February 2019 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Month: February 2019

Cuba’s Progress: New Constitution

Posted on February 27, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

There are 30 member-states in the Caribbean; they all embrace a “Free Market” ideology in some way; but one of them is different; this is Cuba. This country features a communist governmental structure, unique for our region. This affects more than just governance, as communism features a comprehensive philosophical, social, political, and economic ideology.

What does communism really mean?

Classically, it is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production (inputs, factories and infrastructure used in the production of economic value) and the absence of social classes, money,^[3][4] and the state.^[5]

In Cuba however, communism can be defined as just anti-American. Their 1959 Revolution was a rejection of the societal defects of that day, which highlighted two major social classes that became irreconcilable in the country. The two classes are the working class — those who work for a living; they make up the majority within society—and the capitalist class — a minority who derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production; this capitalist class was heavily backed by American interest and many times reflected American direct investors. The Cuban revolution put the “working class” in power and established social ownership of the means of production in Cuba, which is the primary element in any transformation of a society towards communist principles and theory.^[8]

After a 60 year experiment with communism, Cuba is progressing away from its previous ideology (and failures). We have observed-and-reported on this trend during the last 5 years. But rather than just being a trend, Cuba is now codifying this progress in the country’s constitution.

See the full story and VIDEO here, published before the referendum on Sunday February 24, 2019; (the results: the measure passed by 87 percent):

Title: Cubans vote on new constitution to replace Cold War-era charter
Sub-title: Vote presents ‘unique opportunity’ to show how many Cubans voice dissent, analysts say.
By: Heather Gies

Cubans began voting on Sunday in a referendum on a draft constitution to update its 1976 charter on the heels of significant economic reforms on the island over the past few years.

The new constitution, approved in the National Assembly late last year after a popular consultation, enshrines private property and promotes foreign investment. State enterprise remains the cornerstone of the economy, though the new constitution dictates state-owned companies have autonomous management.

On the political front, the document limits the president to two consecutive five-year terms, but does not open the door for Cubans to elect the president directly. The Communist Party remains the central political force in a one-party system.

Jose Jasan Nieves, editor at the non-state media outlet El Toque, told Al Jazeera by legalising economic measures put in practice in recent years, the new constitution “adapts” to a set of reforms already under way.

“This is the first opportunity the Cuban people will have in 43 years to express ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the face of a government programme,” he said. “That is a unique opportunity because it will allow us to know what percentage of the Cuban society will start to express dissent.”

He estimated one-quarter of voters could reject the new constitution.

‘Most Cubans hoping for more’
Eight million Cubans are eligible to vote on Sunday. The polls will close at 6pm (23:00 GMT) local time. More than 225,000 electoral authorities will oversee the vote, while some 200,000 students will steward the ballot boxes.

The electoral commission will release preliminary results in a press conference Monday at 3pm local time (20:00 GMT).

“This constitution is a step forward, we cannot deny that. But I think most Cubans were hoping for more,” Camilo Condis, an entrepreneur in Havana, told Al Jazeera. “Most of the changes in the Constitution are to legalise what was already happening in the country.”

Economic reforms introduced under former President Raul Castro in 2010 and 2011 to encourage self-employment and entrepreneurship “helped to boost the private sector”, said Condis, who rents out a residence and works as a contractor for restaurants. But he added that the rollback in US-Cuban relations under President Donald Trump has created fresh challenges.

Now, he sees the Cuban government’s approach to private enterprise as an effort to “regulate but not shrink the private sector”. Close to 600,000 people are currently self-employed in Cuba, up from 150,000 in 2010.

For Maria Jose Espinosa Carrillo, director of programmes and operations at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, one of the positive outcomes of drafting the new constitution has been the public debate that grew out of a three-month consultation process. Nearly nine million people attended public meetings to discuss an earlier draft of the Constitution, putting forward more than 700,000 proposals.

“For the first time, people had the opportunity to debate on issues that hadn’t been part of grassroots debates before,” Espinosa Carillo told Al Jazeera. “This, together with access to the internet, has brought new platforms for discussion that was previously not public.”

She expects such public debate to be an “increasing trend”, especially through new digital media outlets, Twitter, and other online platforms.

After the popular consultation, the drafting commission made 760 changes to the draft constitution, revising about 60 percent of articles in the document.

Critics say it was not clear how the commission evaluated and incorporated feedback. More than 11,000 proposals called for a direct vote for the president, for example, but the suggestion was not included in the text.

‘Space and visibility’ to tensions
Meanwhile, marriage equality sparked a debate that is likely to continue after the referendum. An earlier version of the draft constitution defined marriage as a union between two people. But the final draft sidestepped outright legalisation after evangelical protests, leaving the definition of marriage to be determined in a separate referendum at a later date.

“It created a big debate, which is positive because it gave space and visibility to tensions that are happening and that people maybe weren’t even aware of,” Maria Isabel Alfonso, professor of Spanish and Cuban studies at St. Joseph’s College, New York, told Al Jazeera.

State-led mobilisations “are progressively being replaced by these spontaneous associations and ways of thinking”, said Alfonso, creator of the documentary, Rethinking Cuban Civil Society, and cofounder of Cuban Americans for Engagement, an organisation that promotes the normalization of US-Cuba ties.

“Many of them are very emphatic that they don’t want to be in the opposition because the opposition receives, in many instances, funds from the US government,” she added.

Nieves agreed the debate is “complex and varied” beyond clear cut “yes” versus “no” or government versus opposition lines.

“These sectors – journalists, intellectuals, artists, entrepreneurs, LGBTI activists, animal rights activists, religious activists – are sectors of a thriving, growing civil society that don’t necessarily have an agenda of opposition politics, but rather of participation and defence of their respective interests,” he said.

Changes to political and social rights in the Constitution include broader recognition of freedom of thought and expression, a right to request and receive information from the state, and the ability to hold dual citizenship.

The document expands non-discrimination to include on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in addition to sex, gender, age, ethnic origin, skin colour, religious belief, and ability. On women’s rights, the new text guarantees women’s sexual and reproductive rights and protects women from gender violence.

Cubans living abroad also were able to submit proposals for the new constitution in the public consultation process. “That was a great step to include the diaspora,” said Espinosa Carillo.

However, other than diplomats, Cubans abroad will not be allowed to vote in the referendum unless the return to the island to cast their ballots.

——

Heather Gies is a freelance journalist who writes about human rights, resource conflicts, and politics in Latin America. She is also an editor at Upside Down World.

Source: Posted February 24, 2019; retrieved February 25, 2019 from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/cubans-vote-constitution-replace-cold-war-era-charter-190224035045660.html

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VIDEO – Cuba Constitution: Millions expected to oppose Government – https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/cubans-vote-constitution-replace-cold-war-era-charter-190224035045660.html

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Related:

Cubans approve a new Constitution: What does the vote mean?
Although Cubans voted overwhelmingly – 86.85 percent in favour – to approve the Constitution, Sunday’s vote saw a growing portion express dissent.

Cuba celebrates 60 years since Castro’s communist revolution – posted January 2, 2019; Retrieved Feb, 26, 2019

This referendum is a move away from “pure” communism and towards a “Free Market” economy – the constitutional changes embrace property ownership and Direct Foreign Investments while doubling-down on a more enterprising form of Socialism. The trend of Cuba progressing towards “Free Market” ideology has been observed-and-reported in many previous blog-commentaries by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean; see a sample list here (in chronological order):

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=436	Apr 2014 – Cuba Approves New “Law on Foreign Investment”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1609	July 2014 – Cuba mulls economic reforms in Parliament session
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2330	Sep 2014 – ‘Raul Castro reforms not enough’, Cuba’s bishops say
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3455	Dec 2014 – Restoration of Diplomatic Relations with Cuba
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4506	Mar 2015 – Colorism in Cuba (Blacks making gains)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6664	Oct 2015 – Cuba to Expand Internet Access
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7412	Feb 2016 – The Road to Restoring Cuba
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9813	Nov 2016 – Fidel Castro Is Dead; Now What?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10201	Jan 2017 – Farewell to ‘Wet Foot/Dry Foot’ Policy for Cubans
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14732	April 2018 – ‘Red Letter Day’ for Cuba – Raul Castro Retires
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16364	Nov 2018 – Technology: Caribbean countries – Cuba – fully on board

The Go Lean movement has consistently asserted that change will come to Cuba (and the full Caribbean), especially now that no Castro is the Chief Executive of the country. In fact this referendum appears to be the initiative more of new President Miguel Diaz-Canel, rather than the Old Guard of Cuban leadership.

The Go Lean movement wants to prepare the full Caribbean for more inclusion of Cuba in the political, social and economic fabric of the regional society. Cuba is equal to 25 percent of the region’s population and landmass. No one can be serious about Caribbean integration with out contemplating the roles and responsibilities towards Cuba.

We are serious! In fact the Go Lean book details a full advocacy (Page 236) on reforming and transforming Cuba. The goal is to reboot this island, modeling the Marshall Plan strategies, tactics and implementations as forged in “Post WW II” Europe.

So yes, we can … again … embrace the winds of change; we must shepherd this effort to make Cuba – and all of the Caribbean – a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states, Cuba included. 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.

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

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

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

xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.

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

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

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

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Cuba, History, Transform

‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – ENCORE

Posted on February 23, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Strategy

Here’s a known fact of life in the USA; let’s examine:

The State of Florida does not have to pay for any of the deliverables for the people in the State of Minnesota; California does not have to worry about the needs of Vermont; Pennsylvania does not have to concern themselves with Arizona; and so on.

Every state only have to address and pay for the needs of the people in their state. Anything cross-border is handled by a different entity, the US federal government.

Yes, as an individual resident, a citizen would see Two Pies while in the USA; one for their State and one for the federal government.

This model is now proposed for the member-states of the Caribbean. This is the roadmap from the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book introduces the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) which will serve as a governing entity for cross-border services and deliveries. While it has always been a point of contention that any regional integration in the Caribbean would have the richer countries paying for the poorer countries. This is a fallacy! Each member-state has their own “pie” and the CU Federal entity will have its own “pie”.

This design of Two Pies have been thoroughly detailed in a previous blog-commentary from February 23, 2017; (two years ago exactly). See an Encore of that submission here-now.

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Go Lean Commentary – Two Pies: Economic Plan for a new Caribbean

“Get your hands out of my pocket!” – Term used by another man in the room to cause a disturbance and distraction during the killing of Malcolm X in New York on February 21, 1965 – 52 years ago this week. See VIDEO in the Appendix below.

The words above that were shouted to cause a disturbance are riot-inducing and can cause alarm for many communities. No one wants to think that someone unauthorized and unworthy may be pilfering hard-earned funds from innocent victims.

No one wants to be that victim!

This was a point of consideration in the conception of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. There was the inspiration to conceive an economic empowerment plan for all the Caribbean that would NOT take money out of one person’s pockets and give to another … unauthorized and unworthy. The solution?

Two pockets … or two pies.

… pie as in a pie-chart; this is the graphical representation of the distribution of a budget. Pie-charts are very effective in expressing one amount in comparison to another amount. So when there are two pie-charts, it undoubtedly expresses that there are two different funds, no intermingling. That is the economic plan for the new Caribbean:

Two Pies.

This means that there are two different funds. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is a regional integration effort to benefit the 30 member-states of the Caribbean. There are a lot of money issues to contend with – but no one person’s hands are in another person’s pockets. So all the money issues for CU are exclusive to the CU. This is true of money-economics and other facets of Caribbean life: security and governance. In total, these 3 prime directives explore the full dimensions of the roadmap:

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

In order to reboot the societal engines there must be these Two Pies. The CU Trade Federation is designed to lead, fund and facilitate regional empowerment plans. But the plan is NOT for the individual member-states to write checks to the CU so as to share one state’s treasuries with another state. Rather, the CU Trade Federation creates its own funding – from regionalized services – and then encumbers the funds for each member-state to deliver the economic, security and governing mandates. This is analogized as Two Pies:

One ‘pie‘ to represent the existing budgets of the member-states and how they distribute their government funding between government services (education, healthcare, etc.), security measures (Police, Coast Guards)
One ‘pie‘ to represent the CU funding from exclusive activities (Spectrum Auctions, Lottery, Exploration Rights, Licenses, Foreign-Aid, etc.).

All in all, the book, and accompanying blogs, declare that the proposed CU Trade Federation is a new governmental layer, and thusly creates a new government budget. This is a confederation; designed to enhance the governmental deliveries for the 30 member-states. This necessity is expressed as a pronouncement in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 10 – 11) with the following statement:

Preamble: While our rights to exercise good governance and promote a more perfect society are the natural assumptions among the powers of the earth, no one other than ourselves can be held accountable for our failure to succeed if we do not try to promote the opportunities that a democratic society fosters.

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.

The vision of a confederation is an integrated Single Market for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean; this means the Dutch, English, French and Spanish speaking territories. This also includes the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Tactically, the CU allows for a separation-of-powers between the member-state governments and the new federal agencies.

Currently the Caribbean member-states pockets are bare – these are all Third World destinations – even the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Consider this First World comparison; consider Apple Corporation – the firm behind the iPhone, iPad, iTunes, etc. – due to their success in technology and business, they have a lot of money (cash on hand); a lot more than many Caribbean member-states … combined.

We need this CU roadmap to impact a turn-around for this region; we need the new “Pie” of the CU Single Market. The member-state’s economic engines – their “Pies” – are in crisis, but since a crisis would be a terrible thing to waste, we need to transform these economic engines for a new Caribbean by introducing the CU “Pie”, as follows:

Regional Capital Markets with a regional currency – Caribbean Dollar – would increase liquidity and lower the cost of capital. Rather than international debt, member-state governments and corporate institutions can avail themselves of lower financing costs, sometimes as low as 2% interest rates.
Notice a glimpse of this vision in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=372 | Dominica raises EC$20 million on regional securities market
Municipal financing – Debt by any governmental entity does not only reflect on the past, but impacts the future as well. Excessive debt can be so bad that at times the providers … and collectors of debt may be derisively called “vultures”. The CU pledges to re-purchase existing municipal debt and convert them to Caribbean Dollar instruments.
Notice this portrayal in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601 | Beware of Vulture Capitalists Commercial banking enhancements
Individual finance: Student Loans – Many Caribbean students obtained loans from their home countries, matriculated abroad and then never returned home. There was no return on investment and many times, no loan repayment. The CU pledges to buy outstanding loans (new, active and default) and enforce cross-border collections.
Notice the details of this student loan crisis in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373 | A Lesson in Economic Fallacies – Student Loans As Investments
Individual finance: Mortgages – Housing can be a great stimuli on the economy, but it is difficult for banks to recycle the capital that is tied up for 30 years without a Secondary Market. The CU pledges to deploy a Mortgage Secondary Market across the entire region (Go Lean book Page 83 and 199). This strategy will re-enforce banking within the region.
Notice the issues associated with a dysfunctional mortgage eco-system in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10187 | Day of Reckoning for NINJA Loans
Individual finance: Retirement – Growing old in the Caribbean has become strained due to the high abandonment rate. National Pension plans depend on a macro structure where young people pay into the fund while the elderly withdraws from the fund. With so much emigration, the actuarial tables are distorted.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that depicts a failing pension system in one member-state:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830 | Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
… and one blog-commentary that describes how best to prosper:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4222 | Getting Rich Slowly in the Caribbean
Self-Governing Entities (SGE) – The Go Lean/CU roadmap features the installation of SGE’s as job-creating engines in many communities; these sites are ideal for technology laboratories, medical campuses, corporate parks, industrial sites, educational facilities and other forms of establishments situated inside bordered facilitates. They allow for an efficient process to launch and manage industrial efforts in the region. These types of installations will thrive under the strategies and tactics of the Go Lean roadmap. SGE’s do require governmental concurrence and maybe even public approvals – referendums – but only at the initiation. Beyond that, they are not a concern, or an expense, for local governments – they bring their own economic “Pie“.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that details the dynamics of SGE’s:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921 | Socio-Economic Change: Impact Analysis of SGE’s
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – The Go Lean/CU roadmap calls for the strategy of petitioning the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for expanded territory in the Caribbean Sea for the CU to develop, explore, protect and exploit for the benefit to the Caribbean en-masse only. This means the CU “Pie” for revenues-and-expenses and not individual member-states.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that details the dynamics of the EEZ:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8819 | Lessons from China – South China Seas: Exclusive Economic Zones

The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies designed to create a federal “Pie” in the Caribbean region; see here:

Anecdote – Caribbean Single Market & Economy	Page 15
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Integrated Region in a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Vision – Agents of Change	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Non-sovereign Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing to $800 Billion Regional Economy	Page 67
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers	Page 71
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Optimizing Societal Engines	Page 93
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone	Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Planning – Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Model the EU	Page 130
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street	Page 199

While the Caribbean needs its people, these people need a better Caribbean society – more prosperous. The region status quo is that “they got it bad”! Due to the many failures in the region, many people have fled to find refuge in foreign countries, resulting in a debilitating brain drain in the Caribbean, and thusly less people-less potential-less profits; so even more failure on top of failure.

The Go Lean roadmap for the CU stresses the need for this new “Pie“, the economics of a Caribbean Single Market. This theme was previously blogged on in so many previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; see sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043	Integration Plan for Greater Caribbean Prosperity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9595	Vision and Values for a ‘New’ Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8813	Lessons from China – Size Does Matter
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841	Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	European Integration Currency Model: One Currency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=599	Ailing Puerto Rico open to radical economic fixes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=364	Time Value of Money
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360	How to Create Money from Thin Air

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people and governing institutions – to lean-in for the Caribbean integration re-boot, this Caribbean Union Trade Federation. We need the “Two Pies“. We need better engines to make our region more prosperous, to make it a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix VIDEO – Malcolm X: Get your hand out my pocket – https://youtu.be/zHM8lAIFoU4

Uploaded on Jan 26, 2011 – Classic scene from a classic movie.

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Banks, CariCom, Transform

[Top]

Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’

Posted on February 20, 2019 in Economics, Industries, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

What materials should money be made from: Gold, Silver, Copper, Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies and other precious stones?

How about “nothing”? Thin Air?

To insist on some orthodoxy of precious materials, would be inconsequential. Remember, the default currency now is paper. How much more precious a material is paper as opposed to Digits (1’s and 0’s). These are all close to “nothing”.

Yet, this is our economy. Yes, the medium for our currency is not the physical material, but rather: Trust.

The Trust equation is about to change, again. This time, instead of National Trust, we are looking at Corporate Trust.

Here comes the banks; here comes blockchain; here comes crypto-currency; here comes digitization.

Yes, here comes ‘trouble’. Here comes Big Wall Street Bank JPMorganChase. Here comes other players in other markets – see the news articles in the Appendices below:

Appendix A – JPMorganChase
Appendix B – Belarus
Appendix C – Sweden

All of these articles and news developments speak to the digitization of money and banking, highlighting that the primary ingredient in this recipe for success is Trust.

This is where this discussion comes home. In the Caribbean we need to embrace digital money and electronic payment solutions, but first we need Trust in a regional financial institution to manifest this roadmap. When we look at the reality of our Caribbean geography, we see:

American, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Independent and Overseas Territories

Here comes trouble! We realize something very obvious: we do not trust each other! So we may actually have to do the heavy-lifting that was always needed for our regional society to finally function as a coherent neighborhood. We have always needed to come together … in trust and unity; but never have.

Now more than ever, we must convene, collaborate and confederate banking solutions for our Caribbean homeland by committing vital resources for every Caribbean country, all 30 member-states. The basis for our trust must be, that we all have something to lose.

Then, only then, will we have no choice but to trust each other for a unified monetary and currency solution.

Trust but verify – Russian proverb Doveryai, no proveryai used by the 40th US President Ronald Reagan to emphasize “the extensive verification procedures that would enable both sides to monitor compliance with the INF Treaty of 1987 for nuclear disarmament by the US and USSR”^[4].

We are urged to follow this wise “trust but verify” course of action. If it worked for bilateral cooperation between arch-enemies – USA and USSR – it can work for friendly neighbors in the Caribbean region.

The verification is key. The book Go Lean … Caribbean proposed a monetary-currency (Caribbean Dollar or C$) solution involving a cooperative of the Central Banks already in the region, dubbed the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). Such a move should not be so unnerving. There is already currency interdependence for many member-states:

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank – services the monetary-currency needs of 8 countries (Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
US Dollar is used as the monetary-currency solution for 4 Caribbean countries: British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands. (Plus used widely along with local currency in 9 countries).

With a Central Bank cooperative, we would already be half-way there! The Go Lean book (Page 73) details this CCB cooperative as follows:

The Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) is actually a cooperative among the region’s Central Banks. All the existing Central Banks, at the time of ascension, will cede their monetary powers to the CCB and continue their participation using well-established cooperative principles (Rochdale). This includes these 7 prime directives:
1). Open/voluntary membership – based on CU treaty ratification;
2). Democratic member control – the CCB cooperative is controlled by their Central Bank Governor-members, who actively participate in setting monetary policies and making tactical decisions;
3)-a. Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their co-operative – the C$ is the capital;
3)-b. Members are compensated for funds invested in the CCB cooperative, and decide how surpluses should be used – how much reserves to maintain and how much to return to the member-state governments;
4). Autonomous and independent – the very definition of a technocracy;
5). Provide education and training to their members and the public – the CCB champions the cause of an integrated currency to the public;
6). Co-ops cooperate with each other;
7). Work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members – the community is the region as a whole.

Now, we can launch our own crypto-currency and electronic payments, clearing and settlements from this strong foundation. The missing ingredient, Trust, would be fulfilled. See how the underlying technology behind crypto-currencies, Blockchain, is explained in this TED Talk VIDEO here:

VIDEO – How the blockchain will radically transform the economy | Bettina Warburg – https://youtu.be/RplnSVTzvnU

TED
Published on Dec 8, 2016 – Say hello to the decentralized economy — the blockchain is about to change everything. In this lucid explainer of the complex (and confusing) technology, Bettina Warburg describes how the blockchain will eliminate the need for centralized institutions like banks or governments to facilitate trade, evolving age-old models of commerce and finance into something far more interesting: a distributed, transparent, autonomous system for exchanging value.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate

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Category: Science & Technology

A successful digital money / electronic payment scheme is very important in the strategy for elevating the Caribbean economy. The “risky” image of crypto-currency may now be nullified with all the global developments taking place.

Let’s get started!

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

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

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

Yep! Count us in!

Now is the time for all stakeholders of the Caribbean, (residents, visitors, merchants, vendors, bankers, and governing institutions), to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean roadmap. These empowerments can help to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

The CCB provides a comprehensive role in this roadmap: facilitating and settling interbank transactions for the region, especially in light of the introduction of for new digital payment systems: new cards, telephony apps and crypto-currency. The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on these solutions; and on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

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

————-

Appendix A – JPMorgan launches ‘JPM Coin’ cryptocurrency, becomes first major bank to create its own digital coin By: Jade Scipioni

Nearly two years after JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon Opens a New Window. famously bashed bitcoin, calling it a “fraud,” the big bank announces it has created its own cryptocurrency Opens a New Window. prototype.

Dubbed JPM Coin, the new tokens, which will be the first cryptocurrency backed by a U.S. bank, are set to be tested to instantly settle transactions, on a small portion of payments, among clients of the big bank’s wholesale payments business.

“The JPM Coin isn’t money per se. It is a digital coin representing United States Dollars held in designated accounts at JPMorganChase,” the company said in a press release.

In short, a JPM Coin will have a fixed value redeemable for one U.S. dollar. However, it won’t trade freely like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

“When one client sends money to another over the blockchain, JPM Coins are transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalents amount of U.S. dollars, reducing the typical settlement time,” the company added.

JPMorgan Opens a New Window. said it believes the new technology can help lower costs and risks associated with big money transfers around the world.

While the new tokens are initially designed for major ‘institutional clients’ for business-to-business transactions, not individuals, the cost-savings and efficiency benefits “would extend to the end customers of our institutional clients,” the company said.

The news does not come as a surprise either, as JPMorgan has been leading the charge in testing blockchain payments for more than two years.

As reported by FOX Business last September,Opens a New Window. more than 157 banks globally have joined a blockchain-based payment project led by JPMorgan to test how to streamline cross-border transactions.

The shared ledger called Interbank Information Network (IIN) was built by Dimon’s team in 2017 through its own blockchain platform called Quorum.

While Dimon did famously call bitcoin a “fraud” and “worse than tulip bulbs” — a reference to the 17th century economic bubble — he and his key managers have consistently said that blockchain and regulated digital currencies do have promise.

Source: Posted February 14, 2019; retrieved February 19, 2019 from: https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/jpmorgan-set-to-roll-out-the-first-bank-backed-cryptocurrency

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Appendix B – Belarus’ Biggest Bank is ‘Working on’ Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency Exchange
By: Jimmy Aki, CCN
According to a report by local news outlet BeITA, Belarusbank, the largest bank in Belarus, is considering the launch of its very own cryptocurrency exchange platform.

The plans for the exchange were revealed by Viktor Ananich, the Chairman of Belrusbank’s board. Speaking with Belarus 1 TV channel, Ananich remarked:

“We are considering a possibility to establish a cryptocurrency exchange. We are working on it.”

For Belarusbank, Digitization is the Future
The bank is looking to intensify its focus on digitization, and it is reportedly seeking ways to expand its range of services by forming alliances with various mobile service providers. In addition to the reported cryptocurrency exchange, BeITA also stated that the bank is in the process of issuing virtual cards soon.

Source: Posted January 31, 2019; retrieved February 20, 2019 from: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/belarus-biggest-bank-working-launching-155444267.html

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Appendix C – Sweden Officially Backs a Cryptocurrency and Establishes It As Their Official Coin

It’s finally happened. A major worldwide government has just bestowed a huge vote of confidence and legitimacy onto the world of cryptocurrencies. Sweden, in an unprecedented move, just announced that they are officially adopting a certain cryptocurrency as Sweden’s official coin!

The Swedish government just informed us that they have chosen a preferred firm for the purchase and marketing of their new coin – Kryptonex Research Group. The sales of Sweden’s coin officially started on Friday, April 27th and currently these coins can be bought only from Kryptonex Research Group.

Industry experts weren’t surprised when Kryptonex was chosen by Sweden as their preferred firm for the release of their official coin. They had all seen for their own eyes the cutting edge insight that Kryptonex had brought to the cryptocurrency markets for their clients.

See the full article here: https://elevenews.com/2018/04/28/sweden-officially-backs-cryptocurrency-and-establishes-it-as-their-official-coin/ – posted April 28, 2018; retrieved January 20, 2018.

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Banks, e-Commerce, Model, Transform

[Top]

War on Cancer: Survivors Emerge from ‘Better Battles’

Posted on February 19, 2019 in Economics, Industries, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

In 1971, there was a War Declaration … against the dreaded disease of Cancer.

We all know someone that has battled cancer. Many of us know people who fought and lost. Truly, the designation of a War on Cancer is appropriate. Here is the historical details as related in the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean on Page 157:

The Bottom Line on Cancer Industrial Complex
Cancer strikes nearly 1 in every 2 men and more than 1 in every 3 women. When President Richard Nixon signed the landmark measure, National Cancer Act, in 1971, he declared it as America’s War on Cancer. After 40 years, the overall incidence of cancer in the U.S. has escalated to epidemic proportions, now striking 1.8 million, and killing about 550,000 annually. The median age for the diagnosis of cancer is 67 in adults, and six in children. The war is being lost, even though it is being fought at the public’s expense (medically & financially).
.
To win the war on cancer would mean preventing cancer. Yet cancer is a multi-billion dollar business and preventing cancer would be bad for business. It is bad for the pharmaceutical and mammography businesses. These industries have intricate ties to U. S. policy makers, directing research funds to insure their continued profits in cancer diagnosis/treatment. – Cancer Prevention Coalition’s www.PreventCancer.com.
.
There are many medical practitioners and general advocates alike, that feel that cancer treatment uses “slash and burn” technology. They claim that these treatment schemes are a racket, designed to fleece the public. They point out that chemo-therapy costs $10,000 – $30,000 a month, and its success rate today is no better than 40 years ago. “It’s firstly a business; as long as health is considered to be a profit center, there is no reason for the cancer-industrial complex to cure cancer”.

The Go Lean book does not portend to be a manual on diagnosing or treating cancer. But it does strategize a roadmap for economic empowerment. It clearly relates that healthcare, disease management, cancer treatments and medicines are germane to the Caribbean quest for health, wealth and happiness. The primary author of the book was inspired to write this roadmap, after his sister died after a 32-year battle with cancer – See Dedication (Page 2). This supplemented the fact that their mother died first of breast cancer, almost 50 years ago in 1970.

This is now war …

… battles continue … there are victors and victims.

Yes, some people do survive their battles with cancer. They live to share lessons with the rest of us. These lessons are not just medical, but emotional, social and yes: economic as well.

Examine the experiences here in this news article from the American Daily Newspaper “USA Today“. The story is too important to ignore; (despite the American settings, there is application for us in the Caribbean as well):

Title: Life after cancer: More survivors living longer, facing new health challenges
Sub-title: More cancer patients are living longer. Few are getting the help they need to stay healthy
By: Kim Painter, USA TODAY

When Susan Leigh finished treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma back in 1972, she says, “no one knew what was going to happen.”

Certainly, no one knew that the Arizona woman would develop three more cancers and heart damage, all likely linked to the aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatments that helped save her life.

Those treatments were new at the time. When Leigh finished them, apparently cancer-free, she was a pioneer.

“I remember saying to my radiation doctor, what do I do now?” recalls Leigh, 71, a retired cancer nurse. “What do I do to keep this from coming back and to recover?

“He said he really didn’t know. He said maybe I could try taking a good multivitamin pill.”

Four decades later, doctors know much more. They know that some cancer survivors are at increased risk for other cancers later, and for problems ranging from brittle bones to heart failure.

They also know more about how to help patients head off or manage those risks.

But few patients are getting that help – even 13 years after the influential Institute of Medicine warned that many survivors were “lost in transition,” and weren’t getting adequate follow-up care.

“The number of cancer survivors continues to grow, yet high-quality, coordinated survivorship care is still infrequent,” experts from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said in a recent follow-up report (the nonprofit includes the former Institute of Medicine).

“Strides have been made, but there’s also been an acceleration in the demand,” says Neeraj Arora, associate director for science at the nonprofit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Arora, a 25-year survivor of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, helped write the report.

Even today, Leigh says, too many people “don’t get the kind of follow-up care they need.”

“Doctors say, ‘You are OK, we don’t need to see you anymore.’ ”

Numbers are growing – and so is the need
The American Cancer Society says more than 15.5 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive in 2016. By 2026, the group says, that number will rise to 20.3 million.

The population of survivors is also aging. Nearly two thirds are over age 65, meaning most face health challenges beyond those linked to their cancer.

And those over age 85 are the fastest growing segment – giving famous survivors such as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, and former President Jimmy Carter, 94, a lot of generational company.

Meanwhile, cancer patients, young and old, are living longer.

“Now, thanks to early detection and better treatment, we have a lot more people living many years beyond their initial diagnosis,” says Catherine Alfano, the cancer society’s vice president for survivorship.

The five-year survival rate for all cancers combined stands at 70 percent for whites and 63 percent for blacks, the society says. That’s up from 39 percent for whites and 27 percent for blacks in the 1960s.

People treated in 2019 might do still better. But they also might face unknown long-term risks, even from treatments meant to be less toxic and more targeted than those of the past.

Surviving cancer does not mean leaving health concerns behind.

Cancers can recur. And some survivors face an increased risk of other cancers, sometimes related to their treatment.

Some cancer treatments can damage bones, hearts and other organs in ways that might not show up for decades. Leigh and Arora can attest to that: both have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

Patients can leave initial treatment with ongoing symptoms. More than a quarter of patients in one study reported lingering problems such as fatigue, sleep disturbances and foggy thinking.

In another survey, 24 percent of survivors reported poor physical health and 10 percent reported poor mental health – roughly double the rates for other adults.

Psychologist Julia Rowland led the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Cancer Survivorship for 18 years.

“People are now thinking of cancer survival not just in terms of lifespan but health span,” she says. “There’s a growing recognition that it’s not just the length of life but the quality of life.”

The push for survivorship care plans
Arora, now 49, was diagnosed two decades after Leigh. But he also left treatment unprepared for his future.

“I got absolutely top-notch treatment. But when I left, after five years, my doctor said, ‘You are good.’ He said, ‘You don’t need to see anybody.’ Which today I know is not the right thing to say. But that’s where the field was then.”

Under reforms first envisioned by the Institute of Medicine in 2006, patients are supposed to leave initial treatment with two things: A brief written summary that lists all treatments received and a survivorship care plan.

For a breast cancer survivor, the plan might prescribe regular mammograms and an exercise program. It might tell someone who took heart-toxic chemotherapy drugs to watch for cardiac symptoms. Some patients might be urged to keep seeing their cancer care team, often or occasionally; others might be told they face few cancer-related risks and can return to routine care by their regular doctors.

Ideally, advocates say, the plan starts a dialogue among providers, patients and caregivers and tells patients where to seek help with mental health, family matters, jobs and finances.

But when 53 top cancer centers were surveyed several years after the initial recommendation, fewer than half were using the plans.

The Commission on Cancer, which accredits cancer centers, started in 2015 to require them to phase in the plans. But uptake was so slow that the commission altered the standard in 2018 to allow more time for full implementation.

Costs, staffing shortages and inadequate electronic records all slow adoption, the National Academies reports.

Even where care plans have been adopted, their usefulness has not been proved.

“The data is not impressive,” Rowland says. One reason, she says, is that “people are treating this not as a conversation, but a piece of paper.”

Innovative cancer programs are now weaving survival planning into every phase of care, Alfano says. They’re also seeking better ways to use technology to track and guide patients.

But those innovations are not reaching enough patients, she says.

Progress for survivors
Leigh says much progress has been made since she became a founding member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship in 1986.

“When we first started this, we were called cancer victims,” she says. “It was a way of looking a it that said you didn’t have any control.”

Today, the survivor community embraces everyone from newly diagnosed patients to the growing cadre of chronic cancer patients who stay on therapies for years.

Some, Leigh notes, reject the label “survivor,” for various reasons, including perceptions that it excludes those who will never be cancer-free. But even that debate, she says, is a sign that the movement has matured.

Another sign of progress: Most states now at least mention cancer survivors in their official cancer control plans, says Larissa Nekhlyudov, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

It’s not clear what impact state efforts have had, she says. But some states have launched innovative programs, often with funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Kansas, for example, health officials worked with farmer’s markets for seniors to boost fruit and vegetable consumption among survivors. Iowa created educational materials for survivors facing sexual problems. Vermont trained survivors to counsel newly diagnosed patients as part of a program called Kindred Connections.

Volunteer David Cranmer says the program helps the volunteers almost as much as it helps those they counsel.

“We have training sessions with potluck suppers, and people get together and tell their stories,” says Cranmer, 70, of Williston, Vermont.

His own story includes a bone marrow transplant for chronic myeloid leukemia in 1999, followed by thyroid cancer. He’s now undergoing long-term chemotherapy for another condition, amyloidosis.

Despite his difficulties, he says, his story offers hope – and plants the idea that today’s cancer patients can and should plan for their futures.

“Most people aren’t thinking five or ten years from now. They are thinking about today,” he says. “But when I call up and say I’m a 20-year cancer survivor, that turns on a light that oh, there is life after cancer.”

Source: USA Today Newspaper; posted February 15, 2019; retrieved February 19, 2019 from: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/50-states/2019/02/13/life-after-cancer-survivors-oncology-survivorship-plans-long-term-health/2794121002/

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Related: Advice for cancer patients: plan on surviving

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VIDEO – Four-time cancer survivor pioneers recovery and advocacy – https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2019/02/13/four-time-cancer-survivor-pioneers-recovery-and-advocacy/2859322002/

USA TODAY – Susan Leigh has beaten multiple cancers and heart problems and now champions survivorship care plans for patients and their families.

Lessons abound – we must Battle Cancer Better:

We reap what we sow in this war. Hard work, smart work and better work pays off in victory.
Some places are better for surviving cancer than others.
The battle continues … even after cancer has been defeated … initially.
There are high-tech (advances drugs and surgical procedures) and low-tech solutions (diet, exercise, stress management, positivity, etc.).
The Caribbean must prepare and invest in Research & Development (R&D) and treatment deliveries for our people and visiting guests (patients) who may want to benefit from a new Caribbean commitment to Battle Cancer Better.

This theme has been elaborated upon in previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7822	Cancer: Doing More Many Role Models want to invest their time, talent (business & entrepreneurship) and treasuries in this quest to impact the world of cancer R&D and treatment. This is good! This is better if/when we invite them to bring their operations to a Caribbean address. We have the perfect structure to Do More for cancer: Self-Governing Entities are detailed in the Go Lean roadmap.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3276	Role Model Shaking Up the World of Cancer One person can make a difference in cancer R&D and treatment. We should always incentivizes innovators. In fact, the Go Lean roadmaps invites them to avail our Self-Governing Entity concepts for ful industrialization of medical research and delivery.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2522	The Cost of Cancer Drugs The Americans eco-system may not be the best role model for emulating R&D and treatment for cancer. Their Crony-Capitalism is so acute that their motives maybe profit more so than life.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=554	Cuban cancer medication registered in 28 countries Innovation in cancer drugs and treatment have already emerged from the Caribbean – Cuba or all places have doubled-down in their R&D ethos. Any apathy towards their politics should not deter medical progress – lives are at stake.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=286	PR’s Comprehensive Cancer Center Project Breaks Ground The Caribbean needs to facilitate an atmosphere for Cancer R&D and Treatment. There can be an organized industry for this quest. Jobs can be created, in addition to Battling Cancer Better.

Cancer is a crisis … everywhere. This is not just an American drama and solutions do not only emerge from America.

The Go Lean book demonstrates how developing the ethos that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, could help save lives … and communities. There are winning battles in the War on Cancer, but we must do the heavy-lifting to succeed.

Let’s fight … and keep on battling!

Many of our loved ones have died trying. Let’s not allow their deaths to be in vain. Let’s work harder, smarter and better and win more battles in this War on Cancer. This is how we can make our homeland a better place to live, work, heal and play. 🙂

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion 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.

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

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

ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, obesity and smoking cessation programs.

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

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

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

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

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Cancer, Health, Model

[Top]

Barbados Ready for ‘Free Movement’

Posted on February 18, 2019 in Economics, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Free Movement of People” is one aspect of the Single Market concept that is strongly urged by this commentary. Even though this view is not unanimous in its appeal – in the Caribbean especially – many advanced economies do have Free Movement:

US – Yes
European Union – Yes

These two markets are Number 1 and Number 2 accordingly in the world’s GDP rankings. There truly is merit to this strategy, as people can freely go where they are needed and job openings can be freely filled by people – from near or far.

This means neighboring communities get to share in the opportunities and challenges of any one destination.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean (Page 5) drew reference to neighborly collaboration, cooperation and confederation by detailing the lyrics of a 1972 song, as follows:

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me – Song: Lean On Me by Bill Withers

One country gets it …

An Economic Affairs Minister for Barbados has declared that his country needs to be more welcoming of workers from other Caribbean communities. In fact, he indicated that the demographic trends in Barbados is all bad; their population is getting older as there are now fewer and fewer young people. The “load” of rebooting the Caribbean can be shared among the region – Caribbean Community or CariCom. See the news article here relating this thesis:

Title: Barbados opening jobs to CARICOM nationals
By: George Alleyne

Responding to a growing demographics imbalance in which the retired and close to retirement members of the population are growing while the number of working-age nationals is dwindling, Barbados will soon open its doors to skilled labour, especially persons from the Caribbean Community.

This situation caused Minister of Home Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, to say recently, “I as minister of immigration am firmly of the view that we have too small a population for Barbados to sustain and grow this economy and we will have ‘managed migration’ into this country especially among our fellow Caribbean people who are productive, who will make a mark.”

He said that the island, however, will not be open to “those who are going to be a drain on our economy or public purse,” but will be welcoming “those who are productive, who have skills”.

“We need more young people in this country in their most productive age.”

Hinkson’s revelation of the island’s intent found support in fellow government minister, Marsha Caddle, who has said, “we’ve realised that the population base of the country is not sufficient to generate the revenue that we need to be able to contribute to the standard of living that we want to have.”

The junior economic affairs minister said that 20 to 25 years ago the population group between ages 20 and 29 was the largest, however, “that same cohort is now still the largest, but it is 50 years old. And the 20 to 29 [age group is] now is much smaller.”

With Barbados restructuring its flagging economy to make it welcoming to investors, and a number of major construction projects set to begin this year, she said, “it is not just a question of diversifying the economy and having a revenue-positive policy …but it is also a question of making sure you have the population base to support it.”

This unevenness in the island’s population was the reason that Ronald Jones, a minister in the former government, had pleaded with Barbadians to make more babies to counter the lowering birth rate, which in turn leads to a reduced workforce.

“A declining population will have an impact on what we do to support older generations and national development as a whole,” Jones had said.

But Hinkson dismissed that as the solution for Barbados’ immediate need for a larger workforce.

“We’re not going to do like what the then minister of education said two or three years ago that people must get more children because they will take 20 years plus nine months before a child might become productive if conceived today,” the home affairs minister said.

Barbados’s soon-to-be implemented programme of ‘managed migration’ should provide pointers to sister CARICOM nations on how to implement the grouping’s policy of the right of skilled nationals to work in most of the 15 countries in this body.

Source: Posted February 15, 2019 retrieved February 17, 2019 from: https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2019/2/2019-02-15-ga-barbados-jobs-caricom-nationals-cl.html

According to this foregoing article, there is the need for Barbados to fill its job openings from CariCom countries nearby. The original plan for the now-stalled Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) called for such “Free Movement of People”. Too bad, this scheme was never fully incorporated; many societal defects could have been averted.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean addressed CSME from the beginning; starting with this opening assessment of the State of Caribbean Integration. The book detailed CSME on Page 15 as follows:

What is the CSME?
The initials refer to the Caribbean Single Market & Economy, the attempted integrated development strategy envisioned at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community which took place in July 1989 in Grand Anse, Grenada. The Grand Anse Declaration had three key features:

Deepening economic integration by advancing beyond a common market towards a Single Market and Economy.

Widening the membership and thereby expanding the economic mass of the Caribbean Community (e.g. Suriname and Haiti were admitted as full members in 1995 and 2002 respectively).

Progressive insertion of the region into the global trading and economic system by strengthening trading links with non-traditional partners.

What was the hope for CSME?
Whereas CariCom started as a Common Market and Customs Union, to facilitate more intra-region trade, the CSME was intended to effect more integration of the economies of the member states. But this turned out to be mere talk, fanciful murmurings of politicians during their bi-annual Heads of Government meetings. No deployment plans ever emerged, even though up to 15 member-states signed on to the accord; (and 10 more as “Observers” only).
…

The recommendation of the movement behind the Go Lean book is to confederate now, as this would expand the labor pool and job market. This is the purpose of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to help reform and transform the economic engines of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

The Go Lean roadmap is designed to elevate the Caribbean region, to be better destinations to live, work and play. The roadmap asserts that in addition to the ease of travel and transport for touristic purposes – the primary industry in the region – Caribbean communities get to benefit from Free Movement of Labor under controlled employment rules-conditions. This is why the CU Trade Federation is a graduation from the CSME – something better. We accomplish Free Trade and Free Movement of People for Domestic (Intra-region) Tourism, but controlled Freedom of Movement for jobs … based on a Labor Certification process. Here is how the Go Lean book describes the Certification process as regulated by one of the CU agencies:

CU Labor Relations Board
This agency coordinates the activities of labor certifications, labor unions and other organizational dimensions in the region. This effort will be collaborated and in cooperation with member-state Labor Relations agencies. The CU‘s focus will be towards interstate activities and enterprises, as opposed to intra-state.

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. [When a high skilled job becomes available, it has to be rated so that if no local talents are available, workers with qualifying ratings in other CU member-states can apply and be engaged].

Embracing the tenants of a Single Market have been elaborated upon in previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15245	Righting a Wrong: Re-thinking CSME
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14954	Overseas Workers – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13319	Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Freedom of Movement
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8377	Fallacy of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8351	Brexit reality tied to Free Movement of People.

Considering Barbados’s move in the foregoing, it is a good start for embracing the concept of a Single Market. They are not the first country in the region to lean-in to this initiative – and should not be the last. Consider the VIDEO here, relating the CARICOM Skilled Nationals Act in Guyana:

VIDEO – Gov’t to amend CARICOM Skilled Nationals Act – https://youtu.be/IduFS86PGpM

CapitolNewsGY
Published on Feb 5, 2014

http://www.capitolnewsonline.com | http://www.capitolnewsgy.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/wrhmnews
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapitolNewsGY

Category: News & Politics

Listen up you other countries: Follow suit!

All Caribbean stakeholders – leaders, citizens, businesses, employers, Union workers and professionals – need to embrace the strategy of a Single Market. The movement behind the Go Lean book invites everyone in the Caribbean to lean-in for the empowerments described here-in. We must do better than in the past; we cannot sustain our society with our current population dimensions. We must come together so that we can finally make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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‘February 14’ commemorating ‘Hate, Not Love’ this year – ENCORE

Posted on February 13, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Locations, Social

This is Greater Miami – 2019.

What should be a day set-aside for lovers – Valentines Day – is now only being remembered for the bad episode of a School Shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida – a suburban town in Greater Miami.

May we never forget!

But this is America; a warped pattern of gun use in society is common and now expected. For Caribbean communities, we have always been able to sit on the sidelines and just laugh-weep-mourn at these bad practices. On February 14, 2018 however, things change. One of our Caribbean Diaspora was enrolled at that High School … and victimized accordingly.

This American social dysfunction came to “our home” to roost.

So we must advocate for change, not just in our Caribbean homeland, but also for America, as the full Caribbean eco-system includes our Diaspora that have left the homeland 50, 40, 30, and 20 years ago – plus their children … and grandchildren. Surely, as compassionate people, we feel the thug on our hearts if/when a little one is victimized by this cruel American dysfunction.

Surely, we mourn for our own, and for those who emigrated from our communities; ones who may still consider the Caribbean their true identity and their tropical homeland as their true “yard”.

Surely!

This was the theme of a previous Go Lean commentary from March 26, 2018, asserting that while we need to work to reform our Caribbean homeland, to make it a better place to live, work and play, that we also need to lend-a-hand to change America. That previous blog is Encored here-now:

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

Go Lean Commentary – Observing the Change … with Guns

Here’s is our assignment – the 5 L‘s – for the Caribbean Diaspora in the US hoping for change back in our beloved homeland:

Look, Listen, Learn for the societal defects in the American eco-system.

… and if you can: Lend-a-hand

… then go back home and Lead.

You see, we are not trying to be like America; we are trying to be better.

This is a Big Deal … right now. There was a school shooting in the US again; this time on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. 17 people were killed, 14 students and 3 staff members. Though the school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has 3100+ students, the survivors are not going away quietly; they are “mad as hell and not taking it anymore”; they are not satisfied with the status quo for gun control in this country and they are not going to settle for anything other than:

Change.

When asked about the #Enough hashtag – “hactivism” – these young ones responses has been consistent, summarized as:

America should have considered it “Enough” with Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Aurora Theater (2008), SandyHook (2012), Pulse Nightclub (2016), Las Vegas Concert (2017), or any of the other 260 shootings since Columbine. The fact that these shootings have proliferated is proof that the adults have failed to protect their children. Now the children will not be satisfied until there is real reform, real change.

——–

VIDEO – Hundreds of thousands stand with March for Our Lives – https://youtu.be/KYxIQ_FHPE4

Posted March 24, 2018 – From Washington D.C. to Paris, young voices resound in protest against gun violence.

Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

The implementation of any reforms will surely be heavy-lifting.

For the Caribbean, let’s pay more than the usual attention for lessons learned for our own Big Deal implementation for change in our region. But let’s lend-a-hand here too. We do have our Caribbean Diaspora here, and students and visitors. These ones amount to millions. Any lack of reform can and do imperil our own loved ones. This is sad, but true – one of the 17 victims in Parkland, Helena Ramsay (Age 17), was of Caribbean (Jamaica/Trinidad) heritage. See story here:

Title: Student of Caribbean-American descent among 17 victims killed at Parkland high school

According to reports obtained by the Jamaican Consulate in Miami, one of the victims of the tragic mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday, February 14 was the child of Caribbean Americans parents.

Helena Ramsay, 17, a student at the high school was confirmed by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office as one of the 17 killed by a 19-year old gunman who opened fire on students and school staff. Her mother is reported to be Jamaican and her father Trinidadian.
…
Source: Posted February 16, 2018; retrieved March 27, 2018 from: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/student-caribbean-american-descent-among-17-victims-killed-parkland-high-school/

Again, the US is being urged to reform and transform its policies on guns and school safety, while the Caribbean needs to implement a roadmap to forge change in the societal engines (economics, security and governance) for the 30 member-states of our region.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. 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.

There will be a lot of security and governing dynamics associated with the topic of guns.

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 transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, regarding guns and gun control. In fact, there is 1 advocacy entitled “10 Ways to Improve Gun Control” (Page 179), with specific highlights, mitigations and solutions. There is also this encyclopedic reference to the US’s Second Amendment, here:

The Bottom Line on the 2nd Amendment

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Supreme Court ruled on several occasions that the amendment did not bar state regulation of firearms, considering the amendment to be “a limitation only upon the power of Congress and the National government and not upon that of the States.” Along with the incorporation of the Second Amendment in the 21st century, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms. In 2008 and 2010, the Court issued these two landmark decisions to officially establish an “individual rights” interpretation of the Second Amendment:

a. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home within many longstanding prohibitions and restrictions on firearms possession listed by the Court as being consistent with the Second Amendment.

b. In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment limits state and local governments to the same extent that it limits the federal government.

The US has the most liberal gun ownership laws in the western world, accompanied by highest gun crime and murder rate.

The Go Lean book asserts that every community has bad actors, and coupled with guns, a bad actor can do a lot of damage. The assumption in the Social Contract – where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights – is for the State or governing entity to regulate weapons to ensure protections for all members of society. There must be “new guards” to assuage any gun risks and threats in Caribbean communities. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) 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 of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. …

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

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, 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.

Reforming guns in the US is a BIG DEAL considering that many Caribbean people have emigrated to the US from their island homes. It is a frightening prospect that our people may have jumped from the “frying pan” of failing communities, “into the fire” of a gun-crazed society. This point was addressed recently in a previous blog-commentary entitled – ‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns with this excerpt:

The repeated incidences of mass shootings – with no gun control remediation – makes American life defective …

This commentary aligns with 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.

Let’s see how this process goes in the US. Guns are in the DNA of this country; the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791; the US has more gun ownership per capita than any other country in the world; more gun deaths too. Changing this culture will truly be a BIG DEAL!

This writer is doing more than just “look, see or observe”; I will lend-a-hand as well.

I have children and grandchildren in the US States of Florida and Arizona. Though my efforts are only in the scope of reforming and transforming the Caribbean, my heart does want to ensure change in the US regarding guns and school safety.

I would not want to sacrifice my children nor grandchildren to the American twisted perception of gun rights. No, and while I accept the premise that I cannot fix America, I can work to fix the Caribbean homelands to be better places to live, work and play. Hopefully then we can provide a model to the US on how to effect change.

Let’s observe-and-report on this American effort – these Parkland students – let’s observe their successes and their failures, while we hope for change.

Speaking of change, this commentary commences a short 3-part series on “Change” in society. The full catalog of commentaries in this series are as follows:

Change! Observing the Change – Student Marches for Gun Control Reform and Action
Change! Be the Change – RIP Linda Brown; the little girl in “Brown vs Board of Education”
Change! Forging Change – Citibank’s Model of “Corporate Vigilantism”

All of these commentaries give insights on “how” the stewards of a new Caribbean can persuade people, establishments and institutions to forge change in their communities. 🙂

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

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

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Role Models in Pan-Africana: W.E.B. Du Bois

Posted on February 8, 2019 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Here’s the summary of the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois – see Appendix below:

The smartest Black man in America – the first to earn a doctorate – “wised” up and left America.

Du Bois lived from February 23, 1868 to August 27, 1963. That dash in between birth and death (1868 – 1963) was a long learning period for him (… and us). He died in Africa …

… after abandoning his American citizenship and taking up residence in Ghana, West Africa.

Dr. Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer, editor and professor. He was front-and-center of all efforts to reform and transform America’s relations with the African-American population during his lifetime:

He taught with Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute; though opposed the Atlanta compromise.
He helped create the NAACP.
He fought for Civil Rights and Pan-Africanism.
He taught and researched at Atlanta University – a premiere HBCU of its day.
He was Publisher of a periodical: The Crisis.

Du Bois’s life-long creed was that African-Americans should fight for equal rights and higher opportunities, rather than passively submit to the segregation and discrimination of White Supremacy^[53]; he felt that in time, they would succeed.

“Silly Rabbit” …

Perhaps the biggest lesson he taught us was that the America of old could not be redeemed.

Go back to Africa! – chant of so many White Americans objecting to Civil Rights protests and demonstrations.

So simple, yet still so wise.

This is Black History Month; the media is filled with biographies or men and women who have toiled, labored and achieved in America despite the suppression, repression and oppression against them. Most just endured … until their end. This one though – Du Bois – the world smartest Black Man – in his day – did something different-better: He left!

Yes, Dr. Du Bois abandoned his American citizenship de facto (all practicality), not “de jure” (by law). How?

Even though Du Bois was not convicted [of any crimes], the [US] government confiscated Du Bois’s passport [in 1951] and withheld it for eight years.^[261]
In 1958, Du Bois regained his passport …
In early 1963, the United States refused to renew his passport, so he made the symbolic gesture of becoming a citizen of Ghana.^[277] While it is sometimes stated that he renounced his U.S. citizenship at that time,^{[278][279][280]} and he did state his intention to do so, Du Bois never actually did.^[281] His health declined during the two years he was in Ghana, and he died on August 27, 1963, in the capital of Accra at the age of 95.^[277]

This history is apropos to consider now during February, during Black History Month. This entry – 5 of 5 – completes this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the impact that Black people have had on the recent history of modern society.

The full list of commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Black History Month 2019: Dr. Bennet Omalu – Definer of Gladiator Sports
Black History Month 2019: Marcus Garvey’s World View
Black History Month 2019: Starting 75 years of Bob Marley’s legacy
Black History Month 2019: Angela Davis – Hero or Villian?
Black History Month 2019: W.E.B. Du Bois – Moved to Africa for Later Life

Though he was not of Caribbean heritage, this submission about Dr. Du Bois helps us to appreciate that it is difficult for Black-and-Brown people to prosper where planted in the USA. Du Bois is hereby presented as a Role Model for our quest to dissuade Caribbean youth from leaving their homelands for American shores and encouraging the Diaspora there already to contemplate repatriating back home.

In all truth and fairness, change finally did come to America. The next generation of activists and advocates were able to “stand on the shoulders of Du Bois – and others – accomplishments” and reached greater heights … even an African-American President. This was openly acknowledged immediately after his death on August 27, 1963, on the occasion of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech on August 28.

The following day, at the March on Washington, speaker Roy Wilkins asked the hundreds of thousands of marchers to honor Du Bois with a moment of silence.^[282]

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, embodying many of the reforms Du Bois had campaigned for his entire life, was enacted almost a year after his death.^[283]

But this Go Lean movement has repeatedly asserted that America is not home for the Black-and-Brown of the Caribbean. The racism that Dr. Du Bois navigated has only gone underground; so many facets of American life still reflect a “Less Than” disposition for Black Americans, even more so for those of Caribbean heritage. Many previous commentaries have highlighted the need for Caribbean people to Go Home and/or Stay Home; consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15126	Time to Go: States must have Population Increases
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15123	Time to Go: Blacks Get Longer Sentences From “Republican” Judges
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15121	Time to Go: Racist History of Loitering
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15117	Time to Go: Mandatory Guns – Say it Ain’t So
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15093	Time to Go: “Windrush” – 70th Anniversary of Migration to the UK
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657	Stay Home! Outreach to the Diaspora – Doubling-down on Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10654	Stay Home! Immigration Realities in the US
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10629	Stay Home! Remembering ‘High Noon’ and its Back-Story
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9648	Time to Go: Public Schools for Black-and-Brown
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646	Time to Go: American Vices; Don’t Follow
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9626	Time to Go: Marginalizing Our Vote
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9219	Time to Go: Logic of Senior Immigration
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9216	Time to Go: No Respect for our Hair
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9214	Time to Go: Spot-on for Protest

Dr. W.E.B Du Bois is dead-and-gone now, but his legacy remains. Let’s not let his labors go in vain.

Take heed.

Learn to “prosper where planted” in the Caribbean. Yes, we can!

This is what so many of our forefathers lived and died for:

Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father’s hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters,
Your shining sand … – Calypso song by Harry Belafonte – Island in the Sun

As we close-out this series on great Black men and women who have impacted the recent history of modern society, let’s give a “shout of gratitude” to these Role Models of the past – they are deserving of double honor. Let us now lean-in to this roadmap described in the Go Lean book to reform and transform our Caribbean homeland. We truly believe that …

… Yes, we can!

Reforming and transforming America may be possible … eventually. But it will take less effort now to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion 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.

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

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.

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

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

——————–

Appendix A – Reference: W.E.B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community, and after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Before that, Du Bois had risen to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership.

Racism was the main target of Du Bois’s polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for the independence of African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia. After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread prejudice in the United States military.

Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America, challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. Borrowing a phrase from Frederick Douglass, he popularized the use of the term color line to represent the injustice of the separate but equal doctrine prevalent in American social and political life. He opens The Souls of Black Folk with the central thesis of much of his life’s work: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”

He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP’s journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States’ Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

…

Source: Retrieved February 7, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois

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Role Models in Pan-Africana: Angela Davis – Hero or Villian?

Posted on February 7, 2019 in Ethos, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

He who does nothing makes no mistakes.

If this proverb is correct then the opposite must also have some merit: “those who are highly accomplished will make mistakes … and enemies along the way”. This can be said about most Civil Rights activists. In fact, the book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that there must be effective advocates in society if change is to be forged; then the book lists some samples and examples like Mohandas Gandhi (India) and Dr. Martin Luther King (US Civil Rights). Both of these men were killed by assassins, their enemies.

The Caribbean wants change and progress; we want to reform and transform; we will also need advocates and sacrifice; (hopefully no assassinations). An earlier advocate Abolitionist Frederick Douglass is quoted as saying:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

This is Black History Month; the encyclopedia is filled with biographies or men and women who have agitated, plowed, enticed thunder-lightening, roared and struggled; (we have address many in the postings of this commentary; see below). There is one more to consider; that of an American Civil Rights Activist with a long reach around the world, Dr. Angela Davis. Davis is associated with Good, Bad and Ugly; her biography features good deeds, bad deeds and some “ugly”.

Yes, Angela Davis’s resumé is not so straight-forward; to say she has “a controversial past” is kind of simplistic. Here are some highlights, according to the news article in Appendix A below:

Activism with the Black Panthers.
Running for Vice-President of the United States on the Communist party ticket.
Her role in a 1970 hostage situation in a California courtroom, where a judge and three others were killed. (She was accused of providing the weapons used in the attack and landed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list, but was eventually acquitted).

This history is apropos to consider during this February, during Black History Month. This entry is 4 of 5 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the impact that Black people have had on the recent history of modern society.

The full list of commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Black History Month 2019: Dr. Bennet Omalu – Definer of Gladiator Sports
Black History Month 2019: Marcus Garvey’s World View
Black History Month 2019: Starting 75 years of Bob Marley’s legacy
Black History Month 2019: Angela Davis – Hero or Villian?
Black History Month 2019: WEB DuBois – Moved to Africa for Later Life

Though not of Caribbean heritage, this submission presents Dr. Angela Davis as a Role Model that has had an effect on our Caribbean people and culture. In the past, Davis has had direct relations with Caribbean affairs. Looking back – see Appendix B below – she has been Right and Wrong on Caribbean transformations:

Good: She has advocated for Majority Rule in this region, as most Caribbean lands – 29 of 30 – feature a majority Black-and-Brown population, but until the last 50 – 60 years, most only had ‘White Minority Rule“, while the Majority languished.
Bad: Embracing Angela Davis required a wide-eyed acceptance of her political leanings; she was a vocal and unapologetic Communist. She is known to have said: “only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed”. This experimentation turned perilous for Cuba, Grenada and many other countries that toiled under this failed economic-political regime; (remember the USSR).
Ugly: The experimentations and sampling of cooperative-commune living turned deadly in Guyana in 1978 with the Jonestown Massacre where more than 900 people died. Though she was not there physically, many times she projected her presence there “virtually” with recordings, films and inspirational writings. It is difficult not to assign her some of the bloodguilt.

The Go Lean movement has presented many previous commentaries that highlight the effectiveness of Role Models; consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14558	Be the Change – Model of Education Advocate: Linda Brown, RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14541	Viola Desmond – Canada’s Rosa Parks – She Made a Difference
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13063	Learn from Billie Jean King – Get Gender Equity without a ‘Battle’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10124	Katherine Johnson – Rocket Scientist? Yes, We Can!

While many of these previous advocates and Role Models are dead-and-gone, Angela Davis is very much alive-and-well. She continues to give us her words (she has written a few books), her perspectives and her actions – she continues to advocate for Human Rights causes around the world. She has provided so much content for us to look, listen and learn lessons from.

We can truly summarize her biography with this assessment:

Her heart was in the right place.

This is what we should always expect from the February Black History Month exercises: education, inspiration, reflection, and a call to action.

Thank you Dr, Angela Davis, for all that you have done in trying to help the Caribbean and other victims of Human Rights and Civil Rights abuses around the world. We say to you as we concluded the epilogue of the Go Lean book (Page 252):

Thank you for your service. We’ll take it from here.

So thank for helping us to get one step closer to making our homelands, better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion 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.

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

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

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

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

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

—————–

Appendix A – Title: Alabama group reverses course, wants to honor Angela Davis
By: Joe Sterling, CNN

An Alabama civil rights group that rescinded an award for political activist Angela Davis said it learned from its “mistakes” over the controversial move and asked the Birmingham native to accept the honor after all.

The move comes after the group’s board of directors last week issued a “public apology for its missteps in conferring, then rescinding, its nomination of Dr. Angela Y. Davis in early January ”

It is not known whether Davis will attend. CNN has reached out to her for comment.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute President and CEO Andrea Taylor said in a statement. that “Dr. Angela Davis, a daughter of Birmingham, is highly regarded throughout the world as a human rights activist.

“In fact, the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study acquired her personal archives in 2018, recognizing her significance in the movement for human rights, her involvement in raising issues of feminism, as well as her leadership in the campaign against mass incarceration. Her credentials in championing human rights are noteworthy.”

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute initially intended to honor her with its 2018 Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award in February.

But the group earlier this month rescinded the honor following opposition.

Withdrawing the award came after “supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision,” the institute’s board said in a statement at the time.

“Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based,” the statement said.

Mayor Randall Woodfin, who said he regretted the board’s move, said protests were made “by some members of the community, Jewish and otherwise.”

Reacting to the rescission, Davis said that “although the BCRI refused my requests to reveal the substantive reasons for this action, I later learned that my long-term support of justice for Palestine was at issue. ”

Davis, who is a critic of the Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, said she was “stunned” by the move.

“I have devoted much of my own activism to international solidarity and, specifically, to linking struggles in other parts of the world to US grassroots campaigns against police violence, the prison industrial complex and racism more broadly. The rescinding of this invitation and the cancellation of the event where I was scheduled to speak was thus not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice,” she said.

“Dissension” and “missteps”
The rescinding drew criticism from academics and the institute lost three board members who stepped down from their positions because they “regret the circumstances surrounding the selection process regarding the 2018 Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award and the dissension this has caused.”

The institute’s board of directors on January 14 made a “public apology for its missteps in conferring, then rescinding, its nomination” of Davis.

“Immediately after that public apology, in keeping with its commitment to learning from its mistakes and in order to stay true to the BCRI’s founding mission, the board voted to reaffirm Dr. Davis as the recipient. Dr. Davis was immediately thereafter personally invited to reaccept the award,” the institute said.”

The Rev. Thomas L. Wilder, interim BCRI board chair, asked people to “partner with us to rebuild trust in the Institute and its important work.”

“At the end of the day, we stand for open and honest dialogue on issues. It is only through our ability to talk openly and honestly with one another that we can achieve true understanding and appreciation for one another’s perspectives. We look forward to continuing the institute’s legacy as we foster dialogue and open communications, improve our board governance and policies, and stay focused on our Vision 2020 strategic plan.”

In her reaction to the board’s initial rescinding, Davis said she was intent on planning an “alternative event organized by those who believe that the movement for civil rights in this moment must include a robust discussion of all of the injustices that surround us. ”

Other issues, not just Palestinians
Larry Brook, editor of Southern Jewish Life magazine, said it is incorrect that opposition to the Davis appearance was solely due to her stance on Israel and the Palestinians.

He wrote a story in December about Davis’ appearance but he said there wasn’t much talk about why the cancellation originally happened.

“In the absence of a concrete explanation, a narrative spread nationally and internationally that the event had been canceled because the Jewish community dislikes her views on the Middle East, with pro-Palestinian groups charging that the Jewish community is trying to ‘silence’ dissenting voices,” Brook said.

There were other issues, he said, and other recipients of the award had been tough on Israel, too.

“Davis also has a controversial past, through activism with the Black Panthers, running for vice president on the Communist party ticket, and her role in a 1970 hostage situation in a California courtroom, where a judge and three others were killed. She was accused of providing the weapons used in the attack and landed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list, but was eventually acquitted,” Brook. wrote in his piece on Friday.

Brook said the latest development was unexpected.

“When they originally canceled the honor, I was surprised they’ve gone that far. Now that they’ve gone back and reestablished it? That also surprised me.”

Source: Posted January 25, 2019; retrieved February 6, 2019 from: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/25/us/alabama-angela-davis-award/index.html

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Appendix B – Reference: Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, academic, and author. She emerged as a prominent counterculture activist in the 1960s working with the Communist Party USA, of which she was a member until 1991, and was briefly involved in the Black Panther Party during the Civil Rights Movement.^[4]

After Davis purchased firearms for personal security guards, those guards used them in the 1970 armed takeover of a Marin County, California courtroom, in which four people were killed. She was prosecuted for three capital felonies, including conspiracy to murder, but was acquitted of the charges.^[5][6]

Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in its History of Consciousness Department. She is also a former director of the university’s Feminist Studies department.^[7] Her research interests are feminism, African-American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music, social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons. She co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison–industrial complex.

Davis’s membership in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) led California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1969 to attempt to have her barred from teaching at any California university. She supported the governments of the Soviet Bloc for several decades. During the 1980s, she was twice a candidate for Vice President on the CPUSA ticket. She left the party in 1991.^[8]
…
Source: Retrieved February 6, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis

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Role Models in Pan-Africana: Bob Marley’s Legend and Legacy – ENCORE

Posted on February 6, 2019 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Today – February 6 – is the 74th Birthday for Caribbean Music legend Bob Marley. Despite his passing 38 years ago (1981), his life and productions continue to impact our society – even the whole world.

Despite the 42 million people alive in the Caribbean region right now, Bob Marley stands first among the All-time Lists of the Caribbean’s Most Impactful People. (This #1 status even considers the different languages and ethnic groups of our region: Dutch, English, French & Spanish).

Bob Marley was not a legend – tall tales of dubious accuracy – he was a legacy.

Starting tomorrow, we start to enjoy the 75th year of his legacy.

In a previous blog-commentary, these titles were awarded to him:

Artist – Musician
Caribbean Ambassador
Inspirational Leader
Saintly, though not a saint.
Role Model for the Future
The world may never see another “star as bright” as Bob Marley; but we can still learn from his Role Model.

Since it has been 37 – 38 years since his passing, we must now count Bob Marley as an historic character – what a character he was. He provides so much content for us to look, listen and learn from. This is one of the many purposes of designating February as Black History Month: education, entertainment, remembrance and inspiration.

Bob Marley’s music is loved by all races of people. What’s more, his appeal for the Caribbean, Africa and Reggae Music continues to inspire. What a legacy! This entry is 3 of 5 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the impact that Black people have had on the recent history of modern society.

The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Black History Month 2019: Dr. Bennet Omalu – Definer of Gladiator Sports
Black History Month 2019: Marcus Garvey’s World View
Black History Month 2019: Starting 75 years of Bob Marley’s legacy
Black History Month 2019: Angela Davis – Hero or Villian?
Black History Month 2019: WEB DuBois – Moved to Africa for Later Life

Bob Marley, as a legacy is paramount among Caribbean artists for any discussion on Black History. It is only appropriate to Encore this July 14, 2017 landmark blog-commentary on Marley. This submission was published on the occasion of the release of the new book: “So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley” by Roger Steffens. See this Encore of that previous blog-commentary here-now:

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Go Lean Commentary – Book Review: ‘Oral History of Bob Marley

Bob Marley was not a saint; but he was saintly. – Author Roger Steffens

Bob Marley was perhaps the most influential person of Caribbean heritage; arguably so. He died 36 years ago, after living only to the age of 36. We have doubled the years of his life …

36 years here … 36 years gone!

… but it seems as if he lived a life of achievement equaling two or 3 lifetimes.

He was more than just a musician or an entertainer, he was a revolutionary icon. Many of the advocacies that he championed have now come full circle; come to fruition and come to regret:

In fact, references to Bob Marley have been consistent for the movement behind the book Go Lean… Caribbean – a guide to confederate, collaborate and convene the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region into a Single Market – he is mentioned in the book (Pages 119, 133 & 218) and featured in multiple blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7738	A Lesson in History from Bob Marley – Buffalo Soldiers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Bob Marley: The legend lives on!

We now learn even more about Bob Marley in the new book by Reggae Archivist Roger Steffens, entitled: So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley. See a summary-review of that book here and listen to an AUDIO-Podcast interview with the Author:

Book Review for Book: So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley
By Roger Steffens

A revelatory, myth-shattering history of one of the most influential musicians of all time, told in the words of those who knew him best.

Roger Steffens is one of the world’s leading Bob Marley experts. He toured with the Wailers in the 1970s and was closely acquainted with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and the rest of the band members. Over several decades he has interviewed more than seventy-five friends, business managers, relatives and confidants—many speaking publicly for the first time. Forty years in the making, So Much Things to Say weaves this rich testimony into a definitive telling of the life of the reggae king—the full, inside account of how a boy from the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, became a cultural icon and inspiration to millions around the world.

The intimacy of the voices and the frankness of their revelations will astonish even longtime Marley fans. Readers see the intense bonds of teenage friendship among Peter, Bunny and Bob, the vibrant early sessions with the original Wailers (as witnessed by members Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Green) and the tumultuous relationships with Rita Marley and Cindy Breakspeare.

With unprecedented candor, these interviews tell dramatic, little-known stories, from the writing of some of Marley’s most beloved songs to the Wailers’ violent confrontation involving producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bob’s intensive musical training with star singer Johnny Nash and the harrowing assassination attempt at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, which led to Marley’s defiant performance two nights later with a bullet lodged in his arm.

Readers witness Marley’s rise to international fame in London, his triumphant visit to Zimbabwe to sing for freedom fighters inspired by his anthems and the devastating moment of his collapse while jogging in New York’s Central Park. Steffens masterfully conducts the story of Marley’s last months, as Marley poignantly sings “Another One Bites the Dust” during the sound check before his final concert in Pittsburgh, followed by his tragic death at the age of thirty-six.

So Much Things to Say explores major controversies, examining who actually ordered the shooting attack on Hope Road, scrutinizing claims of CIA involvement and investigating why Marley’s fatal cancer wasn’t diagnosed sooner. Featuring Steffens’s own candid photographs of Marley and his circle, this magisterial work preserves an invaluable, transformative slice of music history: the life of the legendary performer who brought reggae to the international stage.

Source: Amazon Online Bookstore-Portal; retrieved July 13, 2017 from: https://www.amazon.com/So-Much-Things-Say-History-ebook/dp/B01M68LN7U

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AUDIO-Podcast – Bob Marley: Versions Of The Truth – http://the1a.org/audio/#/shows/2017-07-10/oral-history-of-bob-marley/111467/@00:00

Published July 10, 2017 – Reggae historian Roger Steffens has written that “there are no facts in Jamaica, just versions” of the truth. That’s certainly the case with the star of Steffens’ latest book: Bob Marley.

Marley lived a life of art, inspiration and hard and fast adherence to his principles and spirituality. While he only lived to the age of 36, Marley and his music inspired a wave of devotees who fought for freedom, as well as a few enemies who wanted him dead.

But even though he was a global superstar, there are many mysteries and misconceptions about Marley.

Steffens new book, “So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley” gathers 40 years of interviews with those closest to Marley to separate truth from the various versions.

Host Joshua Johnson interviews guest Roger Steffens, reggae archivist and author of the book “So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley“.

We learn so much more about Bob Marley and Caribbean culture from these foregoing media productions. Marley was truly a musical genius who overcame obstacles and the challenge of a dysfunctional Jamaican society to soar and shine as a star in the world of music. This corresponds with a theme in the book Go Lean…Caribbean which relates that genius – in its many forms, be it music, arts, sciences, sports, etc. – can flourish in the Caribbean … with the proper fostering. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This would be an inter-governmental entity to promote a regional Single Market that covers the homelands of all 30 Caribbean member-states. This effort strives to advance Caribbean culture. The Go Lean/CU roadmap features this prime directive, as defined by these 3 statements:

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

The Go Lean roadmap recognizes that a prerequisite for advancing society is a change in the Caribbean “community ethos”. This book opens early with the declaration that music can contribute to the fabric of society, but that society must contribute to the fostering of musicians. The book relates that such an attitude – community ethos or national spirit – can be forged in the entire region; see these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13 – 14):

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

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

As related in a previous blog-commentary regarding Bob Marley …

“… he was the embodiment of all of these above values. He impacted the music, culture and economics of the region. He set a pathway for success for other generations of talented, inspirational and influential artists – musical geniuses – to follow. Other artists of Caribbean heritage are sure to emerge and “rock the world”; we are hereby “banking” on it, with these CU preparations.”

The CU presents that change has come to the Caribbean; with this Go Lean movement, there is a plan for new stewardship so that the Caribbean can better avail themselves of the benefits of music. So when we consider Bob Marley – as gleaned from the foregoing book by author Roger Steffens – we can assign all these descriptors and attributes to him:

Artist – Musician
Caribbean Ambassador
Inspirational Leader
Saintly, though not a saint.
Role Model for the Future

The world may never see another “star as bright” as Bob Marley; but we can still learn from his Role Model. The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. Consider the sample from this list detailing this “how” for the Caribbean region to foster more musical geniuses:

Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos –Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Celebrate the music, people and culture of the Caribbean	Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patents & Copyrights	Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration	Page 81
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 118
Advocacy – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Image	Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music	Page 231
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Jamaica – To make it less dysfunctional	Page 239

Bob Marley – 36 years here … 36 years gone!

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – to learn the lessons from the life and legacy of Bob Marley, and then lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Role Models in Pan-Africana: Marcus Garvey – ENCORE

Posted on February 5, 2019 in Ethos, Social

What is your World View of the Black Race?

I can probably summarize it for you:

“All men are created equal so all Black Men have the same rights and privilege to thrive in society with every opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

That about sums it up, right?

This World View was not always the default assessment in the world. No, for many years, decades and centuries, the default World View was that the Black Race was “there for the taking”. This argument sounds so much like Black Nationalist & Civil Rights Leader Marcus Garvey.

But Garvey was right! There was a constant, efficient and emphatic “grab” for the assets and capital of Africa – human capital included. Garvey’s assessment was 100 years after the formal Slave Trade ended in 1807. Yes, the European nations had divided up all of the African continent for their own empire-building and economic manifestations; see the encyclopedic reference here:

The Scramble for Africa was the occupation, division, and colonization of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. It is also called the Partition of Africa and by some the Conquest of Africa. In 1870, only 10 percent of Africa was under formal European control; by 1914 it had increased to almost 90 percent of the continent, with only Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia still being independent. With the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1936, only Liberia remained independent. There were multiple motivations including the quest for national prestige, tensions between pairs of European powers, religious missionary zeal and internal African native politics.

The Berlin Conference of 1884, which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, is usually referred to as the ultimate point of the scramble for Africa.^[1] Consequent to the political and economic rivalries among the European empires in the last quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning, or splitting up of Africa was how the Europeans avoided warring amongst themselves over Africa.^[2] The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from “informal imperialism” by military influence and economic dominance, to direct rule, bringing about colonial imperialism.^[3]
Source: Wikipedia – retrieved February 5, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa

Garvey’s solution was straight-forward: repatriate the pan-African world back to an African homeland.

This history is apropos to consider during this February, during Black History Month. This entry is 2 of 5 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the impact that Black people have had on the recent history of modern society. Though not a majority, there was a movement for African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean to return their attention to Africa, the African people and culture. All the commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Black History Month 2019: Dr. Bennet Omalu – Definer of Gladiator Sports
Black History Month 2019: Marcus Garvey’s World View
Black History Month 2019: Starting 75 years of Bob Marley’s legacy
Black History Month 2019: Angela Davis – Hero or Villian?
Black History Month 2019: WEB DuBois – Moved to Africa for Later Life

Marcus Garvey is paramount among Black role models of the last 100 years of Black History. Garvey is the epitome of Pan-Africanism. It is only appropriate to Encore this August 20, 2016 landmark blog-commentary on Garvey. The theme of that prior submission was the urgent plea for the then-US-President Barack Obama to award a Presidential Pardon posthumously to Garvey – he failed to do so. See that Encore here-now:

—————

Go Lean Commentary – Remembering Marcus Garvey: Still Relevant Today

The relations between the Caribbean and the United States of America have had a bumpy ride in the past. Consider just these few incidences:

America’s War on the Caribbean
Subjugation of the people in US Territories as inferior Aliens
Haiti’s Scorn and Abandonment

But now, the people of the Caribbean has forgiven the US and now approve “life” within its borders….

… as so many Caribbean citizens have now fled to life in the US, as residents. There has been some reconciliation of the past … to allow for this normalized status quo.

But there is one more rift in the Caribbean-American history to consider, that of Marcus Garvey. Can this historicity also be re-approached, revisited, redeemed and reconciled? Is there a need for repentance?

In a previous commentary from this Go Lean movement, it was established how we cannot always leave past events in the past. At times, we must re-approach historic injustices so as to recognize the pain and legacy caused; only then can true reconciliation occur.

America had a bad legacy in terms of race relations. Has that country of the US reformed since the days of Marcus Garvey?

Accordingly, some stakeholders in the US Congress want that repentance, in the form of a posthumous pardon. See the story here:

Title: U.S. Congresswoman Wants President Obama to Pardon Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey, Jamaica’s national hero who was charged with mail fraud in the United States could be in line for a presidential pardon if Congresswoman Yvette Clarke gets her way. Clarke is working to ensure that Garvey is exonerated before Obama steps down from his post in January 2017. Clarke announced the potential action in a speech to the Jamaica Diaspora after receiving the first Talawah Award for Politics. According to Clarke, two other congressional representatives – Charles Rangel and John Conyers – will join her in making sure that Garvey receives a pardon and that his name is cleared.

In 1923, Garvey was arrested in the U.S. on charges of mail fraud and spent two years in a federal prison before being deported back to Jamaica. In the years following, a number of governments and organizations lobbied authorities in the U.S. to expunge the record of Jamaica’s national hero. Clarke was one of seven Jamaicans presented with the Inaugural Talawah Awards for their contributions to both their homeland and their adopted home.
Source: Jamaicans.com – Lifestyle E-zine; posted: 05/15/2016; Retrieved 08/19/2016 from: http://jamaicans.com/u-s-congresswoman-wants-president-obama-pardon-marcus-garvey/

The subject of Marcus Garvey – see Appendix & VIDEO below – is very important from a Jamaican perspective. He is considered a National Hero in his homeland, where he was awarded the “Order of National Hero” posthumously in 1964; an esteemed honor awarded by the government (Parliament) of Jamaica and one of its first official acts after independence.

But the story of Marcus Garvey is more than just a “treasure to one, trash to another” consideration. Recognizing Jamaican value and worth, means recognizing Jamaica’s endurance despite a history of oppression, repression and suppression. Remember, there was a world, not very long ago, of no civil rights and intensed colonization. Marcus Garvey transcended that world. In effect, Jamaicans are saying to the world: “You see Marcus Garvey; you see me”.

Garvey was given major prominence as a national hero during Jamaica’s move towards independence. As such, he has numerous tributes there. The first of these is the Garvey statue and shrine in Kingston’s National Heroes Park. Among the honors to him in Jamaica are his name upon the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs; a major highway bearing his name and the Marcus Garvey Scholarship tenable at the University of the West Indies sponsored by The National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations, Inc (NAJASO) since 1988.

Garvey’s birthplace, 32 Market Street, St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, has a marker signifying it as a site of importance in the nation’s history.^[64]His likeness is on the 20-dollar coin and 25-cent coin. Garvey’s recognition is probably most significant in Kingston, Jamaica.
Source: Retrieved August 20, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that any attempt at unification of the Caribbean 30 member-states must consider the ancient and modern injustices some member-states have experienced (within themselves and with other nations). The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). A mission of the roadmap is to champion the cause of Caribbean Image. For far too long, Caribbean people have been classified as “Less Than”, as parasites rather than protégés. Therefore an additional mission of the roadmap is to facilitate formal reconciliations, (much consideration is given to the model in South Africa with their Truth & Reconciliation Commissions (TRC)). But this commentary posits, that we need reconciliations in foreign relations too, (i.e. Caribbean / United States).

The approach is simple, correct the bad “community ethos” from the past. The African-American and African-Caribbean populations were oppressed, repressed an suppressed in the “White” world of the 1920’s. A good “community ethos” now is to repent, forgive and reconcile from that legacy.

“Community Ethos” is described in the Go Lean book as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; the dominant assumptions of a people or period. America has surely transformed – the current President, Barack Obama is of African-American heritage. Has that transformation advanced to the point of taking ownership of past misdeeds.

We truly hope so! But show us, by recognizing and redeeming the bad acts of the US federal government against Marcus Garvey. This year marks the 8th and final year of the Obama administration. He has always had the power to grant a pardon to the “good name” of Marcus Garvey. When requested before in 2011, his stance was that it is his policy not to consider requests for posthumous pardons. His assertion is that they should be enjoyed only by the living.

But more is involved, Mr. President. A pardon would send a message to the world about African-American and African-Caribbean heroes:

In hindsight, they should be held in high esteem for doing so much in a world that valued them so little!

The historicity of Marcus Garvey is a powerful role model for today’s Caribbean. He was truly an Advocate for the African race universally. (This race represents the majority of the population of all the Caribbean member-states except the French Overseas Territory of Saint Barthélemy). He championed this cause in words (speeches and writings), actions, commitments and sacrifice. He truly gave a full measure of blood, sweat and tears. He presented his vision and values in his quest to unify and elevate the Black race.

Our emulation of Marcus Garvey is a lot less ambitious, rather than the African-ethnic world, our scope is just the elevation of the 30 Caribbean member-states. Rather than the narrow focus of Blacks in general, our scope involves all current Caribbean ethnicities and languages. We are trying to “raise the tide in the Caribbean waters so that all boats will be elevated”. Further, as communicated in previous blog-commentaries, we are not trying to impact the United States of America – beyond help to our Diaspora – nor the continent of Africa – beyond providing them a great model of our technocratic deliveries. Our mission is a lot more laser-focused than that of Marcus Garvey; we are simply trying to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

This CU/Go Lean mission is to elevate Caribbean society through cutting edge delivery of best practices, strategies, tactics and implementations. The prime directives of this movement is defined as 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 for public safety and to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book speaks of the Caribbean past, as it relates to the American past. The legacy of the common sufferings of slavery and racial repression should create a common bond; this bond should unite all of the Black World. It should also unite the Caribbean into accepting a premise of interdependence for solutions in the economic-security-governance eco-systems. This common need was defined early in the book (Page 10) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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

As the colonial history of our region was initiated to create economic expansion opportunities for our previous imperial masters, the structures of government instituted in their wake have not fostered the best systems for prosperity of the indigenous people. Despite this past, we thrust our energies only to the future, in adapting the best practices and successes of the societies of these previous imperial masters and recognizing the positive spirit of their intent and vow to learn from their past accomplishments and mistakes so as to optimize the opportunities for our own citizenry to create a more perfect bond of union.

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.

xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.

The Go Lean book details a lot more, a series of assessments, community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to glean lessons from history and impact the Caribbean-side of the common Black experience:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification – Example of Black America of Olden Days	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations	Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union of 30 Member-states	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home; Repatriate Diaspora	Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Truth & Reconciliation Courts	Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Anatomy of Advocacies	Page 122
Planning – Ways to Improve Image	Page 133
Planning – Improve Failed-State Indices	Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Managing Image through Films	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218

The foregoing article relates the second request to US President Obama to extend a pardon to the legacy of Marcus Garvey. This is important to “us” in the Caribbean.

Just do it!

Obama claims to be a friend of the Caribbean, though many times his policies have worked contrary to the Caribbean’s best interests. Consider these examples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7689	Obama – Bad For Caribbean Status Quo
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4935	A Lesson Learned from Obama’s Caribbean Visit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1674	Obama’s Plans for $3.7 Billion Immigration Crisis Funds

The Go Lean/CU roadmap addresses the past, present and future challenges of Caribbean empowerment and image.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. There is reason to believe that these empowerment efforts can be successful. We have the legacy of so many National Heroes; we can now stand on their shoulders and reach even greater heights.

The Go Lean roadmap conveys how single causes have successfully been forged throughout the world (Page 122 – Anatomy of Advocacies) by individual Advocates. There is consideration for these examples:

Frederick Douglass – A role model for Marcus Garvey
Martin Luther King – Influenced by Marcus Garvey -see Appendix.

Please note, while this movement petitions for reconciliation of the sullied past in race relations, there is no request for reparations. The Go Lean book punctuates this point with the following quotation:

We cannot ignore the past, as it defines who we are, but we do not wish to be shackled to the past either, for then, we miss the future. So we must learn from the past, our experiences and that of other states in similar situations, mount our feet solidly to the ground and then lean-in, to reach for new heights; forward, upward and onward. – Page 5

The new ethos being developed for the Caribbean by this Go Lean movement, is to reconcile conflicts from the past; to repent, forgive and hopefully forget the long history of human rights abuses from the past. All of this effort is heavy-lifting, but the Bible gives us an assurance that makes all the effort worthwhile:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32; New International Version

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix VIDEO – Marcus Garvey — Look For Me In The Whirlwind (Review) – https://youtu.be/hS3Y5RhBPd8

Published on Oct 8, 2012 – Black History Studies team (BHS) presents their Marcus Garvey screening, at the Marcus Garvey Centre in Tottenham. Sis Sonia Scully interviews film goers in the break, to find out how they’re receiving the Friday Black History Month screenings.

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Appendix – Marcus Garvey Biography Wiki

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940),^[2] was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a proponent of the Pan-Africanism movement, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).^[3] He also founded the Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger line which promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.

Prior to the 20th century, leaders such as Prince Hall, Martin Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Henry Highland Garnet advocated the involvement of the African diaspora in African affairs. Garvey was unique in advancing a Pan-African philosophy to inspire a global mass movement and economic empowerment focusing on Africa known as Garveyism.^[3] Promoted by the UNIA as a movement of African Redemption, Garveyism would eventually inspire others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement (some sects of which proclaim Garvey as a prophet.)^[4]

Garveyism intended persons of African ancestry in the diaspora to “redeem” the nations of Africa and for the European colonial powers to leave the continent. His essential ideas about Africa were stated in an editorial in the Negro World entitled “African Fundamentalism”, where he wrote: “Our union must know no clime, boundary, or nationality… to let us hold together under all climes and in every country…”^[5]

…

After years of working in the Caribbean, Garvey left Jamaica to live in London from 1912 to 1914, where he attended Birkbeck College, taking classes in law and philosophy. He also worked for the African Times and Orient Review, published by Dusé Mohamed Ali, who was a considerable influence on the young man. Garvey sometimes spoke at Hyde Park‘s Speakers’ Corner.

In 1914, Garvey returned to Jamaica, where he organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

The UNIA held an international convention in 1921 at New York City’s MadisonSquareGarden. Also represented at the convention were organizations such as the Universal Black Cross Nurses, the Black Eagle Flying Corps, and the Universal African Legion. Garvey attracted more than 50,000 people to the event and in his cause. The UNIA had 65,000 to 75,000 members paying dues to his support and funding. The national level of support in Jamaica helped Garvey to become one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century on the island.^[13]

After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and a national African-American leader in the United States, Garvey traveled by ship to the U.S., arriving on 23 March 1916 aboard the SS Tallac. He intended to make a lecture tour and to raise funds to establish a school in Jamaica modeled after Washington’s Institute. Garvey visited Tuskegee, and afterwards, visited with a number of black leaders.

After moving to New York, he found work as a printer by day. He was influenced by Hubert Harrison. At night he would speak on street corners, much as he did in London’s Hyde Park. Garvey thought there was a leadership vacuum among African Americans. On 9 May 1916, he held his first public lecture in New York City at St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery and undertook a 38-state speaking tour.

The next year in May 1917, Garvey and thirteen others formed the first UNIA division outside Jamaica. They began advancing ideas to promote social, political, and economic freedom for black people. On 2 July, the East St. Louis riots broke out. On 8 July, Garvey delivered an address, entitled “The Conspiracy of the East St. Louis Riots”, at Lafayette Hall in Harlem. During the speech, he declared the riot was “one of the bloodiest outrages against mankind”, condemning America’s claims to represent democracy when black people were victimized “for no other reason than they are black people seeking an industrial chance in a country that they have laboured for three hundred years to make great”. It is “a time to lift one’s voice against the savagery of a people who claim to be the dispensers of democracy”.^[14] …

Garvey worked to develop a program to improve the conditions of ethnic Africans “at home and abroad” under UNIA auspices. On 17 August 1918, he began publishing the Negro World newspaper in New York, which was widely distributed. Garvey worked as an editor without pay until November 1920. He used Negro World as a platform for his views to encourage growth of the UNIA.^[15] By June 1919, the membership of the organization had grown to over two million, according to its records.

On 27 June 1919, the UNIA set up its first business, incorporating the Black Star Line of Delaware, with Garvey as President. By September, it acquired its first ship. Much fanfare surrounded the inspection of the S.S. Yarmouth and its rechristening as the S.S. Frederick Douglass on 14 September 1919. Such a rapid accomplishment garnered attention from many.^[15] The Black Star Line also formed a fine winery, using grapes harvested only in Ethiopia. During the first year, the Black Star Line’s stock sales brought in $600,000. This caused it to be successful during that year. It had numerous problems during the next two years: mechanical breakdowns on its ships, what it said were incompetent workers, and poor record keeping. The officers were eventually accused of mail fraud.^[15]

Edwin P. Kilroe, Assistant District Attorney in the District Attorney’s office of the County of New York, began an investigation into the activities of the UNIA. He never filed charges against Garvey or other officers.

By August 1920, the UNIA claimed four million members. The number has been questioned because of the organization’s poor record keeping.^[15] That month, the International Convention of the UNIA was held. With delegates from all over the world attending, 25,000 people filled Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1920 to hear Garvey speak.^[16]Over the next couple of years, Garvey’s movement was able to attract an enormous number of followers. Reasons for this included the cultural revolution of the Harlem Renaissance, the large number of West Indians who immigrated to New York, and the appeal of the slogan “One God, One Aim, One Destiny,” to black veterans of the first World War.^[17]

Garvey also established the business, the Negro Factories Corporation. He planned to develop the businesses to manufacture every marketable commodity in every big U.S. industrial center, as well as in Central America, the West Indies, and Africa. Related endeavors included a grocery chain, restaurant, publishing house, and other businesses.

Convinced that black people should have a permanent homeland in Africa, Garvey sought to develop Liberia. It had been founded by the American Colonization Society in the 19th century as a colony to free blacks from the United States. Garvey launched the Liberia program in 1920, intended to build colleges, industrial plants, and railroads as part of an industrial base from which to operate. He abandoned the program in the mid-1920s after much opposition from European powers with interests in Liberia.

Sometime around November 1919, the Bureau of Investigation or BOI (after 1935, the Federal Bureau of Investigation) began an investigation into the activities of Garvey and the UNIA. … Although initial efforts by the BOI were to find grounds upon which to deport Garvey as “an undesirable alien”, a charge of mail fraud was brought against Garvey in connection with stock sales of the Black Star Line after the U.S. Post Office and the Attorney General joined the investigation.^[36]

The accusation centered on the fact that the corporation had not yet purchased a ship, which had appeared in a BSL brochure emblazoned with the name “Phyllis Wheatley” (after the African-American poet) on its bow. The prosecution stated that a ship pictured with that name had not actually been purchased by the BSL and still had the name “Orion” at the time; thus the misrepresentation of the ship as a BSL-owned vessel constituted fraud. The brochure had been produced in anticipation of the purchase of the ship, which appeared to be on the verge of completion at the time. However, “registration of the Phyllis Wheatley to the Black Star Line was thrown into abeyance as there were still some clauses in the contract that needed to be agreed.”^[37] In the end, the ship was never registered to the BSL.

Garvey chose to defend himself. In the opinion of his biographer Colin Grant, Garvey’s “belligerent” manner alienated the jury. … Of the four Black Star Line officers charged in connection with the enterprise, only Garvey was found guilty of using the mail service to defraud. His supporters called the trial fraudulent, [a miscarriage of justice].

He initially spent three months in the Tombs Jail awaiting approval of bail. While on bail, he continued to maintain his innocence, travel, speak and organize the UNIA. After numerous attempts at appeal were unsuccessful, he was taken into custody and began serving his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on 8 February 1925.^[41] Two days later, he penned his well known “First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison”, wherein he made his famous proclamation: “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.”^[42]

Garvey’s sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his release in November 1927, Garvey was deported via New Orleans to Jamaica, where a large crowd met him in Kingston. Though the popularity of the UNIA diminished greatly following Garvey’s expulsion, he nevertheless remained committed to his political ideals.^[44]

Garvey continued active in international civil rights, politics and business in the West Indies and Europe.

Garvey died in London on 10 June 1940, at the age of 52, having suffered two strokes. Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred (no burial mentioned but preserved in a lead-lined coffin) within the lower crypt in St. Mary’s Catholic cemetery in London near KensalGreenCemetery. Twenty years later, his body was removed from the shelves of the lower crypt and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica’s first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park.^[52]

Influence

Schools, colleges, highways, and buildings in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States have been named in his honor. The UNIA red, black, and green flag has been adopted as the Black Liberation Flag. Since 1980, Garvey’s bust has been housed in the Organization of American States‘ Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.

Malcolm X‘s parents, Earl and Louise Little, met at a UNIA convention in Montreal. Earl was the president of the UNIA division in Omaha, Nebraska, and sold the Negro World newspaper, for which Louise covered UNIA activities.^[53]

Kwame Nkrumah named the national shipping line of Ghana the Black Star Line in honor of Garvey and the UNIA. Nkrumah also named the national football team the Black Stars as well. The black star at the centre of Ghana’s flag is also inspired by the Black Star.

During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited Garvey’s shrine on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath.^[54] In a speech he told the audience that Garvey “was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody.”^[55]

King was a posthumous recipient of the first Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights on 10 December 1968, issued by the Jamaican Government and presented to King’s widow. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Garvey on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[56]

Source: Retrieved August 20, 2016 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey

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