to SMI data analyses, FAMU ranks high in its contributions toward narrowing  socio-economic gaps by admitting and graduating more low-income students at lower tuition rates, yet with better economic outcomes following graduation. The University is noted on the SMI as having one of the lowest annual tuition rates in the nation.

“We are excited about the SMI recognition,” said President Elmira Mangum, Ph.D. “This new ranking speaks to FAMU’s 127-year legacy of providing access and opportunity to low-wealth citizens across the nation.”

“This ranking also speaks to our strong and unwavering commitment to economic empowerment. Many of our students come to FAMU with the odds stacked against them; however, they leave our institution with a high-quality education, a promising future, and the ability to be effective contributors to society, and, more specifically, to their families,” Dr. Mangum added.

Nearly 92 percent of FAMU students are considered low-income, according to SMI data. However, graduates are leaving the University earning an average salary of nearly $45,000 a year.

CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 2

For more information on the SMI ranking, visit: www.socialmobilityindex.org.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits, along with most economists, that education elevates individuals and entire communities. The book quotes that every year of additional community education raises GDP by 1 percent. Go Lean stakes the claim further that traditional college educated career paths have been disastrous policies for the Caribbean in whole, and for each specific country in particular, for the primary reason that so many students do not return home; or expatriate after returning for a short period. In fact, the World Bank has reported that the Caribbean has a 70% abandonment rate.

In line with the SMI ranking, the Go Lean book promotes education among the strategies to elevate Caribbean society. But this commentary previously asserted that college education has been a bad investment for the Caribbean.

From a strictly micro perspective, college education is great for the individual. The Go Lean book quotes proven economic studies showing the impact that every year of college education improves an individual’s earning power (Page 258). But from the macro perspective – the community – is different for the Caribbean; the region loses out because of an incontrovertible brain drain. Previously, the proverb was introduced of “fattening frogs for snake” referring to the preponderance for Caribbean college educated citizens to abandon their tropical homelands for foreign shores in the US, Canada and Europe, and take their Caribbean-funded education and skill-sets with them.

Change has now come. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. Under the tenants of globalization, institutions like FAMU are competing globally, and can rightly provide e-Learning and Distant Learning schemes. This ties to the other agent of change of technology. The internet allows for deliveries of education services anywhere around the world. The Go Lean book posits that small institutions and big institutions can complete equally on a global basis. If the regional education administrations could invest in more technological deliveries, it would be a win-win for all stakeholders. This type of impact would be more for the Greater Good.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

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.

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

This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This represents change for the region. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean book details how education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment, but with lessons-learned from all the flawed decision-making in the past, both individually and community-wise. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. No more government scholarships; forgive-able loans only from now on. The book details the policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deploy online education in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Strategy – Mission –   Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job   Training Page 89
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education Page 266
Appendix – Student Loan Crisis – Ripping Off America Page 286

FAMU is a model for the Caribbean tertiary educational endeavors.

FAMU has quite a reputation for other accomplishments as well – they are a great destination to live, work, learn and play. Their world famous band, the Marching 100 has been recognized as the “playingest band in the land”. They even shared the field with Prince as the Halftime performance for Super Bowl XLI in 2007 in Miami, Florida. See News–VIDEO of their renown here; and also their 2011 Florida Classic Football Game Halftime Show in Orlando, Florida in the Appendix below.

VIDEO – FAMU 2008 Segment on “CBS Evening News” – https://youtu.be/XqGvUg_rLNs


Posted November 27, 2008 – 2008 edition of the Marching 100… interview on Thanksgiving Night 2008 on CBS News… 11/27/08

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We welcome universities like FAMU in their desire to empower minorities in society; we only want that to be done in the Caribbean so as to mitigate societal abandonment. Suggestion: FAMU should develop a global campus presence, with satellite campuses and online matriculations.

Go Rattlers!!!

With the tune set by the Marching 100 band: “I’m so glad, I’m from FAMU”.

This is the win-win the Go Lean roadmap campaigns for. But it’s more than just talk; this is action too. The body part to focus on is not just the mouth; it is the heart – the seat of motivation. Without a doubt, the complete delivery for the Caribbean educational options would help to make the homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Appendix VIDEO – FAMU Marching 100 Halftime Show @ Florida Classic 2011 – http://youtu.be/FrviGJ1Dvvk

Uploaded on Nov 21, 2011 – The FAMU Marching 100 Halftime Performance at The 2011 Florida Classic. Definitely the best band in the land.

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Funding Caribbean Risk

Posted on October 13, 2017 in Economics, Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

A penny saved is … a penny.

This is not exactly how the expression goes. It is supposed to refer to the good habit of “saving money”, which is a positive community ethos – underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices. “Saving money” is a practice that the stewards of any society should advocate for its people. It’s a simple formula: Earn money; spend some; save some!

CU Blog - Funding Caribbean Risk - Photo 0This is easier said than done. A practice of saving money – for a rainy day or any catastrophe – takes discipline, the discipline not to spend. One tactic is to pay yourself first! Before paying other overhead expenses, the priority would be to set aside monies in a savings program or some insurance program. Yes, an insurance strategy could be even smarter for rainy days or catastrophes; it allows the hedging of risks by leveraging across a wider pool; more people – savers – put-in and only a few … or just one withdraws. This is also the approach of the thoughtful Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Fund (CCRIF).

It is very sad when communities are not able to save or insure a “Rainy Day” fund for when it rains, especially in the tropical region where it doesn’t just rain, but pours and storms.

What is sadder is when the heavy-lifting of “savings” or insurance is done, but the dollar amount is not enough; because a “penny saved is only just a penny”.

This is the Caribbean dilemma, today. We have just experienced 2 devastating hurricanes – Irma and Maria – that have wreaked havoc on our region. We now need to tap the “Rainy Day” fund and frankly, it is simply not enough!

See the actuality of this dilemma in the news article here and the related VIDEO on CCRIF:

Title: CCRIF to make payouts to countries affected by Hurricane Irma

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF SPC) will be making payouts totaling over US$15 million to three Caribbean countries affected by Hurricane Irma earlier this week.

“The CCRIF board and team offer condolences for the loss of life and hope these funds will provide some assistance. We stand ready to support the Government and people of these CCRIF countries as they recover from the effects of this devastating hurricane,” said CCRIF chief executive officer, Isaac Anthony.

Payments totaling US$15.2 million
The CCRIF plans to pay US$6.7 million to Antigua and Barbuda, US$6.5 million to Anguilla and US$2.2 million to St. Kitts-Nevis.

The storm has been blamed for at least 10 deaths and millions of dollars in property damages as it made its way through the Lesser Antilles this week.

In the case of Barbuda, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has ordered an immediate evacuation of some 1,800 people on the island. The government has also announced a state of emergency.

“Nothing is functional in Barbuda,” Browne said, adding that he has given instructions that ‘every single soul must be taken out of Barbuda”.

Verifying payouts
The CCRIF is verifying the payout calculations and is in discussion with the three governments about arrangements for the transfer of these funds. The transfer will be completed within 14 days after the storm, as mandated by CCRIF’s operational guidelines.

“Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis also have Excess Rainfall (XSR) policies and CCRIF is assessing if these policies were triggered by the rains from Hurricane Irma, which may possibly result in a second payout under those policies. The assessment under the XSR policies will be determined in the next few days,” the CCRIF added.

Segregated portfolio company
The CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall in the Caribbean and, since 2015, Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered.

Since its inception in 2007, the facility has made 22 payouts for hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall to 10-member governments totaling approximately US$69 million.

It said the new payments will bring the total payouts to approximately US$85 million. Last year CCRIF made payouts totaling US$29 million to four countries after Hurricane Matthew.

Source: Posted September 9, 2017; retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/ccrif-make-payouts-countries-affected-hurricane-irma/

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VIDEO – WorldBank CCRIF Caribbean Gold – https://youtu.be/IlZ56ON9KnI

CCRIF SPC

Published on Feb 28, 2017 – Working towards sovereign risk protection in the Caribbean and Central America.

We now know what CCRIF is; how it works; and who can engage this program in terms of investors and beneficiaries; see more encyclopedic details in the Appendix A below. But …

… it is the assessment of this commentary that CCRIF is flawed and inadequate for the Caribbean’s needs.

  • The CCRIF is designed for 1-in-15 year hurricane (Source: http://www.ccrif.org/content/rtfs-faqs). Truth be told, thanks to Climate Change we are seeing storms yearly.
  • There is a catastrophic trigger – complicated formula – which generates a “measly” payout for a hurricane or earthquake.
  • This is a sovereign fund only and the trigger level is dependent on the coverage purchased by individual countries.
  • The pool is too small. Member governments may purchase coverage which triggers for a ‘one-in-15-year’ hurricane and a ‘one-in-20-year’ earthquake, with maximum coverage of US$100M available for each peril. The cost of coverage is a direct function of the amount of risk being transferred, ensuring no cross-subsidisation of premiums and a level playing field for all participants.

This fund is “too little, too late” for what the region needs. But like all other Caribbean integration (CariCom) efforts, it is a good start! Still after 50 years of autonomous rule, the expectation is not just for a start, it is for solutions.

While the habit of “saving” or paying for insurance is a best-practice, the financial amount is important for the subjective assessment of success. The foregoing news article relates that $15.2 million will be paid-out to the affected countries. But this amount is so small, too small! Consider just for Hurricane Irma alone, the estimated damage amount has been tabulated at $62.87 billion. While $50 Billion of that amount relates to the US Mainland, the rest is the Caribbean. So the Caribbean’s share is $12.9 Billion; – see Chart here:

CU Blog - Funding Caribbean Risk - Photo 1

CU Blog - Funding Caribbean Risk - Photo 3

On the other hand. Hurricane Maria, has estimates for damages at $51.2 billion. None of that amount relates to the US Mainland, the amount is all Caribbean, considering Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; see Chart here:

CU Blog - Funding Caribbean Risk - Photo 2

CU Blog - Funding Caribbean Risk - Photo 4

An immediate result of these storms on the Caribbean will probably be the defection of masses of people from the region. As of this date – October 12, 2017 – Puerto Rico is still not relieved nor recovered from Hurricane Maria. In fact 84% of the island still does not have power. Since Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they have freedom of movement from the island to the US Mainland. In addition, many of the other Caribbean islands will also suffer abandonment as the Diaspora is large in North America and Europe; so bonafide family connections will allow for their emigration. Expect more societal abandonment in the region!

The quest of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – is to lower the abandonment rates of our Caribbean citizens fleeing the homeland. Our quest is conceivable, believable and achievable. But the status quo of the Caribbean Catastrophe Insurance Funds is inadequate; it must improve. It must reform and transform.

The Go Lean book describes a Way Forward. 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 Homeland Security and Emergency Management 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):

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.

Way Forward
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, despite the reality and risks of natural disasters. Accepting that the CCRIF is a government-member-state solution, the Go Lean book proposes a supplement of private solutions, instruments facilitated by the region’s Capital Markets – think the Caribbean version of Wall Street. The Go Lean book proposal is for region-wide (all 30 member-states; 4 language groups) private insurance companies and Re-insurance Side-cars traded on the Capital Markets.

Re-insurance Side-cars is a derivative product – see Appendix B below.

Consider these sample references to Re-insurance Side-cars in the book:

Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Agency
There is also an economic/financial scope for this department. As the effort for a comprehensive property-casualty fund to cover the entire Caribbean region will also be coordinated by this agency. The classic solution is a large pool of premium payers and claims filed by the affected area. Beyond this model, there are also advanced products like re-issuance side-cars for market assimilation. The public can then invest and profit from the threat/realization of regional risks. This derivative product is a bet, a gamble, but in the end, the result is an insurance fund of last resort, much like the Joint Underwriters Agency (JUA) in Florida.		 Page 76
Implementation – 10 Ways to Pay for Change
#8 Homeland Security – Hurricane Insurance Fund
The risk pool for a 42-million population is so much lower than each member-state’s sole mitigation efforts. The CU will establish (contract with a service provider) reinsurance funds (& sidecars) from Day One, and glean the excess premiums-over-claims as profit.		 Page 101
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing
#7 Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Fund
This fund fits the Emergency Management objectives of rebuilding and restoring after disasters. This is similar to Florida’s Joint Underwriters Association but instead regulated at the CU so as to maximize the premium pool.		 Page 161
Advocacy – 10 Revenue Sources
#9 Natural Disaster Insurance Fund
The CU’s Emergency Management Agency will maintain a regional reinsurance fund to offset the casualty coverage for insurance carriers in the region. The difference between premiums and claims constitute revenues for the CU.		 Page 172
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Public Works
#10 Capital Markets
A Single Market and currency union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).		 Page 175
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters
#7 JUA-style Insurance Fund
The fiduciary management of premiums and claims to allow the immediate response for reconstruction after disasters. These financial services, sidecars traded in markets can be direct or indirect as in reinsurance or insurer-of-last-resort.		 Page 184
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve for Emergency Management
#8 Casualty Insurance Plans – Reinsurance “Sidecars”
There is also a financial battlefield for Emergency Management. Reinsurance “sidecars” allow investment bonds to be issued in the financial marketplaces to raise casualty insurance capital. The differences between premiums and claims (plus reserves) equal the profit to be shared with investors. The end result should be an insurance fund of last resort.		 Page 196
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry
#10 Homeowners Casualty Insurance
Pre-Fab-ulous houses will be built with the structural integrity to withstand typical tropical storms/hurricanes. The CU will facilitate the Property Casualty insurance industry by offering Reinsurance sidecar options on the capital markets.		 Page 207
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Fisheries
#7 Marine Financing
There is also a financial element to facilitating the Fisheries industry. Most fishing vessels require financing and insurance products. These areas have gotten more challenging with “climate change” and the higher propensity of hurricanes. The CU will adopt advanced financial products for the region’s capital-securities markets (i.e. Reinsurance sidecars), to offer the prospects of risk-and-reward to investors, thus inviting more capital to the fisheries marketplace.		 Page 210
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Help the Middle Class
Prepare for Healthcare Realities
While a Middle Class family may obtain a degree of financial security, just one catastrophic illness or injury can wipe out a family’s fortunes overnight. This is the proper place for insurance programs, and reinsurance to hedge the risk for carriers. The CU will proactively institute the measures (industry) to protect Middle Class prospects from this real threat.		 Page 223
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact The Guianas
#4 Disaster Planning, Preparation & Response
Hurricanes are not as dire a threat for The Guianas as the Caribbean islands, yet still there are many natural disasters for this region to contend with, namely floods and earthquakes. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond, with Public Works initiatives (dams, reservoirs) and a professional Emergency Management Agency to recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by regional capital markets to restore economic engines in these Guiana states.		 Page 241
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Belize
#7 Disaster Planning, Preparation & Response
Mother Nature, and the reality of hurricanes, has been a source of contention in Belize’s history. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond with a professional Emergency Management Agency and recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by capital markets so as to restore economic engines in Belize.		 Page 243
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact US Territories
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact British Territories
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Dutch Territories
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact French Territories
#4 Disaster Preparation & Response
Mother Nature, and the reality of hurricanes, plays no favorites for one island versus another due to political alliance. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond, with a professional Emergency Management Agency and recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by regional capital markets to quickly restore economic engines in the islands.		 Page 244
Page 245
Page 246
Page 247 

As an individual or community, to devote a lot of time, talent and treasury to the practice of saving for a rainy-day fund is a positive ethos. To only get a measly payoff – after all that effort – is a negative. The manifestation of this measly scenario calls into question the whole viability of the Caribbean “pooled” risk strategy.

We must do better! Solutions abound!

Engaging a bigger-better regional risk pool, makes our quest realistic: a better homeland to live, work and play.  We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – to lean-in for the empowerments described here in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. 🙂

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 – Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Segregated Portfolio Company (CCRIF SPC)

[This CCRIF SPC] is an insurance company headquartered in the Cayman Islands.[1] The sixteen original member-countries of CCRIF included participants in CARICOM, and the membership of the Board of Directors is selected by CARICOM and by the Caribbean Development Bank.[2]

Founded in 2007,[3] CCRIF is the first multi-country risk pool in the world, and was the first insurance instrument to successfully develop parametric policies backed by both traditional and capital markets.[4] These parametric polices release funds based upon factors of a calamity such as rainfall or wind speed, which can speed up the payout of policies rather than after damages are assessed. Unused funds are kept as reserves for the CCRIF. The fund can also draw upon $140 million in funds underwritten by reinsurance.[5]

Other regions have since setup similar government disaster instance including in the African Union and the Pacific Islands Forum.[5]

Source: Retrieved October 13, 2017 from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Catastrophe_Risk_Insurance_Facility_Segregated_Portfolio_Company

———

Appendix B – Reinsurance sidecars

Reinsurance sidecars, conventionally referred to as “sidecars”, are financial structures that are created to allow investors to take on the risk and return of a group of insurance policies (a “book of business”) written by an insurer or reinsurer (henceforth re/insurer) and earn the risk and return that arises from that business. A re/insurer will only pay (“cede”) the premiums associated with a book of business to such an entity if the investors place sufficient funds in the vehicle to ensure that it can meet claims if they arise. Typically, the liability of investors is limited to these funds. These structures have become quite prominent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a vehicle for re/insurers to add risk-bearing capacity, and for investors to participate in the potential profits resulting from sharp price increases in re/insurance over the four quarters following Katrina. An earlier and smaller generation of sidecars were created after 9/11 for the same purpose. …

Market growth following 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina
In the years following 9-11, the idea of raising funds from capital markets investors in addition to re/insurers to support quota-shares arose and a handful of such ventures were consummated (Olympus, DaVinci, Rockridge). These were the first true sidecars, and were a natural outgrowth of the development of re/insurance as an asset class in the form of catastrophe bonds.

Following Hurricane Katrina, the sidecar idea became very prominent among investors because it was seen as a way to participate in the risk/return of the higher-priced (“hard”) reinsurance market without investing in either existing reinsurers (who might have liabilities from the past that would undermine returns) or new reinsurers (“newcos” that would have a lengthy and expensive “ramp up” period).

Source: Retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_sidecar

 

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Caribbean proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative

Posted on October 12, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money. – Margaret Thatcher CU Blog - Caribbean Island proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative - Photo 1

Many Caribbean member-states feature a governmental structure of democratic socialism; (see Appendix below).

In some places, socialism is a bad word – think Venezuela – but other states feature an advanced prosperous country despite the socialism tag – think Canada. In general, socialism can be depicted as a scale with leftist communism on one end and right-wing capitalism on the other end. The observation and analysis of these varying states during good times and bad times is that the left-leaning socialism countries tend to suffer from a lot of societal abandonment, especially when things go bad, for the reason as described by Margaret Thatcher above. (Consider for example, the Caribbean island of Barbuda, before their recent disaster, there was no private land-ownership).

So many Caribbean member-states have “run out of other people’s money”, thus ensuring a crisis. Alas, this …

… crisis is a terrible thing  to waste – American Economist Paul Romer

The crisis in the Caribbean region right now is in response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 that have devastated many islands – think Puerto Rico, Barbuda and Dominica. It is a good time to re-think the affinity for democratic socialism. These natural disasters are forcing our region to re-think one of the hallmarks of capitalism; our policies on …

… Trade; American Trade to be exact.

Yet still, it becomes obvious what the problem is for so many Caribbean member-states, they seem to “just” want to spend other people’s money rather than do the heavy-lifting – Big Deal – of growing their own economy/wealth. Notice this theme in the news article here from the St. Lucia Times daily newspaper regarding the urgings of their Prime Minister Allen Chastanet:

Title: Prime Minister Chastanet proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative

CU Blog - Caribbean Island proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative - Photo 2On the side-lines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has been speaking to the American business network CNBC.

Prime Minister Chastanet discussed the recent hurricanes that have devastated parts of the Caribbean, rebuilding the Caribbean and Caribbean – US relations.

He said recent events have showed that the Caribbean needs to diversify in terms of its sources of food, pointing to a shutdown of the American hub for several days.

“The support has had to come from the south because while we were going through this, you had two hurricanes heading up north. And literally Miami was on a shutdown. So unfortunately the American hub got shutdown almost for ten days out of Miami.  And so it really has shown us that we need to diversify ourselves a bit and maybe look a bit more to Panama in terms of supplies of food,” Chastanet.

Chastanet said the resilience of the Caribbean is very strong and the region will band together to recover from the disasters.

Chastanet proposed the establishment of a new private sector led initiative what would allow US companies to invest in St Lucia tax free and have their resources sent back home without facing heavy US government taxes.

He said there are great investment opportunities in the Caribbean for American companies.

“Can we not get an incentive, and that’s what we’re in discussions with the US about, that if US companies invest into the Caribbean, that those investments in our books are always tax free that the US allow those funds to be repatriated back into the US tax-free, only on those investments. So 1, it accomplishes getting the funds back into the United States of America. It creates an avenue for the private sector to participate in this growth and brings a lot of money to the table, Chastanet said.

Prime Minister Chastanet is expected to address the UN General Assembly today.

Source: Posted September 21, 2017; retrieved October 11, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/09/21/prime-minister-chastanet-proposes-new-us-caribbean-trade-initiative

As related, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia – also Chairman of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and a governing stakeholder of CariCom – wants to “count America’s money”! He is lobbying for a law – in the US – in which American investors will have tax concessions on their tax obligations to the US Treasury. (There would be no benefit to the US in this scheme).

He is the Chief Executive of a Caribbean member-state urging the US government to skip on their revenue collections so as to benefit the Caribbean; in effect he is “counting” America’s government revenues. See the full interview in the Appendix VIDEO below.

It should be noted that there is no such bill in the US Congress proposing these measures; so this is not lobbying. Rather the imagery of this whole appeal is just that of a foreign Head of Government begging for money with a sign that reads:

“Will NOT work for food”.

CU Blog - OECS diplomat has dire warning for Caribbean countries - Photo 3

No, this is not the branding or image we should want to project to the watching world. But rather, the Honorable Prime Minister’s earlier words reflect the ethos we really need to portray:

Chastanet said the resilience of the Caribbean is very strong and the region will band together to recover from the disasters.

Rather than looking to the US to solve our problems, we want to band together – an interdependence – and work for our own remediation. This is the theme of the book Go Lean…Caribbean and the accompanying blog-commentaries. “Band together” should have been the only appeal at the United Nations. These words should have been echoed in public forums and private discussions with other Caribbean leaders. The Go Lean movement describes this “banding” as a confederation of the 30 Caribbean member-states, including the 2 US Territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This formation of a Single Market and accompanying Security Pact would usher in the economic empowerments and security/emergency optimization that the region needs.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of this confederation, the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This complex organization structure is designed 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. This includes Self-Governing Entities, bordered campuses that practice pure capitalism.

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines can be successful, but only if it is a regional pursuit – all the member-states band together. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 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.

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.

Our appeal to the PM of St. Lucia and to the leaders of all the other member-states:

This is not our first hurricane nor will it be our last. We must recover from these ones and be prepared for others, a lot more of them. “Begging” should not be our recovery plan!

On the other hand, 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.

The branding of the CU is a Trade federation, so there is emphasis for optimizing trade for the Caribbean region. Yes, there is tactical plan to establish trade routes beyond Miami-to-the-Caribbean. The Go Lean roadmap posits that with the close proximity of Trinidad to the South American country of Venezuela (7 miles), there could be an elaborate network of transportation options to facilitate the shipment of goods (and passengers) into the Singe Market.

This roadmap is a Big Deal / Big Idea for the Caribbean region; in many ways, the community commitment for the Caribbean may be similar to the American commitment in the 1960’s to Go to the Moon. The Go Lean book relates this on Page 127:

The Bottom Line on Kennedy’s Quest for the MoonOn 25 May 1961, US President John F. Kennedy announced his support for the American Space program’s “Apollo” missions and redefined the ultimate goal of the Space Race in an address to a special joint session of Congress:

  • “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”.

His justification for the Moon Race was both that it was vital to national security and that it would focus the nation’s energies in other scientific and social fields.

This quest was succeeded. At 10:56 pm EDT, on 20 July 1969, the first human (American Astronaut Neil Armstrong) ventured out of the Apollo 11 landing craft and set foot on the Moon declaring: “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind“.

Other countries have had subsequent moon landings.

Can we get the support of the Prime Minister of St. Lucia and the other Heads of Government throughout the whole region for our “Moon Shot” equivalent, our Big Deal / Big Idea? This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 127, entitled:

10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region

1

 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
The CU is a big idea for the Caribbean, our parallel of the American “moon quest”, allowing for the unification of theregion into one market of 42 million people. This creates the world’s 29th largest economy, based on 2010 figures.The pre-ascension GDP figures are actually less that $800 Billion, but the aggregation into a Single Market willmanifest the economic “catch-up” principle, in 5 years. Further, after 10 years the CU’s GDP should double andrank among the Top 20 or G20 nations.

2

 Currency Union / Single Currency

3

 Defense / Homeland Security Pact

4

 Confederation Without Sovereignty

5

 Four Languages in Unison

6

 Self-Governing Entities (SGE)

7

 Virtual “Union Atlantic Turnpike” Operations
Ferries, Causeways/Bridges, Pipelines, Tunnels, Railways and limited access highways will function as “blood vessels to connect all the organs” within the region, thus allowing easier transport of goods and people among the islands and the mainland states (Belize, Guyana or Suriname) – See Appendix IC Alaska Marine Highway [on Page 280].

8

 Cyber Caribbean
Forge electronic commerce industries so that the Internet Communications Technology (ICT) can be a great equalizer in economic battles of global trade. This includes e-Government (outsourcing and in-sourcing for member-states systems) and e-Delivery, Postal Electronic Last Leg mail, e-Learning and wireline/wireless/satellite initiatives.

9

 e-Learning – Versus – Studying Abroad

10

 Cuba & Haiti

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the art and science of optimizing our eco-system for “Trade and Transport”. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13140 Region-wide Industrial Reboot of Caribbean Pipelines
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12322 Ferries 101 – Launch of a Region-wide Inter-Island Ferry System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9179 The Vision of Ferries for Snowbirds to Head South
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4897 Plan for Natural Gas Distribution for Caribbean Consumption
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3225 Caribbean is Less Competitive Due to Increasing Aviation Taxes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=829 Facilitating Trade with Trucks and Trains
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673 Future Model: Ghost Ships – Autonomous Cargo Vessels

In summary, it is only logical to expect any stewards of society to “corral” the resources, assets and people of the community to effect change, to elevate. On the other hand, it is not logical to expect others to do it for us. This is a child’s expectation for his/her parents. This is inappropriate for independent Caribbean member-states. The aforementioned Economist, Paul Romer, asserted the appropriate strategic plan:

“Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and re-arrange them in ways that are more valuable”.

Obviously, this economist was advocating a capitalist agenda, in contrast to the democratic socialism practice in the region.

There is only a 7-mile strait between the Caribbean island Trinidad of and its southern neighbor. It is only logical to consider that trade route when the northern route – Miami – is impeded. Such a tactical plan will allow for resiliency for post-disaster scenarios. A potpourri of transportation options – Union Atlantic Turnpike – to facilitate interstate commerce among the islands and coastal states is a better plan than begging for other people’s money.

To all you Caribbean leaders: Do not be surprised when a hurricane hits. Count on it! There will be more … such scenario’s. Climate Change is undeniable! Destructive storms will manifest! Bad actors will emerge. There is a need for security empowerments along with economic empowerments. The economic solution for the Caribbean cannot be: Counting other people’s money.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the leaders and the people – to lean-in for the empowerments described here in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. It is conceivable, believable and achievable to prosper ourselves where planted here in the region; to reform and transform and make our own 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 VIDEO – Saint Lucia PM Allen Chastanet: Caribbean Needs To Diversify Search For Relief | CNBC – https://youtu.be/asg87s29c4E

Published on Sep 20, 2017 – Allen Chastanet, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, talks about rebuilding the hard-hit Caribbean after recent storms left the islands devastated. Also Prime Minister Chastanet addresses insurance coverage.

———–

Appendix – Democratic Socialism

Democratic socialism is a political ideology that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, often with an emphasis on democratic management of enterprises within a socialist economic system.

Democratic socialists see capitalism as inherently incompatible with the democratic values of liberty, equality and solidarity; and believe that the issues inherent to capitalism can only be solved by superseding private ownership with some form of social ownership. Ultimately, democratic socialists believe that reforms aimed at addressing the economic contradictions of capitalism will only cause more problems to emerge elsewhere in the economy, that capitalism can never be sufficiently “humanized” and that it must therefore ultimately be replaced with socialism.[1][2]

Democratic socialism is distinguished from both the Soviet model of centralized socialism and from social democracy, where “social democracy” refers to support for political democracy; the nationalization and public ownership of key industries but otherwise preserving and strongly regulating, private ownership of the means of production; regulated markets in a mixed economy; and a robust welfare state.[3] The distinction with the former is made on the basis of the authoritarian form of government and centralized economic system that emerged in the Soviet Union during the 20th century,[4] while the distinction with the latter is made on the basis that democratic socialism is committed to systemic transformation of the economy while social democracy is not.[5]

The term “democratic socialism” is sometimes used synonymously with “socialism” and the adjective “democratic” is often added to distinguish it from the Leninist, Stalinist and Maoist types of socialism, which are widely viewed as being non-democratic in practice.[6]

Democratic socialism is not specifically revolutionary or reformist, as many types of democratic socialism can fall into either category, with some forms overlapping with social democracy, supporting reforms within capitalism as a prelude to the establishment of socialism.[7] Some forms of democratic socialism accept social democratic reformism to gradually convert the capitalist economy to a socialist one using pre-existing democratic institutions, while other forms are revolutionary in their political orientation and advocate for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the transformation of the capitalist economy to a socialist economy.[8]

…

Relation to economics

Democratic socialists have espoused a variety of different socialist economic models. Some democratic socialists advocate forms of market socialism where socially-owned enterprises operate in competitive markets and in some cases are self-managed by their workforce. On the other hand, other democratic socialists advocate for a non-market participatory economy based on decentralized economic planning.[38]

Democratic socialism has historically been committed to a decentralized form of economic planning opposed to Stalinist-style command planning, where productive units are integrated into a single organization and organized on the basis of self-management.[39]

Contemporary proponents of market socialism have argued that the major reasons for the failure (economic shortcomings) of Soviet-type planned economies was the totalitarian nature of the political systems they were combined with, lack of democracy and their failure to create rules for the efficient operation of state enterprises.[40]

Source: Retrieved October 11, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism

CU Blog - Caribbean Island proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative - Photo 3

CU Blog - Caribbean Island proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative - Photo 4

 

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‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns

Posted on October 11, 2017 in Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Can’t see the forest for the trees” – Famous Quotation
This is an expression used for someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole: “The congressman became so involved in the wording of his bill that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees; he did not realize that the bill could never pass.”

CU Blog - 'Pulled' to American Guns - Photo 1This concept is true for communities too!

The United States of America presents itself as the “City on the Hill“, the richest, most powerful model democracy in the history of the world. But this country has some societal defects – i.e. Institutional Racism & Crony-Capitalism – that are so acute that they distort the American reality as a Great Society. One defect in particular is the American gun culture, gun deaths and mass shootings.

Still, America draws – or pulls – a lot of immigrants from around the world, including the Caribbean, despite the voluminous deaths. Just how many deaths are there?

First, the US has far more gun deaths than most other advanced economy countries.

Title: Visualizing gun deaths: Comparing the U.S. to the rest of the world
Whenever a mass shooting occurs, a debate about gun violence ensues. An often-cited counter to the point about the United States’ high rates of gun homicides is that people in other countries kill one another at the same rate using different types of weapons. It’s not true.

Compared to other countries with similar levels of development or socioeconomic status, the United States has exceptional homicide rates, and it’s driven by gun violence.

Here is the data:

CU Blog - 'To Live and Die in L.A.' - Photo 3

Source: Posted June 12, 2016; retrieved October 9, 2017 from: Global Burden of Disease Study. Access the data visualization here: http://ihmeuw.org/3oi4

Just how many mass shootings are there?

See this encyclopedic reference:

Title: Mass shootings in the United States by year

These are the number of shootings (incidents) that transpired during the applicable year. For the last 2 years (2017-to-date & 2016), the actual shooting events are detailed.

Year Incidents Details
2017 13 Partial Year – As of October 1, 2017
    Bronx-Lebanon Hospital attack
    Burnette Chapel shooting
    Clovis library shooting
    Congressional baseball shooting
    Fort Lauderdale airport shooting
    Freeman High School shooting
    Las Vegas Strip shooting
    Little Rock nightclub shooting
    Mississippi shootings
    Orlando shooting
    Plano shooting
    UPS shooting in San Francisco
    Weis Markets shooting
2016 14  
    Baton Rouge shooting of police officers
    Cascade Mall shooting
    Citronelle homicides
    shooting of Dallas police officers
    FreightCar America shooting
    Hesston shooting
    Kalamazoo shootings
    Madison High School shooting
    Mukilteo shooting
    Orlando nightclub shooting
    Pike County, Ohio, shootings
    Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino
    St. Joseph courthouse shooting
    Wilkinsburg shooting
2015 9  
2014 5  
2013 6  
2012 11  
2011 7  
2010 5  
2009 8  

Source: Retrieved October 9, 2017:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_by_year

In a previous blog-commentary, the thesis was presented that for Caribbean citizens, it is NOT better to live “fast & furious” in the US, but rather it is better to prosper where planted in the Caribbean homeland. Life in the US may experience a shorter mortality due to the risky gun culture.

And yet, our Caribbean communities are losing people more and more with our atrocious societal abandonment rates – estimated by one report at 70 percent of the professional classes –  to destinations like the United States. Why are they leaving? Two reasons:

  • “Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
  • “Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating for economics solely.

Is life really so prosperous in the US with such a track record of gun violence?

CU Blog - Must Love Dogs ENCORE - Photo 1

CU Blog - 'Pulled' to American Guns - Photo 2

On October 1, 2017 a shooter – Stephen Paddock – used 23 guns (mostly automatic rifles) perched in a 32nd floor hotel room rained down bullets on a Country Music concert in an adjacent park. He killed 58 innocent people and injured more than 500.

The repeated incidences of mass shooters – with no gun control remediation – makes American life defective; see VIDEO in the Appendix below.

This commentary aligns with the charter of the book Go Lean … Caribbean to make the countries of the Caribbean region better places to live, work and play. The goal is to be Better Than America; to be a protégé without the ignominious Second Amendment; to exercise better governance. A previous blog-commentary entitled 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US detailed:

The “right to bear arms” has a personal application beyond the country’s entitlement to maintain a militia. This “right” has been interpreted in a manner in which any normal “man” can get possession of guns and other armament. This proliferation of guns in society results in the highest rate of gun violence in the world, even an unconscionable rate of school shootings.

The Go Lean roadmap purports that this status has also caused discord – a gross abuse and availability of illegal guns – in bordering communities of Mexico, and Caribbean states of the Bahamas, and the DR. This propels our gun-related crime.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the region’s societal engines – economics, homeland security and governance – for all 30 Caribbean member-states in the region. In fact, the prime directives of the roadmap includes 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines with proactive and reactive measures.
  • Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The quest is to minimize the paradox of future-planning/decision-making for Caribbean citizens. We want to make the Caribbean region better places to live, work and play; this way our citizens would not have to leave … for American shores. Above and beyond mass shootings, the truth of the matter is people die more readily in America due to gun-violence than they die in the Caribbean, or anywhere else.

The planners for a new Caribbean should be able to lower the “pull” factors for Caribbean citizens. Caribbean life is in competition with American life and we should be able to sell the lower risk of being killed by American guns.

The Go Lean book contends that bad actors will always emerge just as a result of economic successes in society. Once the prospects of guns are factored it, the inevitable “bad guy with a gun” can do more damage than ordinary. There must be remediation and mitigation. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

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 … 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, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of details on the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland. Just “how” can the Caribbean region reboot, reform and transform their societal engines to provide better protections and gun control. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 179, entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Gun Control

1

 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
The [CU] treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the member-states. In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security pact to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will elevate and consolidate the registration, gun-permitting process to regional oversight. The goal is to apply learned-lessons from the US example. For Third World countries, as most of the CU apply, undisciplined gun use affect the Failed-State indicator: Criminalization / De-Legitimization of the State. The CU’s mandate is to manage the image and reality of Failed-States.

2

 Background Checks
It’s a best practice to restrain certain aspects of the population access to guns (felons, defendants on bail, targets of restraining orders). This includes gun purchasing and ownership. So the CU Gun Registration regulation (within CariPol) will enforce strict background checks for ALL purchases: retail, wholesale and private-party. This regulation will also be post-reactive in the event a CU resident becomes a subject of legal/police action so as to suspend their gun rights.

3

 Ballistics Testing
The CU will extend gun registration/regulation beyond our American neighbors. To facilitate subsequent investigation of gun crimes, every registered gun must complete ballistic tests and the results must be on (computer) file at CariPol.

4

 Mental Illness Data

5

 Intelligence Gathering and Big Data Analysis

6

 United States (FBI / ATF) Coordination

7

 Private Security Bodyguards

8

 Private First Responders / Bounty Hunters

9

 Gun BuybacksThe CU will maintain a constant program for anonymous gun “buybacks”. These endeavors will be funded with CU funds and coordinated with not-for-profit foundations. The acquired guns will all be registered, for serial numbers and ballistic testing results, and then destroyed; unless needed for legal prosecutions.

10

 Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the eco-system of crime-domestic terrorism; this is part-and-parcel of the regional homeland security initiatives. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126 “Must Love Dogs”  – Providing K9 Solutions for Better Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12400 Accede the Caribbean Arrest Treaty
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11332 Boston Bombing Anniversary – Learning Lessons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11048 Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ Series – Model of Hammurabi
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072 Model: Shots-Fired Monitoring – Securing the Homeland on the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485 Mitigating Interpersonal Violence Series – Street Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684 Role Model for Law, Order and Justice – The Pinkertons

In summary, it is only logical that any stewards of society to remediate any known risks and threats; yet this is not the case for guns in America.

This is stupid … for this to continue unimpeded … for so long. (The American rationale is the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution; one original motivation in 1791 was to suppress insurrection, allegedly including slave revolts [60][61][62]).

In a previous blog-commentary, it was related that when stupidity persists in society it is because someone is getting paid. Who are the financial benefactors in the case of guns in America: The Firearms Manufacturers!

Stock prices of firearms manufacturers rose the day after the shooting, as has happened after similar incidents. Investors expect gun sales will increase over concerns that such an event could lead to more stringent gun-control legislation and a rush of customers wishing to defend themselves against future attacks. – MarketWatch[83]  / Bloomberg[84]

In fact, the National Rifle Association (NRA) now has the reputation of being a Chamber of Commerce-like organization rather than a consumer protection/advocacy group as was its original charter.

Enough already! Too many innocent lives have been lost; see the VIDEO in the Appendix below. Surely, we can be better here in the Caribbean … going forward. Surely we can convince our Caribbean people to Stay Home and not be lured to this madness in the first place.

And for those of the Diaspora in the US: you are in harm’s way, just living an ordinary life. It is Time to Go … back home!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the leaders and the people – to lean-in for the empowerments described here in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. It is conceivable, believable and achievable to prosper where planted here in the region; to 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 the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————-

APPENDIX VIDEO – Reassessing the Same Old Debate on Gun Control: The Daily Show – https://youtu.be/U0UUrMmoPME

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Published on Oct 9, 2017 – In the aftermath of a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Neal Brennan explains why the debate over gun control in the U.S. needs to change.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central.

  • Category: Comedy
  • License: Standard YouTube License
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