May 2019 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Month: May 2019

My Brother’s Keeper

Posted on May 30, 2019 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Despite the words as was first used by Cain in the Bible’s drama (Genesis 4:9) of “Cain and Abel”, the reality is:

I am my brother’s keeper.

This is a simple concept. It’s an extension from the premise that “no man is an island”. This truism helps us to appreciate that we, as individuals, need others in our communities. We cannot make progress alone; we all need a helping hand to get-up, step-up and stay-up. (Some people, think the youth, needs more help than others).

The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, is quoted to say:

“I have always believed that the single most important task we have as a nation is to make sure our young people can go as far as their dreams and hard work will take them. It is the single most important thing we can do for our country’s future. And we’ve got to do it together.”

President Obama – during his administration and after – has advocated for mentoring of youth in high-risk communities. Being the country’s first Black president, his focus was always the plight of the youth in the Black-and-Brown communities. To that end, he created the “My Brother’s Keeper Alliance” with the expressed purpose of facilitating mentorship. His rationale:

Research shows that young adults that have mentors are 52% more likely to attend school regularly and 55% more likely to attend college.

These were more than just words for President Obama; he talked the talk and walked the walk. He also put time, talent and treasuries into this pursuit. See here, the About Us page of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance states the following:

In 2014, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) and issued a powerful call to action to close opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color. The initiative sparked candid dialogue and action around the country to help more of our young people reach their dreams, regardless of their race, gender, or socioeconomic status.

To scale and sustain this mission, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBK Alliance) was launched in 2015 as an independent nonprofit organization. Since launching, a national movement has grown: Nearly 250 cities, counties, and Tribal Nations have accepted the MBK Community Challenge — President Obama’s call to action to adopt innovative approaches, strengthen support, and build ladders of opportunity for boys and young men of color — scores of new initiatives have been implemented, and there has been an exponential increase in aligned private sector commitments, all helping to reduce barriers and expand opportunity.

Today, as an initiative of the Obama Foundation, MBK Alliance leads a national call to action to build safe and supportive communities for boys and young men of color where they feel valued and have clear paths to opportunity. Alongside our partners across sectors, we will accelerate impact in targeted communities, mobilize resources, and promote what works, all with the goal of encouraging mentorship, reducing youth violence, and improving life outcomes for boys and young men of color.

OUR VISION
We believe every young person deserves equal opportunity to achieve success, regardless of their race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Our vision is to make this a reality for all of our nation’s boys and young men of color, each and every one of whom is critical to our collective success. By realizing this vision, we are creating a brighter, more promising future not just for our boys and young men of color, but for the country.

MBK Alliance is committed to leading the way to ensure success for all youth.

This is President’s Obama’s effort to help the Black Youth of America. For the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, we have our own advocacies. Among them, helping the youth in the Caribbean. (In actuality, the majority population of 29 of the 30 Caribbean member-states is Black-and-Brown). Our mission is the same.

This commentary is NOT our first effort to identify the help that our population of young men and boys in the Caribbean need. Previously we published a White Paper – read it here – by the nationally-admired Bahamian Educator Dr. Donald McCartney; that composition summarizes as follows:

Title: Repairing the Breach in the Caribbean
Sub-title: How do we can save our Black men and boys? Many Black men and boys in the Caribbean, pose a serious and critical problem … in every corridor and thoroughfare that Caribbean peoples and residents must cross. Consequently, Black men and boys in the Caribbean are feared, demonized and vilified.

The White Paper is more than just an academic exercise; it proposed tactical, practical and reasonable solutions, one of which is an organized scheme for mentoring. The White Paper introduced the formation of the Charles Thurston Foundation as an entity to execute on this mandate.

Now, we are able to present the quest for a strategic partnership between the Charles Thurston Foundation and the My Brother’s Keep Alliance (MBKA). This latter Alliance already list many strategic partnerships on the organization’s web site, including in the Caribbean. See Photo here:

This is the Way Forward … for the mentoring agenda for Caribbean youth.

We now have the plan; we must work the plan.

See the plan in action in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Arrive as Many. Rise as One. Experience MBK Rising! – https://youtu.be/-Gcwk8R2V6E

Obama Foundation
Published on Feb 22, 2019 – MBK Rising! is a national convening of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance in Oakland, California, that brought together hundreds of young men of color and leaders working to break down barriers that too often leave boys and young men of color at a disadvantage. From a town hall conversation with President Obama and Steph Curry where young men could ask questions, to a candid conversation on the interconnectedness of race, gender, and sexual orientation, to an exploration of what’s working in communities across the country working to improve the lives of boys and young men of color, MBK Rising! created moments to celebrate progress and rally people near and far to continue the work of building a bright future for each and every one of us.

You can learn more at obama.org/mbka

Category: Nonprofits & Activism

While the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance is a American initiative, as an organization, they are willing to consult and collaborate with their Caribbean “brothers”. This was declared by President Obama, when he visited the Caribbean, Jamaica to be exact, in April 2015. The Appendix VIDEO highlights his regional commitment.

Make no mistakes, the Go Lean movement does not seek to make Caribbean member-states to be like the United States of America. No, we want to be better. That land has a lot of societal defects that are hard to overcome; racism is in America’s DNA. Our majority Black-and-Brown population starts with that advantage. We must only do the heavy-lifting to elevate our societal engines.

Let’s get started! (Already, our failures have resulted in an abominable abandonment rate among our tertiary educated demographic – 70 percent).

We must make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. We want to keep our young people and offer hope for them to have a prosperous future. We want them to prosper where planted. 🙂

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.
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Appendix VIDEO – US President Obama Speaks at Young Leaders Town Hall – https://youtu.be/636mgw1THpc

Published on Apr 9, 2015 – President Obama delivers remarks and answers questions at a town hall with Young Leaders of the Americas at University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. April 9, 2015.

Category: News & Politics

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Civil Rights, Model, Youth

Remembering Rwanda – ENCORE

Posted on May 29, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

What would you have done if you were around for the Spanish Inquisition, where Spain forcibly attempted to convert Jews and Muslims to Christianity … or else?

What would you have done if you were around for the Jewish Holocaust by Nazi Germany?

Would you have complained? Would you have protested in the streets with marches and with boycotts? Would you have taken up arms to stop the evil, mitigate the atrocities and to force justice?

These are valid questions! I assume you as the reader were not in position to alleviate any of those horrific events?

How about Rwanda – the Hutu-Tutsi Genocide – in 1994?

What did you do to protest those horrors? (I know you were here and conscious of the events). We must now reflect and consider … because “Inaction” is a Recipe for ‘Failed-State’ Status. Remember this famous quotation:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke; 1729 – 1797; an Irish statesman and member of British Parliament.

Today, this week, this month is special in the history of Rwanda. These days measure the 25th anniversary of what took place during the 7 April to 15 July 1994 genocide?

The world must never forget! Yes, but most important, the world must care.

The declaration that the world did not care … is a serious charge. We did not make this declaration; no, it was a Mea Culpa of the religious stakeholders who were in Rwanda – the Church – at the time of the atrocities. We published a blog-commentary of this acknowledgement on November 22, 2016.

Now is a good time to encore that previous blog-commentary. See here:

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Go Lean Commentary – Rwanda’s Catholic bishops apologize for genocide

Is mainstream religion a force for moral good in modern society … in the Caribbean? In Africa? Anywhere?

This is a timely discussion right now as there are a lot of threats and dissension in the world, mostly spurred on by religious extremism; think: Islamic terrorists, Shia – Shiite conflicts, Hindu-India versus Muslim Pakistan, Anglicanism versus Catholicism in Northern Ireland. Many samples and examples abound. The case in point for this consideration is the religious-fueled genocide in Rwanda in 1994; see the country’s flag here.

The religious institutions have a tarnished record; not always being a force for moral good in society. They have betrayed the vows and values they are supposed to be committed to. Instead, they have become “drunk with the blood of so many innocent people”.

This reality and cautionary tale from Rwanda provides us a deep lesson, though of a religious nature. See this core scripture:

A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”
I could see that she was drunk–drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement. – Revelation 17:5 – 6; New Living Translation

Who/What is Babylon the Great? (See Appendix A below).

For one religious group founded in the Caribbean – Rastafarians – they assign the identity to the country of the United States of America. But most religious scholars assign the identity to the world’s orthodox religions.

Some theologians make a narrow accusation and declare that “there can be only one conclusion: The Vatican [(Roman Catholic Headquarters)] is the Mystery Babylon of Revelation; they relate that this false religious system that has deceived the people of the world that will be destroyed at the time of Armageddon”.

Whatever your faith, being associated with Babylon the Great is not a good thing. “She” has a vengeful reckoning in store.

As depicted in a previous blog-commentary, the religions of Christendom have a sullied past! Unfortunately that “past” is not only centuries ago, as chronicled in the recent experiences in 1994 with the Rwandan Ethnic Cleansing. This sad drama is in the news again, as the Roman Catholic Church has now just issued a formal apology for its actions and in-actions in those atrocities.

Considering the real history, they are guilty as charged; see the news story here:

Title: Rwanda: Catholic bishops apologize for role in genocide
By: Ignatius Ssuuna
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The Catholic Church in Rwanda apologized on Sunday for the church’s role in the 1994 genocide, saying it regretted the actions of those who participated in the massacres.

“We apologize for all the wrongs the church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated (their) oath of allegiance to God’s commandments,” said the statement by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was read out in parishes across the country.

The statement acknowledged that church members planned, aided and executed the genocide, in which over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

In the years since the genocide — which was sparked by a contentious plane crash that killed the then-president, a Hutu — the local church had resisted efforts by the government and groups of survivors to acknowledge the church’s complicity in mass murder, saying those church officials who committed crimes acted individually.

Many of the victims died at the hands of priests, clergymen and nuns, according to some accounts by survivors, and the Rwandan government says many died in the churches where they had sought refuge.

The bishops’ statement is seen as a positive development in Rwanda’s efforts at reconciliation.

“Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity. We didn’t show that we are one family but instead killed each other,” the statement said.

The statement was timed to coincide with the formal end Sunday of the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis to encourage greater reconciliation and forgiveness in his church and in the world, said Bishop Phillipe Rukamba, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Rwanda.

Tom Ndahiro, a Rwandan genocide researcher, said he hoped the church’s statement will encourage unity among Rwandans.

“I am also happy to learn that in their statement, bishops apologize for not having been able to avert the genocide,” he said.

========

Photo Caption – In this Sunday, April 6, 2014 file photo, Rwandan children listen and pray during a Sunday morning service at the Saint-Famille Catholic church, the scene of many killings during the 1994 genocide, in the capital Kigali, Rwanda. The Catholic Church in Rwanda apologized on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, for the church’s role in the 1994 genocide, saying it regretted the actions of those who participated in the massacres. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

The recap: “800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists” during the Rwanda Holocaust in 1994. (This history was dramatized in the movie Hotel Rwanda; see Appendix B VIDEO below).

How does a community – like Rwanda in the foregoing – repent, forgive and reconcile from such a bad legacy?

“Confession is good for the soul”!

This commentary is part-and-parcel of the effort to reform and transform the Caribbean. We too, have some atrocities to reconcile. Plus we have many recent bad actions to reckon with. Think:

Haiti
Cuba
Guyana
Belize

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that any success in reforming and transforming the Caribbean must include a unified region – we need to be a Single Market – despite the 30 different member-states, 5 different colonial legacies and 4 different languages. We have a lot of differences – just like the differences of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda – and a history of dysfunction. We must consider the ancient and modern conflicts some member-states have had with others.

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 reverse the prior “human flight” and invite the Diaspora back to the homeland. Accepting that many people fled the Caribbean seeking refuge, means that we must mitigate these causes of prior distress; and reconcile them. “Old parties” returning to their communities can open a lot of “old wounds” – Rwanda never reconciled their Hutu-Tutsi conflicts before 1994. Therefore an additional mission is to facilitate formal reconciliations, much like the model in South Africa with the Truth & Reconciliation Commissions (TRC). This mission will assuage these Failed-State indicators and threats (Page 272):

“Revenge seeking” groups
Group Grievances

The foregoing article depicts a bad episode in history of Rwanda and the Catholic Church’s complexities. The best-practice is to repent, forgive and reconcile. Repentance would include desisting in the bad behavior, confession and making amends. Religious orthodoxy is responsible for a lot of harm in the world. To finally answer the opening question: Is mainstream religion a force for moral good in modern society … in the Caribbean?

The answer is: No!

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) have identified many bad community ethos – 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 – that the Caribbean region needs to desist, confess and make amends. Many of these are based on religious orthodoxy; consider:

Patriarchy – Assigning more status and privileges to men, effectuates repression of women and girls.
Racial Prejudice & Dissension – The justification of African Slave Trade in the New World was religious expansionism.
Homosexual Persecution – Regulating the private affairs against homosexuality – i.e. British Buggery – has now been defined as a human rights violation.

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) also details good-positive community ethos that the people of the region need to adopt. The motivating ethos underlying the Go Lean roadmap is the Greater Good. This is defined as “the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong” – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), a British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer. What is ironic is the fact that the Greater Good ethos aligns with the true values of most of the orthodox religions identified above; such as this scripture:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. – James 1:27; New Living Translation

This CU/Go Lean mission is to elevate society for Caribbean people in the Caribbean. There is the need to monitor the enforcement of human rights and stand “on guard” against movements towards Failed-State status. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the CU to assume that role. Using cutting edge delivery of best practices, the CU will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety assurances and protect the region’s economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book speaks of the Caribbean as in crisis and posits that this crisis can be averted, that it is a “terrible thing to waste”. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to optimize the entire Caribbean economic/security/governance eco-system. This vision is defined early in the book (Page 12) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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

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

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 ensure a safe and just society in the Caribbean region:

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 Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Appendix – Failed State Indicators & Definitions	Page 271
Appendix – Dominican Republic’s Trujillo Regime – Ethnic Cleansing	Page 306

The foregoing article conveys that the country of Rwanda is making efforts to come to grips with their atrocious past. This was not a Black-White conflict, but rather a Black-on-Black drama. This drama therefore relates to the Caribbean as we have majority Black populations in almost every Caribbean member-state. 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 we too can reform and transform our bad community ethos, as causes, advocacies and campaigns have shown success in previous societies. The Go Lean roadmap relates the experiences of how these single causes/advocacies have been forged throughout the world (Page 122 – Anatomy of Advocacies):

Frederick Douglass	Abolition of African-American Slavery
Mohandas Gandhi	Indian Independence
Dr. Martin Luther King	African-American Civil Rights Movement
Nelson Mandela	South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid
Cesar Chavez	Migrant Farm Workers in the US
Candice Lightner	Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)

The Caribbean can succeed too, in our efforts to improve the Caribbean community ethos. Consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries that delve into aspects of forging change in the Caribbean community ethos:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9428	Forging Change: Herd Mentality
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9017	Proclaim ‘International Caribbean Day’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8200	Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7628	‘A Change Is Gonna Come’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5695	Repenting, Forgiving and Reconciling the Past
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971	A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Truth & Consequence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3929	Success Recipe: Add Bacon to Eggs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3780	Forging a ‘National Sacrifice‘ Ethos
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=623	‘Only at the precipice, do they change’

The Go Lean movement wants to help reform and transform the Caribbean. We see the crisis; we recognize that status quo, including the root causes and influences. We perceive the harmful effects of the religious orthodoxy. Yet we do not want to ban religion! Just the opposite, we know that religion can be a force for moral good in society, when practiced right. But we also know that religion can give birth to extremist passions and foster the worst sentiments in the human psyche. This too is presented in the Bible:

¹ “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. ² For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. ³ This is because they have never known the Father or me. ⁴ Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning…

A “Separation of Church and State” is the standard in the advanced democracies; this is now embedded in the implied Social Contract. Unfortunately this is not the norm in the Caribbean. Just consider these continued practices that demonstrate a highly charged religiosity in the region:

School uniforms forbidding girls from wearing pants
Carnival festivities banned for Sundays
Domestic violence toleration

The Go Lean book defines the Social Contract as follows:

“Citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights” – Page 170.

The Caribbean Social Contract specifies that governments must protect their citizens, those in Christendom or not. Human rights assume a religious neutrality; even those who are “Spiritual But Not Religious” – see Appendix C below – must be respected and protected.

The vision for a new religiously neutral Caribbean specifies new community ethos for the homeland, one being the practice of reconciling conflicts from the past; to make an accounting (lay bare), repent, forgive and then hopefully forget the long history of human rights abuses. All of this heavy-lifting will contribute towards the effort to make the region a better homeland to live, work and play. We urge all to lean-in to this roadmap.

Closing exhortation about Babylon the Great:

Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, “Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. – Revelation 18:4 – New Living Translation

Let him with ears, hear…

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix A – Cultural importance of “Babylon”

Due to Babylon’s historical significance as well as references to it in the Bible, the word “Babylon” in various languages has acquired a generic meaning of a large, bustling diverse city. Examples include:

Babilonas (Lithuanian name for “Babylon”)—a real estate development in Lithuania.
Babylon is used in reggae music as a concept in the Rastafari belief system, denoting the materialistic capitalist world.
Babylon 5—a science fiction series about a multi-racial futuristic space station.
Babylon A.D. takes place in New York City, decades in the future.

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Appendix B VIDEO – Hotel Rwanda (2004) – Official Movie Trailer – https://youtu.be/qZzfxL90100

Uploaded on Jun 18, 2011
Director: Terry George
Starring: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix.

———-

Appendix C – AUDIO Podcast – Spiritual But Not Religious – http://www.humanmedia.org/catalog/excerpts/141_spiritual_not_religious.mp3

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Civil Rights, History, Model, Power, Security

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Changing the Culture & Currency of Commerce

Posted on May 27, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Change is hard!

It does not just happen – in the positive direction – by itself. Someone (or some group) has to make it happen; they inspire it, communicate it and compel it to manifest. This is especially true of “commerce”.

commerce
noun 2. the exchange or buying and selling of commodities on a large scale involving transportation from place to place.
Usage example: a major center of commerce; interstate commerce

We want to change Caribbean commerce. We want to make it Bigger, Better and Faster.

Bigger – Yes, we want to go from local markets to a regional Single Market. Imagine all 30 Caribbean member-states with 42 million people and the potential to produce $800 Billion in GDP.
Better – Free Market would be better for Caribbean economics as opposed to the restricted controls of extreme socialism; think Cuba. Yet, many other member-states have policies and practices that are socialistic in their priorities; i.e. Antigua & Barbuda does NOT allow for private property ownership on Barbuda. (This smells like communism).
Faster – We want more and more electronic commerce options. This means a comprehensive Marketplace & Social Media (www.myCaribbean.gov) plus the delivery-logistics options of the optimized Caribbean Postal Union (CPU), a subset of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

Forging change in Caribbean commerce will require a change in culture … and currency.

Culture
The current Caribbean culture for “commerce” is bad! A previous blog-commentary vividly described this definition of culture:

This definition of culture refers to community ethos; this is defined in the book Go Lean … Caribbean (Page 20) as …

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

Culture allows “you” to overcome obstacles; endure the heavy-lifting of a turn-around; invest in future success based on promising talents; stay the course of a roadmap, rather than “giving up” and fleeing for the appearance of greener pastures elsewhere. Culture dictates devoting “blood, sweat and tears” to a community cause, to give a full measure of devotion. We can learn so much by examining organizations and communities of great accomplishments.

In another previous blog-commentary, it was detailed how one Caribbean member-state, the US Virgin Islands, suffers from higher consumer prices due to the challenging logistics of island life … plus the bad community ethos of rent-seeking. So implementing an e-Commerce eco-system should have a positive impact on reducing the cost of living for all citizens.

Currency
The Caribbean currency also needs attention. For the 30 member-states in the region, there are many different currencies: local dollars (i.e. Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad), sub-regional dollars (Eastern Caribbean) and International Reserve monies (Euros and US dollars). The attention that the new Caribbean needs is a new currency for its commercial activities, especially e-Commerce.

Welcome to the Caribbean Dollar (C$).

As related in yet another previous blog-commentary…

… 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). …. There is already currency interdependence for many member-states [with the sub-regional currency and the International Reserve currencies]. …

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.

Rolling out a regional currency will be a Big Idea and Big Undertaking. The book states (Page 127):

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

For us in the Caribbean to transform to a digital currency will require country-wide implementations. Fortunately, other countries have done this already … successfully. We would need to study (look, listen and learn) their experiences, good and bad. Consider the experience of the European country of Italy and their autonomous region/island of Sardinia:

VIDEO – Sardinia’s virtual currency – https://youtu.be/6qqKvctFZt0

CBS Sunday Morning
Published on Aug 6, 2017 – On the island of Sardinia, thousands of firms are not using traditional money to buy, sell, or pay salaries. They use Sardex, a virtual currency that allows businesses to earn and spend without relying on the Euro, or on banks that wouldn’t lend. Seth Doane reports on how the Mediterranean island is creating a new kind of wealth.

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Category: News & Politics

———

Title: Italy’s B2B cashless Sardex currency set to take on the world

Directors of Sardex, a regional mutual credit network encompassing several thousand small and medium-sized businesses on the Italian island of Sardinia, are thinking big — even globally — but moving cautiously.

By: Nils Zimmermann

The basic idea behind Sardinia’s business-to-business (B2B) electronic credit system is a simple one, even if its execution is somewhat more complex.

The country’s first regional currency, Sardex, gives several thousand participating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to participate in a system of mutual credit and do business with other local companies.

Sardex’s business development team recruits a balanced portfolio of carefully screened Sardinian SMEs, such as electricians, plumbers, glaziers, carpenters, retailers, café owners, farmers, or small manufacturing businesses, to participate in the Sardex business network. Participating SMEs pay a flat annual fee to join. Once members, they gain access to new prospective customers and suppliers.

See the remaining of the article in the Appendix below.

The lessons-learned from the experiences of Sardinia are concise: currency and credit can be fostered regardless of the support of Big Banks or existing capital. This theme also aligns with previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	Two Pies: Economic Plan for a new Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16530	International efforts to de-Americanize the world’s economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16210	Mitigating the Real Threat of Currency Assassins
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15923	Industrial Reboot – Payment Cards 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14248	Leading with Money Matters – Almighty Dollar vs Caribbean Dollars
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744	Rebooting Caribbean Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8704	Lessons from MetroCard – Model for the Caribbean Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7034	The Future of Mobile Money Payment Systems

These previous commentaries all depict that it is conceivable, believable and achievable for the banking stakeholders in the Caribbean to deploy a new currency regime. In order to consider an e-Commerce culture, we must have the banking products in place … first. These innovations will bring so many benefits that we must embark on the roadmap to manifest these changes. We have already started … with the planning. Just notice these last 4 blog-commentaries published by the Go Lean movement:

Continuity of Business: Learning from Instagram’s system failures	e-Commerce sites require good management to maintain systems up-time and to minimize downtime.
Wal-Mart now doing ‘Next Day’ deliveries	Optimal logistics allow e-Commerce merchants to optimize the shopping experience.
Bad Ethos Retarding ‘New Commerce’	Bad government policy can curtail e-Commerce progress. For restaurants, a mandatory gratuity policy on take-out orders is just plain rent-seeking, a bad ethos.
Moving Forward with Transportation Solutions	The Caribbean does not have the highway networks to facilitate cheap shipping options, but we can deploy a network of ferries in our Union Atlantic Turnpike scheme.

This commentary now – Culture and Currency – completes this series on the preparation for e-Commerce in the Caribbean. This whole collection depicts the heavy-lifting that regional stakeholders must do. Let’s lean-in for this effort. This is how we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 – Italy‘s B2B cashless Sardex currency set to take on the world – Cont’d

…

Marketing help
All Sardex members have access to a searchable database of all the network’s members. They can post trade offers on Sardex’s web platform, and they’re encouraged to look for business opportunities within the network. Many join WhatsApp or Telegram groups comprising hundreds of members, to stay in touch and make each other aware of offers.

In addition, Sardex employs deal brokers whose job is to identify possible trading opportunities within the network. The brokers call up business owners to suggest deals, for example, by proposing plumbers, electricians, and builders they could cooperate with on a local construction project.

New business
“The point of Sardex is to facilitate new sales that would otherwise not occur, and make use of idle capacity,” said Giovanni Dini, who works on Sardex’s research and development team. “By joining Sardex, a participating SME should see growth in its transaction volume with other Sardinian businesses.”

Each new member’s annual fee is individually negotiated, and amounts to a small fraction of its estimated underutilized business capacity.

A mutual credit club
Members avoid paying each other for goods and services through normal financial channels. Instead of using cash, bank transfer, or standard credit cards to settle transactions, the euro-denominated amount (1 SRD equals €1, $1.16) can be recorded as a debt the buyer owes the Sardex network, not the seller. The seller, in turn, records a credit to their Sardex account. This credit is, in effect, a debt owed by Sardex to the seller.

In this way, Sardex members can buy and sell from each other even if they’re cash-strapped, or have difficulty gaining bank credit. As an added benefit, there is no interest charged or paid on Sardex account balances.

Participants are expected to keep their Sardex account level within individually agreed maximum credit or debt levels —usually a few thousand Euros. Members must buy as well as sell, and the net amount of credit or debt on purchases and sales made on their Sardex account should net to zero over the course of a year.

Limits on transaction volume
There are limits to the volume of trade a Sardex member can or should do, as a proportion of its total business volume. “We recommend no more than 30 percent of the total,” Dini told DW. “Most of that should be additional transactions, i.e., sales that would not have been made if the business hadn’t been a member of the Sardex network.”

A key reason for the 30 percent limit: Value-added taxes continue to be due on all transactions, and taxes are only payable in conventional bank Euros or in cash. If a business were to do 100 percent of its trade in Sardex credits, it would end up owing a lot of Euros to the Italian treasury, but would have no Euros in the bank to pay its taxes.

Tourism, construction and retail are among the sectors most active within the network.

Growing business volume
Dini said the total volume of business in Sardex credits transacted on Sardinia in 2016 was just over €67 million ($87 million). In 2017, it was nearly €81 million.

Those numbers don’t include transactions in 11 additional regions of Italy where Sardex has initiatied B2B credit clubs within the past couple of years, all of them using the same web- and app-based credit circuit technology platform Sardex developed for Sardinia, but each running its own separate regional B2B credit circuit. Veneto, Marche, and Lombardy are among the 11 regions.

“We’re looking at enabling interregional trade as well, i.e., transactions between credit circuit members from different regions,” Dini said.

“We have to be careful,” Dini added, “our top priority is increasing within-region trade. Sardex was founded as an instrument to stimulate jobs and trade within Sardinia, one of Italy’s economically depressed regions. If we open interregional trade too much, we’ll end up reproducing the same imbalances in trading relationships that already exist, with some regions being big net exporters and others running up debts as net importers.”

Is small beautiful?
In each region, Sardex has partnered with a local entrepreneur to run credit-club recruitment and operations. Transaction volumes outside Sardinia totalled €14 million in 2016; they nearly doubled to €26 million in 2017.

Given that Italy’s GDP in 2017 was about €1.72 trillion, these numbers are tiny in comparison. But members of one of these regional B2B credit clubs can see meaningful benefits at their own scale of activity, for example, a tradesman or tour operator might see an extra €30,000 a year in transactions.

Sardex had signed up a total of 3,896 SMEs as full members as of June 2018. The total SME membership for all 12 regional networks was 8,512. After Sardex, the top three regional networks at present are Marchex with 1,010 B2B members (2013 start), Linx with 894 (2015 start), and Venetex with 514 members (2016 start), respectively in the Marche, Lombardy and Veneto regions.

National and international interest
The Sardex model has been successful enough that it has attracted attention from all over Europe, and even beyond: “We’ve had non-government organisations, entrepreneurs, regional and municipal governments, and even one national government come to us and express interest in setting up a mutual credit network using our platform,” Dini said.

But Sardex’s founders and managers are moving carefully, to avoid over-extending their capacities, and to ensure that they have thoroughly worked out all aspects of the business on Sardinia first, the researcher and developer added.

The importance of the man on the ground
Some of the regional credit circuits Sardex has set up with partners in other regions are doing better than others. According to Dini, the most progress has been made in Italian regions which are already relatively prosperous, such as the Veneto and Marche regions.

Factors driving a regional network’s success, according to Dini, include, “the skill of the partner team on the ground, their dedication, and their luck. They need a good pitch for recruiting new members, they need to know their territory well, they need good salespeople.”

In addition, it makes a difference how big a region’s pool of SMEs is, Lombardy or Veneto have multiple times more businesses than Sardinia or other southern Italian regions, which makes member recruitment easier.

“The online credit circuit platform itself is only one element for building a successful mutual credit network,” Dini emphasised. “Going out and recruiting new members face-to-face, teaching them how to use the platform effectively, providing effective deal-brokerage services — these are essential too.”

Sardex has indicated it’s in touch with entrepreneurs in Germany and elsewhere to discuss the possibility of setting up a regional B2B credit circuit there as well, and the company hopes to be able to announce its first step beyond Italy sometime in early 2019.

“We’re seeing that our B2B credit circuit model is interesting to entrepreneurs in prosperous regions too, not only to businesses in economically depressed regions.”

Source: Deutsche Welle – German Business News Site – Posted September 5, 2018; retrieved May 25, 2019 from: https://www.dw.com/en/italys-b2b-cashless-sardex-currency-set-to-take-on-the-world/a-45300395

———

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Banks, e-Commerce, EU, Model, Transform

[Top]

Continuity of Business: Learning from Instagram’s system failures

Posted on May 23, 2019 in Implementation, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

Spent time on Social Media lately? It’s all the rage!

Most Social Media sites – think: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – allow consumer accounts for free. Their business model is to sell “eye balls”, advertisements based on a large (and growing) viewing audience. The goal of this business model is to fulfill the promise of being connected with friends (physical and virtual); following the sun … with 24-7-365 coverage.

(This writer, while living in North America, has actual friends on Facebook who live and work in India and Pakistan).

According to a previous blog-commentary, Continuity of Business (CoB) is the simple concept to ensure that if there are any extraordinary events – i.e. emergencies and natural disasters – that the tools and techniques are in place to pick-up and continue for business-as-usual. This is important for these Social Media business models.

For these sites, if the promise of 24-7-365 is broken, then it is Big News. See the example here of the recent incident with Instagram and the related VIDEO (of an earlier outage in March):

Title: Instagram back online after a worldwide outage left irritated users complaining of being unable to load pictures on the site

The issue focused around new content on the site not loading correctly

It appeared that existing and older content could still be seen and viewed

The latest stories were also unable to be found or seen by users on the app

By: Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline

Instagram crashed for some users around the world, with people complaining they were unable to load new pictures on the app.

Reports have now stopped coming in and it appears to be resolved, but there is no official word from the Facebook-owned site.

The home page was displaying older pictures but new content failed to appear, at least for some users.

The problem stretched to stories as well, although older stories could still be loaded and viewed.

The reason behind the issue remains unknown but the outage started around 3:37pm BST.

Affected areas included Europe, Australia, South America and the mainland US and a smattering of users complained of login and website trouble (seven and five per cent of complaints, respectively).

But the primary issue appeared to be with the news feed as 86 per cent of all issues centered around the lack of content loading, according to outage site “downdetector“.

This was the second outage of the last 24 hours for Instagram as a spike in user complaints was also seen around 8pm BST yesterday.

It comes exactly a month after the Mark Zuckerberg empire of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was struck by a huge outage.

Facebook and Instagram were forced to apologise after users at this time were unable to load the sites and were faced with a ‘can’t be reached’ message for four hours.

Whatsapp, owned by Facebook, also suffered a four hour outage for some users internationally.

Downdetector.co.uk reported over 7,700 complaints that Facebook was down in the UK.

MailOnline has approached Instagram for comment.

Source: Published May 14, 2019 Retrieved May 23, 2019 from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7028163/Instagram-CRASHED-people-world.html

———-

VIDEO – Facebook was down for hours on Wednesday, including Instagram and Messenger – https://youtu.be/36z5hMH-2qk

CBS News
Published on Mar 13, 2019 – Facebook was partially down in the United States on Wednesday. In many cases, the platform wasn’t working at all. BBC News’ Dave Lee reports from San Francisco.

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Category: News & Politics

There is a plan for a home-grown Social Media site for the Caribbean, my.Caribbean.gov. This is embedded in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). There will be the need to employ our own CoB strategies, tactics and implementations to ensure 24-7-365 compliance. This means learning lessons from other sites like Facebook and Instagram; (same company by the way). Our CoB plans must be “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap.

The Go Lean book features one advocacy (Page 111) for fostering Social Media sites in the Caribbean. That advocacy is entitled: “10 Ways to Impact Social Media“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and GDP of over $800 Billion (circa 2010), thereby creating the economies of scale to deploy technology investments such as web portal www.myCaribbean.gov and e-Deliveries. The portal will grant free access, email, IM, and profile pages for CU stakeholders (resident, visitor & Diaspora). The CU will also facilitate deployments of Libraries through out the region. These edifices will serve as learning centers and arrange for the public’s access to the Internet.
2	CU Social Media Home Pages – Facebook & Twitter The CU will use Facebook (FB) & Twitter for normalized communications with stakeholders. The CU will feature its own channel on Facebook and Twitter for publishing notices and accessing the www.myCaribbean.gov portal. CU users can even log-on to the portal with FB or Twitter user profiles. Trending data will be published and available for data-mining.
3	Hi Density Wi-Fi & Mobile
4	Diaspora Marketing & Tourism Outreach
5	CU Asian Outreach
6	Contact Center for e-Government Services
7	Contact Center for Tech Support
8	Reverse-911 Messaging
9	Postal Union Interface The accedence of the CU will transfer jurisdiction of the region’s postal efforts to the Caribbean Postal Union. The CPU will employ hybrid e-mail/postal mail schemes (Last-leg, First-leg, FB/Twitter delivery notification) to facilitate efficiency.
10	Big Data Informatics

Internet & Communication Technologies are regarded as the “great equalizer”; it is where small states and large states are able to easily compete on the basis of merit, talent and competence, not just population size. The theme of doubling-down on the ICT & ‘Social Media’ landscape has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075	e-Government 3.0 – Improved governance is the first benefactor of ICT & Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11453	Location Matters – For location of Data Centers – even in a Virtual World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9839	Alibaba Cloud stretches global reach with four new Data Center facilities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	Lessons from China – WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4381	Net Neutrality and the innovation culture – It must matter here in the Caribbean

The Caribbean’s Social Media offering is just a subset of the overall Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) landscape. This can lower the cost of living and doing business in the homeland. In order to furnish the prospects of e-Commerce, we need to have our Caribbean Cloud enabled all the time, the whole 24-7-365.

Will we suffer from the periodic outages as Instagram just reported?

The Go Lean roadmap prepared for this eventuality with its Data Center “Arts & Sciences”; notice this excerpt from Page 106:

High Availability (HA)
HA is a system design approach (hardware, software and networking) that ensures operational performance will be met, like parallel processing or mirroring. There are systems (i.e. hospitals, banking, electrical grid) that must maximize availability and minimize downtime. Recovery time or estimated time of repair is closely related to availability, optimizing the time to recover from planned or unplanned outages.
A CU mission is to facilitate quick recoveries after hurricanes [and other disasters].

ICT, Social Media and e-Commerce are positioned to impact Caribbean communities. Compared to our status quo, we must be better than the examples in the foregoing stories; we must sustain our systems and processes. This is how we will be a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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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Disaster, e-Commerce, Model

[Top]

Wal-Mart now doing ‘Next Day’ deliveries

Posted on May 22, 2019 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Wal-Mart, the Big-Box store, is now doing Next Day deliveries.

This is earth-shattering news! See the VIDEO here and the full story in the Appendix below.

VIDEO – Wal-Mart rolls out free next-day delivery service – https://finance.yahoo.com/video/walmart-rolls-free-next-day-132555700.html

The whole business model of Big-Box was bringing the customer to one destination, where they can find so many things in one place. Now, instead of the customer coming to the Big-Box, Wal-Mart – America’s largest employer – is coming to the customer.

The retail landscape is undergoing change; this is the actuality of the Retail Apocalypse as we have described in this previous commentary:

The underlying issue with the Retail Apocalypse is not the demand for retail products, it is the supply. Consumers are still demanding and consuming fashion and commodities, just not at shopping malls; e-Commerce is “all the rage”.

In a David versus Goliath analogy, Wal-Mart would be Goliath. (Amazon is equally giant-sized as an e-Commerce offering).

The Empire Strikes Back
The Retail Apocalypse change in this case is the Internet or e-Commerce (Electronic Commerce). But in the Appendix article, we see that the biggest brick-and-mortar retailer – the Empire: Wal-Mart – is striking back. They are using their Big-Box reality to foster an advantage for their business operations. This could be good for consumer choice. It is definitely good for modeling and learning-lessons for the Caribbean.

The topic of Big-Box is familiar for the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it includes this excerpt (Page 201):

The Bottom Line on Big-Box Stores

A big-box store (also supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The store may sell general dry goods in which case it is a department store, or may be limited to a particular specialty (such establishments are often called “category killers”) or may also sell groceries. Typical architectural characteristics include the following:

Large, free-standing, rectangular, generally single-floor structure built on a concrete slab. The flat roof and ceiling trusses are generally made of steel, the walls are concrete block clad in metal or masonry siding.
The structure typically sits in the middle of a large, paved parking lot, sometimes referred to as a “sea of asphalt.” It is meant to be accessed by vehicle, rather than by pedestrians.
Floor space several times greater than traditional retailers in the sector, providing for a large amount of merchandise; in North America, generally more than 50,000 square feet, sometimes approaching 200,000 square feet. In cities, like London, where space is at a premium, stores are more likely to have two-plus floors [and smaller numbers overall].

Commercially, big-box stores can be broken down into two categories: general merchandise (examples include Wal-Mart and Target), and specialty stores (such as Menards, Barnes and Noble, or Best Buy) which specialize in goods within a specific range, such as hardware, books, or electronics. In recent years, many traditional retailers – such as Tesco and Praktiker – have opened stores in the big-box-store format in an effort to compete with big-box chains, which are expanding globally.

Some worry about the economic impact of big-box retailers on established downtown merchants or the sprawl-inducing impacts on character of such developments, as these stores are associated with heavy traffic near the stores.

This Big-Box retail concept is not just limited to the US mainland. Many of the Big-Box players have locations in many other countries …

… including the Caribbean. Wal-Mart’s Caribbean locations are only in Puerto Rico:

Source: https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-locations#/united-states/puerto-rico

The business model prescribed in the Go Lean book envisions more of such installments in the Self-Governing Entities spread throughout the region; the book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean economic engines. The book states (Page 234):

Self-Governing Entities
The CU will promote and administer all self-governing entities (SGE) throughout the region. This refers to scientific labs, industrial parks, commercial campuses, experimental hospitals, and even foreign bases. These facilities will not be subject of the laws of the local states of their address, [but] rather CU [federal regulations tied to different standards:] international, foreign sovereignty, or maritime laws; but depend on the local infrastructure to provide basic needs. Thereby creating jobs and economic activity.
…

Some mixed-use urban initiatives envisioned by the CU include: Main Street / Downtown Developments …

The Go Lean book also provides for effective strategies, tactics and implementations so as to be better in competition with Big-Box stores. See this excerpt here (Page 201):

Big-Box Competition: Cooperatives
The strategy of Big-Box stores is volume discounts. They purchase merchandise in bigger volumes that thereby garner bigger discounts from manufacturers. To compete against this reality, Main Street businesses need the benefits of aggregation and sharing their burdens with aligned firms. The formal Cooperatives movement allows such benefits.

Big-Box Competition: e-Commerce
Electronic commerce holds the promise of “leveling the playing field” so that small merchants can compete against larger merchants. To facilitate e-Commerce, purchased merchandise must get to their destinations as efficiently as possible. The CU’s implementation of the Caribbean Postal Union allows for better logistics for package delivery.

The Go Lean book (Page 57) has identified these trends – Globalization and Technology – as Agents of Change but it can frankly be described as Agents of Disruption or Agents of Destruction. For downtown merchants, Big-Box stores are disrupting their business models. For Big-Box merchants, e-Commerce is disrupting their business models. No matter your station on the retail industry vertical, there will always be competition and Agents of Disruption to contend with.

The lesson-learned for the planners for a new Caribbean is to always be On Guard for competition and to respond accordingly, with the best-practices for strategies, tactics and implementations. This is the Way Forward for retail operations in the Caribbean region. The roadmap describes how an optimized postal operation can be leveraged across 42 million people in the 30 Caribbean member-states, then we would be able to better deploy our e-Commerce offerings. The book states (Page 198):

Regional Postal Services – CPU
The CU will assume the responsibility for mail services in the region; (all member-state postal employees will become federal civil servants). The embrace of the Caribbean Postal Union allows for parcel mail to be optimally shipped and delivered throughout the region, with Customs considerations in place. The CPU will therefore ensure the fulfillment side of e-commerce, even allowing for computer applications for printing electronic stamps/barcodes for value savings.

This theme – fostering an e-Commerce eco-system – aligns with previous blog-commentaries; see these Amazon lessons here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291	Amazon’s e-Commerce – The Retailers’ Enemy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon’s Smartphone model for e-Commerce

We need to be On Guard for other disruptions as well. The Caribbean is losing in competition with the rest of the world. We continue to lose our young people to foreign shores. One report has listed the abandonment rate at 70 percent of the tertiary-educated population; many times, the expatriates leave seeking jobs and other economic opportunities. This is not a sustainable reality for us. We must do better.

Consider this Wal-Mart story and the lessons we glean; with more e-Commerce and delivery offerings, we can create jobs and grow our economy right here at home. This will help us make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

xv. Whereas the business of the Federation and the commercial interest in the region cannot prosper without an efficient facilitation of postal services, the Caribbean Union must allow for the integration of the existing mail operations of the governments of the member-states into a consolidated Caribbean Postal Union, allowing for the adoption of best practices and technical advances to deliver foreign/domestic mail in the region.

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

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

—————

Appendix – Walmart launches free next-day delivery with no membership fee
By: Julia La Roche, Yahoo Reporter

Walmart (WMT) just upped the stakes in the shipping wars with its latest offering — free next-day delivery with no membership fee.

Shoppers on Walmart.com can access NextDay delivery via a stand-alone function where they can browse up to 220,000 of the most commonly purchased items, everything from diapers to cleaning products to toys and electronics.

“Think of things like Bounty paper towels, some of our Great Value paper lunch plates, flushable wipes, diapers, dog food. Everything from that to a Little Tikes toy set,” Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s chief customer officer, told Yahoo Finance. “It’s a combination of items that you forget that you need and you need them in a rush. If I’m a busy mom and I look at the diary and realize that tomorrow I have a kid’s birthday party and I’ve forgotten to buy a present, there are things in there for that. There are consumable items. You’ll see a range of things that we know the customers are looking for.”

Orders of $35 and up are eligible for NextDay delivery, and the offering will debut in Phoenix and Las Vegas before expanding to Southern California.

“It will roll out gradually over the coming months, with a plan to reach approximately 75% of the U.S. population this year, which includes 40 of the top 50 major U.S. metro areas,” Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart e-Commerce U.S., wrote in a blog post.

In the blog, Lore said the service “isn’t just great for customers, it also makes good business sense.”

“Contrary to what you might think, it will cost us less – not more – to deliver orders the next day,” he wrote.

The reason it won’t cost as much is that the items will ship from one fulfillment center nearest the customer, he explained.

“This means the order ships in one box, or as few as possible, and it travels a shorter distance via inexpensive ground shipping. That’s in contrast to online orders that come in multiple boxes from multiple locations, which can be quite costly,” Lore wrote.

That said, some are still skeptical about the expense associated with the new offering.

“My reaction is that it’s awesome for customers. For you and me, it’s great. We get more options, and it’s going to be faster to get anything we order,” Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester, told Yahoo Finance, before adding, “Is it great in the long-term from an expense standpoint? Is this the most efficient way? I think that question hasn’t been answered.”

Walmart’s NextDay lets customers shop up to 220,000 of the items most frequently purchased items, ranging from diapers and laundry detergent to toys and electronics.

Kodali doesn’t think shoppers are likely to turn down free, expedited shipping.

“The shopper doesn’t value it for what it is — an incredibly expensive endeavor,” Kodali said.

To Walmart’s credit, though, she said the retailer is approaching it in a “smart way,” by launching in a couple of cities with a finite number of eligible items and a threshold of $35.

“[They’re] trying not to lose their shirt while doing it,” she said, later adding, “All of those are incredibly important to making it successful.”

King Kong v. Godzilla
Walmart’s move is helpful in the “King Kong versus Godzilla fight” Walmart is in with Amazon, Kodali added.

In late April, Amazon (AMZN) said it would spend $800 million in the second quarter to speed up its delivery to one day from two for all its Amazon Prime members. Presently, the e-commerce giant offers free two-day shipping and same-day delivery on $35 orders for eligible items in specific areas. A Prime membership costs $119 per year.

Shortly after the Amazon news broke, Walmart hinted at its future plans around delivery.

“Both retailers are climbing up the next rung of immediacy. It’s another form of convenience,” Laura Kennedy, a vice president at Kantar Consulting, said. “Not every shopper is going to need it or think it’s the most convenient option.”

Forrester’s Kodali sees Walmart’s move as more about maintaining wallet-share and not surrendering that opportunity to Amazon.

“I think that’s really the crux of what this is,” she said.

What’s more, there’s also the potential for Walmart to attract a different shopper from that core shopper.

Kodali believes that Walmart’s online grocery pickup and delivery, especially with the convenience and broad organic offering, has already broadened the retailer’s appeal. The new NextDay offering is billed as a “complement” to Walmart’s same-day grocery delivery, which is expected to reach 1,600 stores by year-end.

“This has the ability to broaden the appeal. It’s all about incremental new customers,” Kodali said.

Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

Source: Yahoo Finance – May 14, 2019; retrieved May 22, 2019 from: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/walmart-free-next-day-delivery-040200955.html?.tsrc=notification-brknews

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Bad Ethos Retarding ‘New Commerce’

Posted on May 21, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

Unlike most places, the Bahamas mandates that restaurants charge 18% gratuity … even for take-out operations. This is extreme, as gratuity is universally accepted as remuneration for the Wait Staff. But when the mode of operation is “take-out”, gratuity is superfluous – there is no Wait Staff.

Further, this “take-out gratuity” it is an example of …

rent-seeking – extracting uncompensated value from others without making any contribution – getting something for nothing.

To mandate gratuity under this extreme is really a bad community ethos – fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society.

Remember, this old maxim:

The chickens have come home to roost
This expression was renewed by Malcolm X after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, The adage dates back to at least 1810 when the English poet Robert South wrote, “Curses are like young chickens; they always come home to roost”. From an agricultural expression, it is true, domesticated foul may wander about all day – think Free Range – but in the evening, they do return to their default nesting location, the hen-house. This saying is comparing a person’s evil or foolish deeds to chickens. If a person does wrong, the “payback” might not be immediate. But at some point, at the end of the day, those “chickens” will come home to roost. “One has to face the consequences of one’s past actions”.

The lesson-learned is simple: we are NOT entitled to other people’s money.

Now, there is a New Economy, the bad attitudes about other people’s money have repercussions and consequences. Foolish policies like mandatory gratuity on take-out dinning are not tolerated under the New Economy regime. Places like the Bahamas – and other Caribbean member-states – must reform and transform.

The New Economy has brought forward a “Sharing Eco-System” in which industrial trends like ride-sharing, home-sharing and delivery assignments have emerged. There is now the concept of “ghost” restaurants – delivery services only; see details in the Appendices below.

Welcome to the Gig Economy.

Want a piece of this?
End mandatory gratuity on Restaurant Take-out activities!

All of these developments have created new jobs, new businesses and new opportunities. If we want a piece of this New Economy, then we have to adapt; we must rid ourselves of the bad community ethos and adopt some new ones. This theme – positioning our society for the New Economy – aligns with previous commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17040	Uber: A Better ‘Mousetrap’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13916	Model of ‘Gig Economy’ – Mother’s Love in Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10220	Waging a Successful War on Rent
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8262	UberEverything in Africa – Model of ‘Gigs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7646	Going from ‘Good to Great’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5542	Economic Principle: Bad Ethos of Rent-Seeking
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2571	More Business Travelers flock to Airbnb

The Caribbean region must prepare and foster opportunities and dictate economic progress, so we must “weed out” bad practices and/or “rent” in our community ethos; instead we must pursue better ethos, as in the Greater Good. The book Go Lean…Caribbean defines this attribute as follows (Page 37):

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

There are repercussions and consequences of bad community ethos. For one, people feel cheated, they leave-flee-abandon their homeland!

People may love their homeland, but seek refuge in more progressive societies, on foreign shores. The reasons why people leave in the first place have been identified as “Push and Pull”:

“Push” refers to the reasons people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects – like unearned entitlements – many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged and LGBT – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating to communities where there are less rent-seeking and Crony-Capitalism practices.

If only we can mitigate these “push and pull” factors, then we can dissuade our societal abandonment and have a chance of reforming and transforming our societal engines in the homeland. Having an entitled attitude towards other people’s money is a bad attitude. The reality of the New Economy is premised on good business values and good societal values: Win-Win.

A Win-Win for Caribbean stakeholders is the motive for this movement behind the Go Lean book. We want to change – reform and transform – our Caribbean society by optimizing the eco-systems for economics, security and governance.

Yes, we can …

… it is heavy-lifting, but conceivable, believable and achievable that we can make changes and succeed in elevating our communities. This is about bad attitudes and bad habits. We have seen this before. The Go Lean book relates (Page 20):

Change is not easy …

Just ask anyone attempting to quit smoking. Not only are there physiological challenges, but psychological ones as well, to the extent that it can be stated with no uncertainty that “change begins in the head”. In psycho-therapy the approach to forge change for an individual is defined as “starting in the head” (thoughts, visions), penetrating the heart (feelings, motivations) and then finally manifesting in the hands (actions). This same body analogy is what is purported in this book for how the Caribbean is to embrace change – following this systematic flow:

Head – Plans, models and constitutions

Heart – Community Ethos

Hands – Actions, Reboots, and Turn-arounds

Leaning in and going lean for Caribbean regional integration hereto requires engaging all three body parts, figuratively speaking, none more important than the heart. The people of the Caribbean must change their feelings about elements of their society – elements that are in place and elements missing. This is referred to as “Community Ethos”.

Let’s get started. Let’s quit smoking, rent-seeking and all other bad habits and practices. This is how we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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

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

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

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

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

——————

Appendix – What Are Ghost Restaurants?

If you’re tuned into restaurant trends, you may have heard of ghost restaurants. These new types of foodservice establishments are increasing in popularity as more and more restaurateurs decide to depart from traditional brick-and-mortar establishments and focus on delivery instead. If you want to learn more about what ghost restaurants are, how they work, and how you can start a successful one, keep reading.

What Is a Ghost Restaurant?
A ghost restaurant, also known as a virtual restaurant or delivery-only restaurant, is a foodservice establishment that offers take-out only. These “ghostly” eateries don’t have a storefront, so customers can’t come to pick up their own food. Ghost restaurants deliver food directly to their patrons, often through the use of third-party delivery services.

Mostly Made-to-Order
Generally, virtual restaurants function just like traditional restaurants, in that customers’ food is prepared once they order it. As a result, many establishments offer a lot of customization options for their menu items.

Where Do Ghost Restaurants Work Best?
This type of foodservice model is especially great for high-rent areas. Instead of hoping to find a prime location to draw foot traffic, restaurateurs can establish their virtual restaurant in any neighborhood they see fit, so long as their delivery service can easily access customers.

Making the Most of Their Space
Many popular fast-casual establishments in cities are bound by the requirement for seating and waiting space, even though a large percentage of their customers aren’t dining in. So, offering only delivery helps virtual restaurants avoid the problem of underutilized space.

Advantages of Ghost Restaurants
Here are some things that ghost restaurants can do that traditional eateries can’t:

Flexibility of concept: Being app- or web-based means that you can change your menu whenever you like, without having to worry about updating signage or printed materials.
Adjustable menu: If an ingredient becomes too expensive or is no longer accessible in your area, you can easily swap out your menu items to suit what is available to you.
Smaller financial investment: Think about all the expensive elements that don’t apply to virtual restaurants: decor, signage, dinnerware, and additional staff members to serve as servers or hosts.
Opportunity for experimentation: Ghost restaurants are the perfect opportunity to experiment with new concepts, because you can easily scrap ideas that aren’t working.

What Is a Ghost Restaurant Kitchen Like?
In virtual restaurants, the kitchen is where a lot of your investment goes. Because you don’t have to allow square footage for a dining area, you have much more room to customize your kitchen space. Depending on your budget, you can opt for some specialized cooking equipment that you probably never had room for in a traditional restaurant.

Using One Kitchen for Several Concepts
You can even own multiple ghost restaurants and operate them out of the same kitchen. Especially if your menus have ingredient overlap, you can prepare food for two separate concepts in one efficient space.

…

Source: Retrieved May 21, 2019 from: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/2348/what-are-ghost-restaurants.html

————–

Appendix VIDEO – How Ghost Restaurants are Changing the Food Industry – https://youtu.be/59sPK73YjA0

Cheddar
Published on Feb 23, 2019 – With the rise of delivery services has come the rise of Ghost Restaurants which will cook your food and deliver it, but you’d never be able to order “for here”.

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Category – Entertainment

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Bahamas, e-Commerce, Model, Transform

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Moving Forward with Transportation Solutions

Posted on May 19, 2019 in Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Its been 150 years exactly …
… we cannot just let that milestone for the Union Pacific Railroad go by without some acknowledgement … and reflection. This history is more than just the story of a train, or a company; its an economic solution, one that was the inspiration for study and modeling, while the writers were in Omaha, Nebraska composing the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. See this excerpt:

The Bottom Line on the Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the US. It has more than 44,000 employees, more than 8,000 locomotives, and runs on 31,900 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans. The original company, prior to later uniting with the Central Pacific Railroad, was incorporated on July 1, 1862 under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the Missouri from Omaha) to meet the Central Pacific line, which was constructed eastwardly from San Francisco Bay. The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah, fifty three miles west of Ogden on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. – Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 205.

The Union Pacific Railroad and the City of Omaha was featured in the Go Lean book as a model for the transportation solutions that would allow the Caribbean region to better move people and goods around the member-states.

There was a lot of fanfare, celebration, pomp-and-pageantry this month for the 150th anniversary. See the news report in this company-produced VIDEO here and in the related article in the Appendix below:

VIDEO – Union Pacific’s Transcontinental Railroad Completion 150th Anniversary Celebration – https://youtu.be/ZOWoPuVSbY0

Union Pacific
Published on May 17, 2019 – Reflections of Union Pacific’s celebration May 9, 2019, marking the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s completion.

Category: Autos & Vehicles

Yes, there is the need for transportation solutions in the Caribbean. Our failings – unaffordable to bring stay-over tourists to our shores and excessive costs of imported goods – have imperiled our progress in so many ways. We have consistently reported this theme in previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16645	Bad Partners – Cruise Lines Interactions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14767	Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14761	Flying the Caribbean Skies – New Regional Options
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12959	The Defective Shipping Law ‘Jones Act’ needs to be scraped
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12322	Ferries 101: Economics, Security and Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12146	Commerce of the Seas – Shipbuilding Model – We need Ferries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9179	Snowbirds Tourism – On the 1st day of Autumn, time to head South
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6867	How to address high consumer prices: A Ferry Transport System

The book Go Lean … Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to facilitate a connected and integrated Single Market. This reality would mandate that we connect all the communities; the same as blood vessels would connect all the organs of a single “body”. Other Single Markets around the world have efficient transportation solutions; think rails and highways in the US and in Western Europe. The book features this one advocacy (Page 205) for implementing Caribbean transportation solutions. This advocacy is entitled: “10 Ways to Improve Transportation“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** Embrace the advent of the Caribbean Single Market & Economy Initiative of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This will allow for the unification of 42 million people into one market, creating the demand to better move people and goods among the region and import-export to/from other regions. The CU will allow for the emergence of capital markets to sell municipal bonds for Transportation Authorities to raise project funds, as was the case for the Union Pacific Railroad. Bonds are ideal as their long term nature is ideal for slow harvesting returns from transportation solutions.
2	Turnpike: Pneumatic Capsule Pipeline (PCP) The “Union Atlantic” Turnpike, (modeled after the Union Pacific efforts in the US from 1862), is a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all CU member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. The Turnpike is virtual; made up of many physical transportation modes envisioned for the region: Pipeline, Ferry, Highways, and Railroad. PCP refers to large pneumatic tubes that can handle containers and trailers through underwater, under-ground and above-ground pipelines powered by magnetic levitation systems (ILM). This is modeled, after the freight PCP project envisioned for New York City [187], and the English Channel Tunnel for passengers and cargo. The CU will construct underwater tunnels for narrow straits in the region, like the 7 miles between Trinidad & Venezuela.
3	*Turnpike:* Ferries For the most part, the CU member-states are islands thereby allowing for a viable means of transportation via sea navigation. By deploying ferries, the CU facilitates passenger travel for business and leisure, (see model [of Ferry operations in] Appendix IC on Page 280).
4	*Turnpike:* Land Highways
5	*Turnpike:* Railroads
6	Aviation Coordination, Promotion and Safety Regulations The CU mandate is to facilitate the region’s economics through transportation solutions. Aviation plays a key role, and so there is the need for regional coordination and promotion of the region’s domestic and foreign air carriers. The CU will execute these functions along with Air Traffic Control and Safety regulations, thus mirroring both the FAA & National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US. The CU will be vested with subpoena and prosecutorial powers.
7	CNG Public Buses and Electric Street Cars with Handicap Access
8	Taxi Administration: Emission-free Inducements & Electronic Payments Systems (EPS)
9	Local Automaker(s)
10	Bicycle Friendly

According to the Go Lean book, the foregoing VIDEO, and the article in the Appendix below, the Union Pacific Railroad was more than just a railroad, it was a transportation and technology eco-system that transformed the American continent. This was a manifestation of the technology of the day, the best-of-the-best of the machinery and methods that defined the greatest industrial might in the history of modern man. The Go Lean book states (Page 57) this succinct reflection on transport technology:

Technological change is more than just [today’s] internet & communications (ICT); though this field is dynamically shifting the world. There are also industrial changes taking place, as in more efficient manufacturing methods, automation-robotics, and transportation options … in response to Climate Change. For example, the CU envisions the supply and demand for Fast Ferries in the region. The modern offerings allow for 40 – 50 (nautical) mph speeds on calm waters. There are many CU destinations that can be serviced within 2 – 3 hours using this mode. This effort will be championed by the CU Turnpike initiative.

The review of the history of the Union Pacific Railroad has done one more thing:

Provide a glimpse of a Caribbean version of a transformative transportation solution. (Consider the Canadian ferry example in the photo here).

Today, the Caribbean is 30 separate and distinct lands with 42 million people; we are 30 separate and distinct member-states; but instead, we need to be one community, a Single Market. Transportation can foster and furnish the needed unity in our neighborhood; this is how we can move forward in our quest to elevate the societal engines: economics, security and governance. This point was eloquently detailed in a previous blog-commentary:

The roadmap calls for the CU to navigate the changed landscape of the globalized air transport industry. There is the need for regional integration, administration, and promotion for Caribbean air travel among local and foreign carriers. The book posits that transportation and logistics empower the economic engines of a community. There must be air carrier solutions to service the transportation and tourism needs of the Caribbean islands. This point is fully appreciated by Caribbean tourism stakeholders; the book relates that the region’s Hotel and Tourism Association channel the vision of Robert Crandall, former Chairman of American Airlines, who remarked at a Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in May 2010 that the region is uniquely dependent on tourism:

“Everyone involved in travel and tourism knows that our [airline] industry is immensely important to the world economy, generating and supporting – either directly or indirectly – about one in eleven jobs worldwide. Here in the Caribbean, it is even more important. On a number of islands, travel and tourism accounts for more than 50% of all employment, and on some islands for more than 75%. Overall, about 20% of Caribbean employment is travel and tourism dependent – something on the order of 2.5 million jobs.” – Book ‘Go Lean … Caribbean’ – Page 60.

Go Lean asserts that air travel options must be optimized to impact Caribbean society – thus the need for more regional coordination, regulation and promotion of the Caribbean’s aviation industry. New models are detailed in the book in which tourism can be enhanced with “air lifts” to facilitate Caribbean events, and “Air Bridges” to allow for targeting High Net Worth markets. This roadmap also introduces the Union Atlantic Turnpike to offer more transportation solutions (ferries, toll roads, railways, and pipelines) to better facilitate the efficient movement of people and cargo.

Yes, we can …

A more connected region is conceivable, believable and achievable. This is how we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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 – Title: Golden Spike 150th Anniversary – 1869 – Omaha, NE

The communities of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, would forever be changed by a single decision made by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. That was the year the president named Council Bluffs as the eastern terminus for Union Pacific, altering that community and Omaha — and, in fact, every community — along the railroad’s western path.

Despite this presidential declaration, there were other forces at play. Union Pacific’s first vice president and general manager, Thomas C. “Doc” Durant, used his influence to make Omaha — and not Council Bluffs, Iowa — the actual starting point. Union Pacific marked the occasion with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Omaha settlement in Nebraska Territory Dec. 2, 1863. A lack of funding delayed the project’s beginning for a short while, but on July 10, 1865, the first rail was finally laid. In 1872, the two communities were united for the first time when a railroad bridge was completed across the Missouri River.

The railroad’s effect on both communities has been extraordinary. Council Bluffs grew from a small, isolated Missouri River town to Iowa’s fifth largest city. The same robust growth has taken place in Omaha. Settlers and immigrants poured into the area beginning more than a century ago, and today this vibrant city has a population of nearly 500,000. This growth was spurred in great part by the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, and the transcontinental railroad’s completion in 1869. Omaha has been Union Pacific’s operational headquarters since the 1860s, and its 19-story headquarters in the downtown area employs nearly 4,000 employees. Omaha also is home to UP’s Harriman Dispatching Center, one of the country’s largest and most technologically advanced dispatching facilities.

Source: Retrieved May 18, 2019 from: https://www.up.com/goldenspike/omaha-promontory.html

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Marshall Plan – Is $91 Billion a Redux for Puerto Rico?

Posted on May 14, 2019 in Economics, Government, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The US gave $13 Billion to Western Europe to recover, reboot and turn-around the deficient societal engines of that region, post World War II. It made a huge difference and restored the national production (think GDP) to levels exceeding the years before the war.

This was the Marshall Plan; it worked for Europe. There are even lessons for us to learn and apply in our Caribbean region.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico (PR), “bombing” its infrastructure. The island needed (actually still needs) all the help it could get. PR must reboot! Help came from the US Federal government … eventually. The US President now claims that his administration has given $91 Billion.

If so, wouldn’t this constitute a turn-around for Puerto Rico; perhaps another round – a redux – of the Marshall Plan, the original European Recovery Plan of 1948 – 1952?

The answer is: No!

Despite the need for a Marshall Plan for PR, they have not gotten one. They also did not get $91 Billion!

Wait, what?! See the news story-VIDEO here:

VIDEO – CNN reporter responds to Trump: That’s not true – https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/05/09/trump-puerto-rico-storm-relief-false-claim-crn-vpx.cnn

CNN Right Now
Posted May 9, 2019 – President Trump falsely claimed that Puerto Rico has been given $91 billion in disaster aid following Hurricane Maria that devastated the island.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean must first look to the Caribbean to effect the needed change in the region. The idea of someone “swooping in” and bringing the relief that the Caribbean needs – a panacea – is simply a fantasy. This has not happened, is not happening and will not happen.

“We” must be the change our homeland needs.

The 2013 Go Lean book anticipated the repercussions and consequences of natural disasters in the Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is the solution that we need, a regional regime to shepherd the economic, security (including Emergency Management), and governing engines of the 30 member-states, as one integrated unit.

This could be fact, not fantasy!

The Go Lean/CU roadmap does include a Marshall Plan for some member-states (Cuba & Haiti), that need to simply catch-up. Puerto Rico, while needing a Way Forward to reboot, recover and turn-around, is not envisioned for such a Marshall Plan. This is entry 5-of-5 in this series of commentaries – the final one – on the Marshall Plan, the historic European one and Caribbean versions. Here, as follows, is the full series being presented this month of May (2019):

Marshall Plan: A Lesson in History
Marshall Plan: Cuba – An imminent need for ‘Free Market’ Emergence
Marshall Plan: Haiti – Past time for Mitigation
Marshall Plan: Funding – What Purse to Fund Our Plans?
Marshall Plan: Is $91 Billion a Redux for Puerto Rico?

So if no Marshall Plan for PR, what solutions do we propose for this island. The theme of rebooting PR has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17135	Way Forward – Puerto Rico: Learns its status with America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15012	In Life or Death: No Love for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14101	‘We Are The World’ Style Campaign to Help Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13995	First Steps – Congressional Interstate Compacts – No Vote; No Voice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391	After Maria, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction and Defection for PR
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11647	Righting a Wrong: Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7963	‘Like a Good Neighbor’ – Being there for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6260	Puerto Rico Bondholders Coalition Launches Ad Campaign
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1325	Puerto Rico Attempts to Reboot the Landscape for Entrepreneurs (SME)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=599	Ailing Puerto Rico open to radical economic fixes

The status quo for the Caribbean is deficient and defective. The status quo for Puerto Rico is deficient and defective. This same assessment requires some of the same solutions. The Go Lean/CU roadmap presents the solutions to fix the entire region.

This is the Way Forward.

Is the Way Forward part-and-parcel of their American experience?

How was the $91 Billion?

Oh wait! It’s a mirage. It is past time for PR to realize that its panacea is not the American eco-system. It is time to Grow Up, Already! The heavy-lifting that is needed for Puerto Rico must be exerted by Puerto Rico.

You are acting like a colony … towards your imperial masters, Washington D.C..

Instead, we propose that you act like a Good Neighbor, willing to partner with others “in the same boat” with common problems to find common solutions.

Puerto Rico should be fully inclusive in the political, social, economic, security, musical and athletic fabric of the regional society. This is the Caribbean’s future … and Puerto Rico’s future. This is how we can make our regional homeland, PR included, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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Marshall Plan – Funding: How to Pay for Change

Posted on May 13, 2019 in Economics, Government, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

About that purse …
… we have been saying here repeatedly:

Will someone walk-up to Cuba/Haiti and give them $13 Billion (or $91 Billion in today’s dollars) to reboot, recover and turn-around their periods of dysfunction?

Probably, not!

So how to ensure that all this talk of a Marshall Plan is not just simply talk?

Answer: We create the purse ourselves.

Purse , noun
a: Resources, Funds
b: a sum of money offered as a prize or present also : the total amount of money offered in prizes for a given event

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean region as an entity can create a new regional purse, one that can fund the Marshall Plan that is needed to reform the de facto Failed-States of Cuba, Haiti and other declining member-states.

Once we reform these problematic communities, then we can focus on transforming the entire region. Leverage is the key!

So we can comfortably declare that change is on the way for the Caribbean!

While the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is NOT just Cuba & Haiti alone, we know that we cannot elevate the societal engines for all of the Caribbean while ignoring these near-Failed States. These member-states constitute 48% of the region’s population and a huge portion of the landmass. There is no Caribbean without these Cuban/Haitian countries and cultures.

So to repeat, if we can fix Cuba & Haiti, we can fix the entire Caribbean region. This is the “Why’ and “How” – Marshall Plan – and these are important considerations; but more importantly, we need to know how to fund our plans.

We must know if “someone” will walk-up to and give us $13 Billion (or $91 Billion in today’s dollars) to reboot, recover and turn-around our dysfunctional member-states. We can now hereby declare:

Probably, not … for any external entities.
Definitely yes … for doing it ourselves … internally.

The Go Lean roadmap asserts that it is up to the Caribbean to solve the Caribbean’s problems. We must plan, fund and execute our own Marshall Plan. Yes, we can!

The next step: graduate from just regional integration – Caribbean Community (CariCom) – to a Single Market.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to facilitate a Single Market. The book features (Page 101) this one advocacy for creating a purse, entitled: “10 Ways to Pay for Change“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, expanding to an economy of 30 member-states of 42 million people, to impact a GDP of over $800 Billion. In order for the CU to reboot the economic engines of the region, the political entity of the unified Caribbean must be rebooted first. … The CU will generate its own initial funding, as listed here, below.
2	Spectrum Auctions The CU will function as a government-owned multinational corporation to deliver services for an integrated Caribbean administration. Having the regional authority, the CU will hold auctions for the radio spectrum in the region. This will generate the CU’s own initial revenue stream, as only rights are being awarded; there is no performance – no fabrication of products or rendering of services. With this strategy, there will be revenues to return back to CU share-holders, member-states, even in the 1st year.
3	SGE Licenses The CU treaty empowers economic engines (Self-Governing Entities – SGE: industrial parks, technology labs, medical campuses, etc.) in and on behalf of the region. These independent entities pay fees to the CU, at the outset, so as to be licensed by the CU.
4	GPO Logistic Fees An important CU mission is the Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), an extension of the current [CariCom] Office of Trade Negotiations; but the CU will make purchases and fulfill delivery to member-states, for a handling fee.
5	Regional Lottery … The CU will implement a regional lottery, in conjunction with local state lotteries, with winnings awarded in Caribbean dollars (C$). The CU will outsource contracts for distribution, fund management and IT processing. These contracts can serve as an initial funding source.
6	EEZ Exploration Rights
7	Homeland Security – Private Protection Licensing
8	Homeland Security – Hurricane Insurance Fund
9	Warrants Paying for Change first optimizes the payment terms. All CU payments to member-states will be in the form of warrants attached to bonds; this allows the CU to pay lower interest rates. These warrants make the bonds sellable to the public. [See explanation of Registered Warrants in the Appendix below].
10	Foreign Aid & Grants *including Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)*

A Caribbean version of the previous European Marshall Plan will be very significant in the roadmap to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states. Planning the Plan is one thing; Executing the Plan is another. But in between the Plan and the Execution is the heavy-lifting task of funding the change. This is why this series of commentaries is so important. This is entry 4-of-5 in this series of commentaries on the Marshall Plan, the historic European one and Caribbean versions. Here, as follows, is the full series being presented this month of May (2019):

Marshall Plan: A Lesson in History
Marshall Plan: Cuba – An imminent need for ‘Free Market’ Emergence
Marshall Plan: Haiti – Past time for Mitigation
Marshall Plan: Funding – What Purse to Fund Our Plans?
Marshall Plan: Is $91 Billion a Redux for Puerto Rico?

In this entry for this series we focus on “How” to fund the Marshall Plan. In the European model, “it” was about the money; for the Caribbean version, money will be equally important. The theme of recovering and rebooting the Caribbean economic landscape has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	‘Two Pies’ – Funding Plan for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16836	Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16530	Efforts to de-Americanize the world’s economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16210	In Defense of Trade – The Real Threat of Currency Assassins
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15798	Lessons Learned from 2008 Great Recession – Region Still Recovering
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14834	Counter-culture – Monetizing the Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14248	Leading with Money Matters – Almighty Dollar – From US$ to C$
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744	Caribbean Economics – The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10513	Transforming ‘Money’ Countrywide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	For Canadian Banks – The Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’

The hope for a Marshall Plan for Cuba and Haiti will only be an empty promise unless the regional infrastructure accompanies the Planning and Executions. The Way Forward for the Caribbean economic landscape therefore presents these necessary ingredients:

Regional Currency – Trading in Caribbean Dollars (C$) rather than local currencies.
Regional Capital Markets – There are 9 Stock Exchanges; these will expand due to C$ adoption; i.e. Warrants.

The current economic landscape is deficient and defective. We must reboot and change all of it: Top-Down and Bottoms-Up. This is a Big Shift being considered here, transforming how we finance government spending: Looking to Capital Markets for fostering a landscape with Registered Warrants instead of “cash”. Wow! (See more on this in the Appendix below). Only with these technocratic strategies, tactics and implementations, can we even contemplate rebooting Cuba and Haiti.

This product offering – Registered Warrants – is part of the Way Forward for the new Caribbean.

Our Way Forward for the entire Caribbean includes the entire Caribbean, with Cuba & Haiti too. So we have to prepare the region for the full inclusion of these problematic countries. With them, we can better leverage the political, social, security and economic fabric of the regional society. This is the Caribbean’s future. This is how we intend to make our homeland, Cuba & Haiti included, better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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.

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: Warrants of Payments

In financial transactions, a warrant is a written order from a first person that instructs a second person to pay a specified recipient a specific amount of money or goods at a specific time.^[1] The warrant may or may not be negotiable and may authorize payment to the warrant holder on demand or after a maturity date. Governments may choose to pay wages and other accounts payable by issuing warrants instead of checks.

History
In the 18th century, warrants were used by the military to authorize payments to soldiers and suppliers. George Washington, for example, signed warrants that ordered quartermasters to deliver money or acquire supplies.^[2] These warrants were used by quartermasters to issue vouchers to acquire food, supplies, munitions, clothing, transportation, etc., for the use of the American military and to maintain Washington’s headquarters. Warrants could be redeemed by the army paymasters, but most often they were used like cash by the recipient. Warrants, like bills of exchange and vouchers, were often heavily discounted and depreciated in value. The fortunes of war could be traced through the discount rates on warrants, vouchers, and Continental dollars.

Modern warrants
In government finance, a warrant is a written order to pay that instructs a federal, state, or county government treasurer to pay the warrant holder on demand or after a maturity date. Such warrants look like checks and clear through the banking system like checks, but are not drawn against cleared funds in a checking account (demand deposit account). Instead, they may be drawn against “available funds” or “out of fund 0027” so that the issuer can collect interest on the float or delay redemption. If the warrant is conditional on funds being available, the warrant is not a negotiable debt instrument. In the U.S., warrants are issued by government entities such as the military and state and county governments. Warrants are issued for payroll to individual employees, accounts payable to vendors, to local governments, to taxpayers receiving tax refunds, to recipients of unemployment benefits, and to owners of unclaimed money. A warrant differs from a check in that the warrant is not drawn on a checking account, is not necessarily payable on demand, and may not be negotiable.^[5][6]

Warrants deposited in a bank are routed (based on the MICR routing number) to a collecting bank which processes them as collection items like maturing treasury bills and presents the warrants to the government entity’s treasury department for payment to the bank each business day.

Regular warrants are redeemable by the government treasurer after they are issued. “Registered warrants” bear interest and need not be redeemed by the treasurer until the warrant maturity date.^[7] If warrants cannot be immediately redeemed by the issuing entity, the collecting bank may accept the warrants as short term debt instruments and collect interest when redeemed in accordance with a prior agreement with the issuing entity. The collecting bank may refuse to accept a warrant issue, in which case other banks may also refuse to accept them.^[8]

“The warrants of a municipal corporation are not negotiable instruments. They do not constitute a new debt, or evidence of a new debt, but are only the prescribed means devised by law for drawing money from the treasury.”^[9]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on July 9, 2009, that California’s registered warrants are “securities” under federal securities law and will be regulated as municipal securities by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.^[10] Under these regulations, anybody who profits by buying and reselling warrants must be registered as a municipal securities broker-dealer.^[11]

Although registered warrants are evidence of a municipality’s obligation to pay, because they demonstrate an intent to disburse funds when those funds become available, the US Supreme Court has ruled that a holder of a valid warrant cannot obtain a writ of mandamus for specific performance of the obligation to pay, enforced against a treasurer or other employee of the municipality.^[12] …

United Kingdom
In the UK, warrants are issued as payment by the NS&I when a Premium Bond is chosen.

The difference between a warrant and a cheque is that a cheque usually places no explicit time frame on when the amount is to be paid.

Source: Retrieved May 13, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_of_payment

—————

VIDEO – What is WARRANT OF PAYMENT? What does WARRANT OF PAYMENT mean? WARRANT OF PAYMENT meaning – https://youtu.be/9LY7Ol5ec6E

The Audiopedia

Published on Apr 20, 2017 – … Governments may choose to pay wages and other accounts payable by issuing warrants instead of checks …

Category: Education
License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)

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Marshall Plan – Haiti: Past time for Mitigation

Posted on May 12, 2019 in Economics, Government, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

This is a deep philosophical discussion about Grace. What is it?

From a theological perspective, this can be defined as follows:

… not as a created substance of any kind, but as “the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not necessarily because of anything we have done to earn it”,^[1] “Grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.”^[2] It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people “generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved”^[3] – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God.^[4]

So a summary definition of Grace may just be: Undeserved Kindness.

Europe endured a lot of dysfunction during the 20th Century; think World War I and World War II. Let’s face it, these European countries did NOT deserve any kindness or help (such as the $13 Billion in the Marshall Plan) that were eventually given to them after WWII; it was a kindness and an investment from the US to the Europeans. It was Grace!

A lot of people in the North America felt that Europe brought this dysfunction on themselves; “they sowed the wind; they would have to reap the whirlwind”. This philosophy was referred to as Isolationism. But after the photos of poor, starving children came to light, attitudes began to change. See this manifestation as recorded by the Save the Children Fund (UK):

At the end of World War II, images of malnourished and sick children ran throughout Europe. [The Founders] worked to gain public sympathy in order to elicit support aid.^[12] Save the Children staff were among the first into the liberated areas after World War II, working with refugee children and displaced persons in former occupied Europe, including survivors of Nazi concentration camps. At the same time, work in the United Kingdom focused on improving conditions for children growing up in cities devastated by bombing and facing huge disruptions in family life.^[8]

The need for Grace eventually became evident.

During the period leading up to World War II, Americans were highly isolationist, and many called the Marshall Plan a “milestone” for American ideology. By looking at polling data over time from pre-World War II to post-World War II, one would find that there was a change in public opinion in regards to ideology. Americans swapped their isolationist ideals for a much more global internationalist ideology after World War II. – Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan#Change_in_American_ideology

All of this time, and before, the Caribbean country of Haiti languished. They were past the time that they needed Grace and help; but such deliveries were fleeting. (The same Save the Children Fund – founded in London in 1919 – is now active in Haiti; but only since 1985; see Appendix below).

What’s the difference in the response and attitudes towards these two populations?

Duh! Since Human Rights and Civil Rights only played “catch-up” in the mid 20th Century – gaining momentum in the 1960’s and beyond – the answer is self-evident:

Ethnicity and racism.
See the distribution of the Marshall Plan beneficiary countries here:

This is the assertion by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – and the whole world knows it – that due to Haiti’s Black-and-Brown population demographic, their country was ignored or maybe even further abused. (After 1804, the former slaves were required to pay reparations to their former masters: France). This was also the experience – uninvited abusers – after this 2010 Earthquake.

Remember the Missing/Unprocessed $500 Million the American Red Cross collected for the Haiti earthquake.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that Haiti had been restrained from fully participating in the world economic systems for most of the 19th & 20th Centuries; all because of the bold stand they took to secure their own freedom: the 1804 Slave Rebellion and subsequent Independence Declaration. The realities and possibilities of Haiti’s past and future are identified early in the Go Lean book, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing a need for reconciliation efforts (Page 12):

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.

Change is on the way for Haiti! The country is now a de facto Failed-State. Their Way Forward to move upwards, must start with a Marshall Plan.

While the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is NOT just Haiti alone, we know that we cannot elevate the societal engines for all of the Caribbean while ignoring Haiti …

(It possesses 21% of the region’s population; with the same demographic mix as was the case in the last 200 years: majority Black-and-Brown people).

… there is no Caribbean without Haiti.

So to repeat, if we can fix Haiti, we can fix the entire Caribbean region. This is the “Why’; but for the “How”; we need that Marshall Plan.

The focus of the Go Lean roadmap is the recognition that our region’s status quo is bad, critical and even to be considered “in crisis”. The book declares that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, intimating that we must use crises as opportunities to forge change. This is the rationale for the Marshall Plan for Haiti. See the book’s proposal here (Page 238):

The Bottom Line on Marshall Plan
By the end of World War II much of Europe was devastated. The Marshall Plan, (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP), named after the then Secretary of State and retired general George Marshall, was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of the war. During the four years (1948 – 1952) that the plan was operational, US$13 billion in economic and technical assistance was given to help the recovery of the European countries. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war.
.
Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reduce artificial trade barriers, and instill a sense of hope and self-reliance.
.
By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall Plan recipients, output in 1951 was at least 35% higher than in 1938. Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity. Generally, economists agree that the Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level—that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of Western Europe.Today, the European Union, the latest successor of the integration effort, is the world largest integrated economy.

Will someone walk-up to Haiti and give them $13 Billion (or $91 Billion in today’s dollars) to reboot, recover and turn-around the prior 2 centuries of dysfunction?

Probably, not!

(What’s really sad, is people walk-up to further exploit and abuse Haiti and Haitians).

It will be up to the Caribbean to solve the Caribbean’s problems. We do have more than one Failed-State; think Cuba; and we have many other member-states, just a few notches behind Cuba & Haiti on the Failed-State indices. So we must execute strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to effect the needed reboot, recovery and turn-around.

Yes, we can succeed, the same as post-World War II Europe succeeded with the 4-year execution of their Marshall Plan. Yes, we can!

Haiti is already a member-state in the Caribbean Community (CariCom). So they have already embraced the concept of regional interdependence. What’s missing now is the leveraging of the Single Market, adding “teeth to the prospect” of a unified neighborhood with “Trade & Security” initiatives.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This roadmap provides the “teeth”; it presents this one advocacy for Haiti, entitled: “10 Ways to Re-boot Haiti“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* – Ratify treaty for the CU.** This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. Following the model of European integration, the CU will be the representative and negotiating body for Haiti and the entire region for all trade and security issues.
2	Marshall Plan for Haiti Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. But what they have is impassioned human capital as opposed to financial capital or valuable minerals. The CU is a total economic reboot for this country, one that involves developing internally and not thru emigration. To reboot Haiti will require a mini-Marshall Plan. The infrastructure, for the most part, is archaic compared to modern societies. The engines of the CU will enable a rapid upgrade of the infra-structure and some “low hanging fruit” for returns on the investment.
3	Leap Frog Philosophy There is no need to move Haiti’s technology infrastructure baseline from the 1960’s, then to the 1970’s, and so on. Rather, the CU’s vision is to move Haiti to where technology is going, not coming from. This includes advanced urban planning concepts like electrified light-rail, prefab house constructions, alternative energies and e-delivery of governmental services and payment systems.
4	Repatriation and Reconciliation of the Haitian Diaspora
5	Access to Capital Markets
6	National Historic Places
7	World Heritage Sites As of 2012, there are 2 World Heritage Sites in Haiti. The CU will promote these sites (both in the same compound) as tourist attractions for the domestic and foreign markets.
8	Labor, Immigration and Movement of People
9	Educational Mandates
10	Language Neutrality of the Union

Now is the time to prepare the Marshall Plan to execute in and for Haiti.

Haiti needs the Caribbean and the Caribbean needs Haiti; the more people we can leverage, the better. This is entry 3-of-5 in this series of commentaries on the Marshall Plan, the historic European one and Caribbean versions. Here, as follows, is the full series being presented this month of May (2019):

Marshall Plan: A Lesson in History
Marshall Plan: Cuba – An imminent need for ‘Free Market’ Emergence
Marshall Plan: Haiti – Past time for Mitigation
Marshall Plan: Funding – What Purse to Fund Our Plans?
Marshall Plan: Is $91 Billion a Redux for Puerto Rico?

In this entry for this series we focus on Haiti, reforming and transforming that homeland. The theme of rebooting Haiti – finally mitigating their Bad Start with a Marshall Plan – has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13974	The Spoken and Unspoken on Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13916	Haiti – Beauty ‘Only a Mother Can Love’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105	Fixing Haiti – Can the Diaspora be the Answer?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12821	Remembering the Slave Trade and Haiti’s Slave Rebellion
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10336	A Lesson in History: Haiti’s 1915 Abuse … again
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8767	A Lesson in History: Haiti’s Slave Rebellion in 1804
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8508	UN troops Abused Mothers and local Babies born in Haiti
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5333	Haiti’s Legacy: Cause and Effect
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3662	Haitian Migrant flow into US spikes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473	Haiti to Receive $70 Million Grant to Expand Caracol Industrial Park

The status quo for the Caribbean is deficient and defective. The status quo for Haiti is deficient and defective. This same assessment requires some of the same solutions. If/when we fix Haiti, we fix the entire region.

Haiti needs this Marshall Plan.

The entire Caribbean needs a Way Forward.

Our Way Forward for the entire Caribbean includes the entire Caribbean, with Haiti too. So we have prepared the region for this full inclusion of Haiti in the political, social, musical, athletic, security and economic fabric of the regional society. This is the Caribbean’s future … and Haiti’s future. This is how we intend to make our homeland, Haiti included, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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: Save the Children … in Haiti

We’ve been working in Haiti since 1985 helping children and families, providing child protection, education, health, food and helping people to earn a living. We also help children and families when disasters strike, like the devastating earthquake in 2010.

When the devastating earthquake struck on 12 January 2010, it created one of the most all-encompassing emergencies we’ve ever responded to.

Haiti’s earthquake killed 230,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless.
We were one of the first agencies to respond, reaching 100,000 people within two weeks.
By the end of 2010, we had helped a total of 870,000 people.

OUR WORK

Haiti was deep in poverty long before the disaster. That’s why we’ve been working there for more than 30 years, in urban and rural communities, making sure that children are protected, and providing education, health and food.

When disasters strike in Haiti, we’re there on the ground using our knowledge of the country and our expertise to help the most vulnerable children and their families.

Source: Save the Children Fund (UK) retrieved May 12, 2019 from: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/south-central-america/haiti

————–

See the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – A New Morning: Building Hope for Haiti – Save the Children – https://youtu.be/luzcJdtKmYw

Save the Children USA
Published on Jul 1, 2010 – July 12, 2010 — Thank you for helping to support Save the Children’s relief efforts in Haiti!

With a 30-year history in Haiti, Save the Children was on the ground when the earthquake hit on January 12, 2010. The organization’s staff immediately responded with emergency relief, including lifesaving distributions of food, shelter and supplies. To date, the organization has been able to reach 682,000 people.

Save the Children foresees a long-term process of intense reconstruction, rehabilitation and investment ahead and is implementing a 5-year response and recovery plan. The organization is focusing its efforts on the areas that have the most impact on the lives and well-being of thousands of children: education, protection, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, livelihoods, food security and the provision of food and nonfood items.

Download Save the Children’s Haiti six month report: http://bit.ly/cuPl9Z

Learn more about Save the Children’s Haiti response: http://bit.ly/bBHMQC

Support Save the Children’s Haiti Earthquake Children in Emergency Fund: http://bit.ly/ahyLMb

Category: Nonprofits & Activism

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