November 2019 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Month: November 2019

Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Ninth & Tenth Amendments

Posted on November 27, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Let’s separate …

… let’s take all the assets-powers-responsibilities and divvy them up between the one party and the other. (Sounds like a Country-Western Break-up song, right? See sample in the Appendix VIDEO below). But, in this case, let’s do this separation, not so that we can go our separate ways, but rather let’s do this separation so that we can come together:

You bring the brawn, I bring the brains … let’s make lots of money
You bring the bread, I bring the meat … let’s make a sandwich
You bring the seafood, I bring the okra … let’s make a gumbo

This is the reality of a confederation or a confederacy. According to the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 63), which serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), this confederation tactic is the best hope to reform-and-transform the failing Caribbean to finally have a hope for prosperity:

A federation, by definition is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-autonomous states or regions united by a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of powers between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the states. For the Caribbean, the branding is a Trade Federation, thereby highlighting the limited scope of the entity’s governance. Its prime directive is to enable the economic engines of the region, and thereafter protect their security interests.

The Caribbean Union Trade Federation will be coextensive with the member-states of the CU. This indicates that the governmental units of the state governments will share the same boundaries of the Trade Federation. Jurisdiction of the two entities will therefore co-exist for the governance of the region. The tactical plan is to specify a separation-of-powers between the entity of the technocratic CU versus the governmental entities of the member-states (and their municipal authorities).

Our best example of a confederacy – and the Separation of Power – in antiquity was the nascent United States of America (1776 – 1789). The best example of confederacy in modern times is the European Union. These entities did exactly what this commentary is advocating:

Separate the assets-powers-responsibilities so that the different parties perform different duties to execute the governing demands of the implied Social Contract … with the consent of the governed.

(Implied Social Contract = citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights).

As related, we publish a series of teaching commentaries every month – as a supplement to the Go Lean book. This month, we are examining the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. The issue of confederation is a valid consideration in this month’s teaching subject on the perceived ‘masterpiece’ of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights – the first 10 Amendments that were proposed-ratified right at the start of the accession of the new Constitutional Republic (1791). In earlier commentaries of this series, we detailed the anti-tyranny provisions and criminal proceedings of the Bill of Rights; now we look at the Separation of Powers provisions, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the US Constitution. These provide the legal premise as follows:

Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other [rights] retained by the people.^[93]

The Ninth Amendment declares that there are additional fundamental rights that exist outside the Constitution. The rights enumerated in the Constitution are not an explicit and exhaustive list of individual rights. It was rarely mentioned in Supreme Court decisions before the second half of the 20th century, when it was cited by several of the justices in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). The Court in that case voided a statute prohibiting use of contraceptives as an infringement of the right of marital privacy.^[116] This right was, in turn, the foundation upon which the Supreme Court built decisions in several landmark cases, including, Roe v. Wade (1973), which overturned a Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which invalidated a Pennsylvania law that required spousal awareness prior to obtaining an abortion.

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.^[93]

The Tenth Amendment reinforces the principles of separation of powers and federalism by providing that powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or the people. The amendment provides no new powers or rights to the states, but rather preserves their authority in all matters not specifically granted to the federal government.^[117]

Congress has sometimes circumvented the Tenth Amendment by invoking the Commerce Clause in Article One^[118] or by threatening to withhold funding for a federal program from non-cooperative States, as in South Dakota v. Dole (1987).
Source: Retrieved November 26, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

The historicity of the US shows that they did not always appreciate the concept of Separation of Powers. Though the Bill of Rights was fully ratified in 1791, these provisions had no bearing on the States, until starting around the 1860’s with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yes, for at least 70 years – and even longer in some cases – the country had a divergent sets of constitutional rights: some at the federal level and totally different ones at the State level. See this point as pronounced here from the same encyclopedic reference as above:

Although Madison’s [- the original author -] proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.^[3]

So there you have it; the masterpiece of a legal framework that was the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights was not so perfect a masterpiece after all. However, the beauty of the US Constitution History is not its start; it’s the journey, and the finish.

This is where and how the Caribbean can forge a better legal legacy – we can make our own masterpiece now at the start of our federal government, and not have to endure the same long train of abuses to get to this destination. We can do better in our Caribbean homeland; this is the quest of the Go Lean movement to reform and transform Caribbean society. The revelation of an ugly history for the Bill of Rights is the purpose of this November 2019 blog series. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for a Separation of Powers provisions. We do not need jurisdictional confusion between federal authorities and those of the member-states; they need to separate, yes, so as to come together for an integrated solution. See how this is presented visually in this photo here – a facsimile of Page 71 of the Go Lean book:

(Click on photo to Enlarge)

In this photo, notice all the “Exclusive = Yes” federal departments. This means, according to the verbiage in the book, as related in 1 example regarding the separated-exclusive Depository Insurance & Regulatory Authority:

The scope and jurisdiction of this Agency is exclusive in the region for Caribbean dollar activity.

This structure is repeated, again and again in the book; of the 51 identified federal agencies, 28 are chartered as exclusive authority or jurisdiction. This is good for regional governance; this means local member-states do NOT have to maintain duplicate agencies to do the same functions that can be technocratically delivered at the federal level. Consider these further examples – again, not the exhaustive list:

Securities Exchange Regulatory Authority	Coast Guard / Naval Authority
Witness Protection (WitSec)	Trade / Anti-Trust Regulatory Commission
Patents, Standards and Copyrights Authority	Postal Services
Communications & Media Authority	Aviation Administration & Promotions
Student Loan Funding	Medical Licenses & Standards

This foregoing information is from 1 page of the Go Lean book, while in fact there are 370 pages of turn-by-turn directions on how to reform and transform the economic, security and governing engines for the Caribbean region and their member-states. This roadmap includes the new community ethos (attitudes and values) that must be adopted; plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deliver the obligations of the Social Contract. In fact, this is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 222, entitled:

10 Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, and thus creates an economic zone of over $800 Billion (c. 2010). The sheer size of this single economy allows for more government efficiencies and effectiveness, as should be expected by citizens of a modern democracy. This expectation is pegged to the implied Social Contract where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. The CU ascension creates another layer of government hierarchy for the region, but the implication is the same: there is a Social Contract of deliverables and responsibilities that the CU must execute, in the sphere of economic empowerment and homeland security.
2	Economics of Colonies … The CU Social Contract calls for a re-boot in which this region will not just consume, but also create/produce.
3	Non-Profitable Endeavors [18th Century] economist Adam Smith, recommended further that governments not impede the wheels of commerce, (laissez-faire), rather concentrate more on endeavors not financially feasible for private enterprises, like early childhood education, standing armies, public safety, etc. … The CU proposes public-domain services that can expand the economics (income/jobs) for the region, such as the prison industrial complex, student loans for tertiary education and licenses for private security/1^st response services.
4	Security of Colonies History has shown that there must be security solutions or “bad actors” will exploit successful economic engines for illicit gains. This was the case with the Pirates of the Caribbean plundering the booty of Spanish treasure-laden ships, and also the Outlaws of the Old West robbing the yields of prospectors from the Gold Rushes (i.e. California, Alaska). The CU assuages regional terroristic threats and prosecutes economic crimes.
5	Infrastructure Roads, bridges, sewer systems, and other infrastructure projects cannot always function as profit centers, many times these endeavors must be invested in for the sake of the greater good, without the rationale of profit. This expectation is economically unrealistic for smaller states, but with the scale of the entire CU, viable solutions can be put in place.
6	Medical / Heath Endeavors
7	Education Optimizations
8	Failed State Indices Movements
9	Technology and Efficiency The CU will foster the art and science of technology deployments. This includes the embrace of advanced project management and lean organizational initiatives (Six Sigma, Agile, PMI, CMM, etc.), resulting in efficient deliveries.
10	Canadian Provincial Governments Model

The reasons for Caribbean Push and Pull are tied to deficiencies in the economic and security engines; think jobs or crime. But governance is important too. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the deployment of optimized administrative systems will help Caribbean governments to govern better … and at a lower cost.

This theme – improving governing mechanics and systems – has been related in many previous Go Lean commentaries. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18524	e-Money Solutions for the Caribbean Dollar – Now One Step Closer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	Learning from Previous Failures for Infrastructure Developments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17500	Continuity of Business: Learning from System Failures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward – For Independence: Territory Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – Federal vs Member-State
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858	A Regional Network – A Mandate for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075	e-Government 3.0 – Systems for Improved Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13999	First Steps – Deputize the CU for Regional Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10771	Logical Addresses – ‘Life or Death’ Consequences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6965	Secrecy, corruption and conflicts of interest pervade state governments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1112	The problem with Bad Governance is not Money; its Bad Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	Better Governance – Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent

Yes, we can be Better Than America; but it is not easy; it involves some heavy-lifting that many times America itself did not want to do. Just think, all the reasonable accommodations they subsequently made to “live and let live”. We take it for granted today, but for previous generations, this was a “tall order”. This is how we can be better … now, by fully embracing the mandate for a pluralistic democracy, now.

Imagine: Civil Rights without a Civil War; Gender Equity without a Battle of the Sexes.

This is how we can do better than America’s Bill of Rights. We can just give people their rights, with no tyranny attached. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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 ccidence 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 VIDEO – Collin Raye – Make Sure You’ve Got It All (1998) – https://youtu.be/SDsOHyMZr5U

Published on Nov 7, 2011 – From the Collin Raye album ‘The Walls Came Down’. Written by Bill Anderson and Steve Wariner. No copyright infringement is intended.

Category: Music
Song: Make Sure You’ve Got It All
Artist: Collin Raye
Album: The Walls Came Down
Licensed to YouTube by: SME (on behalf of Epic/Nashville); Sony ATV Publishing, CMRRA, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., SOLAR Music Rights Management, WAMA, Inc., UMPG Publishing, and 2 Music Rights Societies

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CariCom, History, Model, Power

Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Seventh & Eighth Amendments

Posted on November 26, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

We presented a thesis, that despite the public branding of America being the “Greatest” country, we can do better in a new Caribbean. We presented the argument that the American Bill of Rights may not be the masterpiece as people want to believe:

It’s First Amendment does not allow for mitigation of the Fake News phenomenon;
the Second Amendment does not allow for common sense gun control;
the Fourth & Fifth Amendments allows for so many exclusions that they undermine any quest for justice.

Now we make the assessments on the Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the US Constitution. These provide the legal premise of …

Seventh Amendment – Guarantees jury trials in federal civil cases
Eighth Amendment – Restricts against excessive bail and cruel-and-unusual punishments

Surely, these constitutional provisions allow the United States to be a more Perfect Union? Undeniably, No! In fact, these constitutional mandates have resulted in a more unequaled society. As we examine the actuality of America’s criminal justice system, we concur with the critics and scholars, that the legal deficiencies are acute; see these headlines here:

“Increasingly, bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless to guilt” – VIDEO below.

“War against Poor people” – Criticism of America in previous VIDEO.

These headlines are true because of the painful reality that there are two standards of justice in America:

One for poor people and one for rich people. – See the previous blog-commentaries in Appendix A below.

What is worse: there’s nothing “we” can do about it, as Caribbean people. There is little that American can do about it either. This is the continuation – 5 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This series supports the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As related in a previous submission, the American Bill of Rights was designed to be embedded in the country’s legal foundation in such a way so as to prevent subsequent majorities from violating the rights of minorities. This sounds “good on paper”, but it made it near-impossible to change the Constitution. So when deficiencies emerge just through societal evolution, the country’s criminal justice laws have not kept pace; now there is a blatantly unequal, unjust system of law-and-order.

This introduction allows us to define these subsets of the Bill of Rights, the Seventh and Eighth Amendments of the US Constitution, as follows:

Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.^[93]

The Seventh Amendment guarantees jury trials in federal civil cases that deal with claims of more than twenty dollars. It also prohibits judges from overruling findings of fact by juries in federal civil trials.

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.^[93]

The Eighth Amendment forbids the imposition of excessive bails or fines, though it leaves the term “excessive” open to interpretation.^[112] The most frequently litigated clause of the amendment is the last, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.^[113][114] This clause was only occasionally applied by the Supreme Court prior to the 1970s, generally in cases dealing with means of execution. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), some members of the Court found capital punishment itself in violation of the amendment, arguing that the clause could reflect “evolving standards of decency” as public opinion changed; others found certain practices in capital trials to be unacceptably arbitrary, resulting in a majority decision that effectively halted executions in the United States for several years.^[115] Executions resumed following Gregg v. Georgia (1976), which found capital punishment to be constitutional if the jury was directed by concrete sentencing guidelines.^[115] The Court has also found that some poor prison conditions constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as in Estelle v. Gamble (1976) and Brown v. Plata (2011).^[113]
Source: Retrieved November 26, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

Note: Rich people are able to hire jury consultants to “stack the deck” in their favor to ensure victory. It’s an art and a science! (See more on this subject here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_consulting).

The US currently boast a criminal justice system with Cash Bail that imperils the poor. So when a suspect is accused of a crime and does not have the money for bail, they have to stay in jail until their trial. Since they are detained, this actuality is in fact a “cruel and unusual” punishment; especially when they have been innocent all the while. Many times the offences are small and the amount of time away from their normal routines (jobs and family obligations) disrupt their lives severely. See how this has been depicted in this embedded VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Bail: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/IS5mwymTIJU

LastWeekTonight
Published Jun 7, 2015 – John Oliver explains why America’s bail system is better for the Reality TV industry than it is for the justice system.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online…

Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would: http://Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight

Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: http://Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight

Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: http://www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

Category: Film & Animation

Despite the humorous portrayals, this is no laughing matter. Many lives are ruined because of the injustice of the Cash Bail system. America is punishing poor people for being … poor.

This is not our conclusion alone.

There are advocates that are trying to reform and transform this broken eco-system. Kudos to them. There are also organizations that are trying to help the most vulnerable of the victims of this legal dysfunction. These “Do Gooders” should be recognized, honored, promoted and emulated. See the news story of one such group in Atlanta, Georgia in Appendix B below.

(Click here to read the full article).

We too can do good and do better in our Caribbean homeland; we have no Bill of Rights impeding our need for progress. We have always maintained that we can more easily reform our homeland than to fix American society. We have no excuse not to change and improve our communities.

This is the quest of the Go Lean movement to reform and transform Caribbean society. The revelation of the ugly details of American jurisprudence is the purpose of this November 2019 blog series. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for a roadmap to help poor people in our Caribbean society. While poverty must not be criminalized, we must also not be satisfied to just stop on criminal justice issues; we must make strenuous effort to forge a society where poverty can be mitigated and its “captors liberated”. Our goal is for the Caribbean homeland to be a place where people can prosper where they are planted. If we fail on the prospering side, then people will be inclined to just abandon their homeland. (This is a Push and a Pull issue).

Oops too late!

We already have an atrocious societal abandonment rate – some reports reflect 70 percent of the professional classes have already left from the independent countries. It is even worse still in dependent territories – 50 percent of everyone!

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap posits that economic optimizations must be coupled with security provisions; we cannot have one without the other. This is a Big Idea for the Caribbean to reform and transform its economic and security engines; this requires adopting new community ethos (attitudes and values), plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to empower poor people to elevate their circumstances. In the end, the goal is to find success in the journey to Middle Class. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 222, entitled:

10 Battles in the War on Poverty

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty 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 the European Union, the CU will seek to streamline economic engines so as to increase jobs, standards of living and opportunities – increasing GDP. The CU will work to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play for all socio-economic classes.
2	Minimize Political Bureaucracy
3	Welfare versus “Work-fare” Many economists have argued that the US “War Against Poverty” – Welfare first – policies, actually had a negative impact on the economy because of their interventionist nature. This school of thought is that the best way to fight poverty is not through government spending but through economic growth, thus “Work-fare” is a better solution. In 1996 the US implemented a Welfare-to-Work program that had almost immediate results – welfare and poverty rates both declined during the late-1990s, leading many commentators to declare that the legislation was a success. The CU takes a similar stance: lead with jobs!
4	Entrepreneurial Values
5	Repatriation of Time, Talent and Treasuries
6	Family Planning Third World countries usually have higher birth rates than Developed countries. While not discouraging individual rights, the CU will facilitate better education, women’s health resources and access to prenatal healthcare.
7	Education Goals in Balance
8	Proactive about Healthcare Realities
9	Aging Population The CU will facilitate for the Caribbean Region to be the world’s best address for senior citizens. This will send the invitation to retirees (Caribbean Diaspora and foreign) to welcome their participation and contributions to CU society. The increase in the pool of participants and beneficiaries will extended added benefits to domestic seniors.
10	Raise Retirement Age

Yes, we can do better in the Caribbean homeland. We are hereby determined and committed to battling poverty in the 30 member-states. The Go Lean roadmap presents the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to do “whatever it takes” to lower the Push and Pull factors that cause people to abandon their communities. It is conceivable, believable and achievable to succeed.

Competing with America is not an option; the very continuation of our Caribbean culture depends on our ability to compete better. Lowering Push and Pull factors, at times, involve just messaging the people on the truth of the American experience.

So yes, we can be Better Than America; we can do better than the Bill of Rights (with its concern for tyranny). We can be more just, and more equal in our public safety mechanisms and the dispensation of justice; and do it without allowing tyranny. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – citizens and government leaders alike – to lean-in to this roadmap to 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 ccidence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

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

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

—————–

Appendix A – Observing and Reporting on America’s Criminal Injustice

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement over the years that highlighted the inequality in the American Justice System – clearly “justice is blind, deaf and dumb”, as there is a Great Divide in this country for Black vs White and Rich vs Poor. See a sample list here of those previous submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18421	Introducing Formal Reconciliations: Forging Justice After the Fact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Lessons from the American Sheriffs Eco-System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18100	Cop-on-Black Shootings in America’s DNA/Slavery Legacy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17667	Is the US a ‘Just’ Society? Hardly! – Notice how the Rich is treated
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17267	Lessons learned for Justice: The need for Special Prosecutors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16668	Justice and Economics – Both needed to forge change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14413	Learning from the History of Lynching: ‘Hurt People Hurt People’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14087	Pharma Injustice: Opioids & the FDA – ‘Fox guarding the Henhouse’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13826	Taking from the Poor to Give to the Rich
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13664	High Profile Sexual Harassment Accusers – Hard to get Justice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13081	America’s Race Relations – Spot-on for Protest
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10654	Immigration Realities in the US – Better to Stay Home
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10532	Learning from Good and Bad Stereotypes: Japanese Internments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527	American Defects: Racism – Is It Over?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5238	Prisoners for Profit – Mostly Black-and-Brown Victimized
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8724	US versus Marcus Garvey: An Obvious Case of Racial Injustice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1143	Easy on White Collar Crimes & Health-care Fraud = $272 Billion/year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=546	Book Review: ‘The Divide’ – American Injustice … Age of Wealth Gap

—————–

Appendix B – New Birth bails nonviolent offenders out of jail for fresh start
By: Shelia Poole, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has raised $120,000 to provide bail for first-time, nonviolent offenders in four Georgia counties.

The “Bail Out” program was designed to give men and women a second chance, beginning Easter weekend. [Pastor Jamal] Bryant will share details of the initiative during a press conference at 2 p.m. Saturday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, 6400 Woodrow Rd. in Stonecrest.

He is expected to joined by rapper and actor Clifford “T.I.” Harris, VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop” personality Scrapp DeLeon and representatives from local sheriffs’ offices.

The program targets DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties. It will also help with job readiness.

It began as a $40,000 local challenge within the New Birth congregation and quickly grew to $120,000 and a larger metro movement.

“I looked at what was happening in the prison pipeline and realized that the church voice had been muted on the issue of prison reform,” said Bryant, the megachurch’s senior pastor. “I realized that we needed to be part of what was taking place.”

And what better time, he noted, than during the observance of Easter, when Christians celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ which some churches refer to as “Resurrection Sunday.”
Source: Posted April 19, 2019; retrieved November 26, 2019 from: https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/pastor-jamal-bryant-scrapp-deleon-join-forces-help-nonviolent-offenders-get-new-start/0R1JARRBpUSBhW1nBMe1pN/

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Civil Rights, Justice, Model, Poverty, Power, Transform

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Fifth & Sixth Amendments

Posted on November 25, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

“Plead the Fifth!”

We all know what that means: an arrested person elects to remain silent so as not to incriminate himself.

This is the public perception of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution – the Bill of Rights. This legal premise is quite ingenious – it is the mark of freedom. It would be tyranny for entities of the State to force people to testify … against themselves. The fact of the matter though is that the US is not the only country with these protections; consider this reference:

Whether arising from their constitutions, common law, or statute, many nations recognize a defendant’s right to silence.^[124] Those rights may be considerably more limited than those available to U.S. criminal defendants under the Miranda ruling.^[125]

So many countries allow a suspect to “Plead the Fifth”, without some of the compromises to justice when there is some failure with the perfect delivery of Criminal Proceedings by police officials. How do other countries manage it?

Some better …
Some worse…

There is an opportunity for a new Caribbean administration to do better than the American experience of “Pleading the Fifth” and still not jeopardize justice.

Can we have both?
Can we just have sanctions against the offending police personnel rather than setting a guilty person free … in the interest of justice?

Yes, we can …

It is conceivable, believable and achievable to maintain laws for Criminal Procedures and not compromise the interest of justice. Demanding justice does not mean allowing tyranny; but it is not black-or-white; there are shades of grey. This is why legal systems employ Judges, to make those case-by-case decisions.

This introduction allows us to define the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the US Constitution – subsets of the Bill of Rights, as follows:

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.^[93]

The Fifth Amendment protects against double jeopardy and self-incrimination and guarantees the rights to due process, grand jury screening of criminal indictments, and compensation for the seizure of private property under eminent domain. The amendment was the basis for the court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which established that defendants must be informed of their rights to an attorney and against self-incrimination prior to interrogation by police.^[109]

Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.^[93]

The Sixth Amendment establishes a number of rights of the defendant in a criminal trial:

to a speedyand public trial

to trial by an impartial jury

to be informed of criminal charges

to confront witnesses

to compel witnesses to appear in court

to assistance of counsel^[110]

In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Court ruled that the amendment guaranteed the right to legal representation in all felony prosecutions in both state and federal courts.^[110]
Source: Retrieved November 24, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

As a result of these two Amendments, the wording of the Miranda Warning emerged (after 1963):

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.

See Appendix VIDEO below for a fuller definition. This is why this commentary considers these two amendments in tandem.

As related, Constitutional Law scholars refer to these two amendments as Criminal Proceedings provisions. These are not Rocket Science or Brain Surgery; the cause for justice should not be this complicated.

Planners for a new Caribbean governance must also consider these Criminal Proceedings provisions from the onset (accession) of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). These provisions should be embedded in the initial confederation treaty – and then codified in the subsequent Constitution.

This is the continuation – 4 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We publish this series as a supplement to the 2013 book, to support the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for security and justice optimizations. People are more inclined to abandon their homeland due to public safety deficiencies. This is why we must consider the actuality of the American Criminal Justice system as a competitive assessment. We want to compete better with America.

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap details to prioritize security needs along with economics ones. This is a Big Idea for the Caribbean to reform and transform its societal engines. This requires adopting new community ethos (attitudes and values), plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure our homeland. We can better remediate and mitigate crime in the region as a result. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 178, entitled:

10 Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the member-states. (The GDP of the region will amount to $800 Billion according to 2010 figures). In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security agreement of the Caribbean nations so as to implement provisions to serve and protect the citizenry against systemic threats. The CU’s law enforcement agencies will enforce, investigate and prosecute economic crimes, including Racketeering, and Organized Crime Enterprises (RECO), plus any cross border gang activity. In addition, the CU will also provide funding, grants, training, technical consultancy, and support services for member-states law enforcement, including crime labs.
2	Deploy the Caribbean Police (CariPol) The CU Treaty will compel local police to have accountability and respect for the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Police. CariPol will be modeled after Interpol and the US FBI, with Inspectors for investigations and Marshalls for protection and interdiction. When the local Police call for escalation, CariPol responds. CariPol also “polices” the Police, with audit and compliance oversight for “use of force” reviews and Internal Affairs. The appeal to engage CariPol does not have to come from local police, but rather any constitutional institution (i.e. state governments, courts, or legislative bodies).
3	Regional Security Intelligence Bureau The CU law enforcement apparatus will deploy sophisticated intelligence gathering and analysis systems, processes and personnel. This includes terrestrial and satellite surveillance (CATV, ankle monitoring) systems, eavesdropping, data mining and predictive modeling. Local and regional Police institutions would have access to these findings and results. The CU’s intelligence agency will also monitor police actions for public integrity assurance (corruption threats).
4	Prison Industrial Complex
5	Equip local police with advanced technologies
6	Witness Protection The CU will administer Witness Security (WitSec) for trustees before and after trials. There should be no safety consequences for doing the right thing. But since most of the “homelands” are islands, there is the need to relocate witness to other parts of the region. A regional solution far exceeds any state-wide attempts.
7	Enable the Private Industry of First Responders and Bounty Hunters
8	Hate Crime Qualifiers
9	Youth Crime Awareness and Prevention
10	Death Penalty Reform Change to Lethal Injection – this lowers the objections and vigorous criminal defense strategies. Resulting in more frequent executions; (this is the model of the State of Texas in the US). Death Row must not resemble “life in prison”.

People have left their beloved Caribbean homes – societal abandonment – over the issue of public safety – crime and the proper response. This threat is also cited as a Failed-State indicator. So we must reduce crime … at all cost. This is a mandate of the Go Lean movement, to do “whatever it takes” to lower the Push and Pull factors that cause people to abandon our Caribbean homeland. We want them to “prosper where we are planted” here.

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement over the years that highlighted the approaches to remediate and mitigate crime; see a sample list here; (though the list is exhaustive, it is still only a sample; crime abatement has been a priority focus for more than 5 years of this commentary):

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Lessons Learned from the American Sheriffs Eco-system
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16408	Home Violence leads to Street Violence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14424	Repairing the Breach: Crime – Need, Greed, Justice & Honor
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13476	Future Focused – Policing the Police
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126	The Requirement for Better Security – ‘Must Love Dogs’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12400	Accede the Caribbean Arrest Treaty
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Bullying in Schools
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10959	See Something, Say Something … Do Something
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7490	A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Domestic
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7179	Crime Specialist Urging: ‘Change Leaders in Crime Fight’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6693	Ten Puerto Rico Police Accused of Organized Criminal Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6385	Protecting Tourists from Electronic (ICT) Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5435	China Internet Policing – Lessons/Model for the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5307	8th Violent Crime Warning to Bahamas Tourists – We must improve!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5304	Mitigating the Eventual ‘Abuse of Power’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4863	Crime Surveillance Videos/Photos – Gleaning benefits
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4308	Improving the Crime-fighting Eco-system – Better 911 Systems
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684	Role Model for Justice – The Pinkertons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2259	The Criminalization of American Business – Lessons Learned
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1143	Health-care fraud in America; criminals take $272 billion a year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight

As previously related, the American Bill of Rights was designed to be embedded in the country’s legal foundation in such a way so as to prevent subsequent majorities from violating the rights of minorities. While this is good, it is also near-impossible to change the Constitution. We can do better in our Caribbean homeland than the American destinations. We have always maintained that we can more easily reform our homeland than some foreign country. There is no Bill of Rights for us – we have no excuse not to change and improve!

Yes, we can be Better Than America; we can do better than the Bill of Rights. We can be safer, yet still just; we can ensure justice without allowing tyranny. This is the heavy-lifting that we must commit to. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————

APPENDIX C VIDEO – Due Process of Law: Crash Course Government and Politics #28 – https://youtu.be/UyHWRXAAgmQ

CrashCourse Published Aug 21, 2015 – This week Craig is going to continue our discussion of due process. Technically, we started last week with the 4th Amendment and Search and Seizure, but this week we’re going to look at the 5th and 6th Amendments and how they ensure a fair trial. We’ll talk about some stuff you tend to hear a lot on TV, like your right to an attorney and a jury of your peers and also terms like “double jeopardy” and “pleading the Fifth”. Now, this stuff can get pretty complicated, which is where lawyers come in handy, but it’s important to know your liberties to keep the police and other judicial officers in check.

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

Support is provided by Voqal: http://www.voqal.org

All attributed images are licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…

Category: Education

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – ‘Third & Fourth Amendments’: Justice First

Posted on November 24, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Providing the stewardship for a federal government is hard work, with a lot of heavy-lifting tasks and responsibilities. No short cuts!

So many times, governmental institutions – think security forces – abuse their position/strength and exploit the rights and property of ordinary citizens. Good governance mandates that we be On Guard for such abuses. When strong individuals abuse weaker ones in society, we call it bullying. When governmental institutions do it, we call it:

Tyranny

The subject of tyranny was front-and-center in the debates during the Constitutional Conventions in the 1780’s, at the dawn of the United States of America. Today’s Caribbean stakeholders can benefit greatly from studying this American History and gleaning the wisdom afforded. Most importantly, we can stand on the shoulders of those American Founding Fathers and reach even greater heights. We get to do this exercise now without the flawed orthodoxy of those days: no racial and gender discrimination – notice the reference to Founding Fathers and not Founding Mothers.

This introduction allows us to define the Third and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution – subsets of the Bill of Rights.

Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.^[93]

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.^[93]

Constitutional scholars refer to these two amendments as Anti-Tyranny provisions. Imagine the tyranny of armed soldiers commandeering houses and work places, demanding access to and hospitality on a private citizen’s property. Also imagine the tyranny of security personnel (armed checkpoints or police forces) invading private spaces without probable cause. (See Appendix C VIDEO below for a fuller definition). This is why this commentary considers these two amendments in tandem.

Planners for a new Caribbean governance must consider these Constitutional provisions from the onset (accession) of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is the charter of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to present a roadmap for the introduction of the CU and to spell out the details for the confederation treaty – and subsequent Constitution. The CU/Go Lean roadmap presents these 3 goals:

Optimize of the economic engines;
Establish a security apparatus and justice institutions to serve and protect the people and resultant economic engines;
Improve Caribbean governance with the deployment of this federal authority and streamlining the member-state administrations.

There are so many opportunities for abuse.

The Third Amendment is straightforward and rarely comes under dispute – requiring Supreme Court interpretations. There is an opportunity for the new Caribbean to be better. In contrast, the Caribbean reality can sustain a No Quatering provision.

The Fourth Amendment however has been a constant source of challenges and interpretation expansions. See a legal reference here:

The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, in the American Revolution. Search and seizure (including arrest) must be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer who has sworn by it. The amendment is the basis for the exclusionary rule, which mandates that evidence obtained illegally cannot be introduced into a criminal trial.^[107] The amendment’s interpretation has varied over time; its protections expanded under left-leaning courts such as that headed by Earl Warren and contracted under right-leaning courts such as that of William Rehnquist.^[108]

As for this Fourth Amendment comparison, there is the opportunity to prioritize justice over law-and-order in regards to the “Exclusionary Rules”. Consider the reality of unlawful “search and seizures”, where the evidence is then disqualified. This may lead to miscarriages of justice, where guilty parties continue unabated and innocent victims never get their just relief. Such a system, as is the case in the US, is truly broken, and encourages extra-judicial retaliations, which exacerbates criminal activity in society; think street justice.

We can do better! (See more on the impact of the Fourth Amendment on the modern challenges of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) activities in Appendix D).

We can allow for sanctions and retributions against security forces/justice institutions for procedural violations while still pursuing justice. This approach works in civil proceeding, international peace-keeping and political cases (think impeachment); so there could be some “Solomonic” approach in criminal proceedings – especially when no death penalty is attached. (Ancient Israel King Solomon threatened death to a child in order to ascertain the true identity of the real mother – this proved to be indisputable wisdom).

Other countries have such a system. In fact only the US, and a few other countries, have absolute “Exclusionary Rules”. As is evidenced in Appendices A & B, many other countries try to adapt a case-by-case approach where the probative value of evidence can still be factored in when considering judgment, in the interest of justice. It is obvious that there are no perfect lines between Criminal Proceedings, Exclusionary Rules and Justice. (Life is not black-and-white; there are many shades of grey).

This is the continuation – 3 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Since we publish a series of teaching commentaries every month – as a supplement to the 2013 book – this series examines the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As we analyze the American Bill of Rights and the Third & Fourth Amendments, we realize that tyranny must always be monitored and mitigated in any society concerned with justice. The full catalog of this series is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states. This effort must include the justice institutions. People are more inclined to abandon their homeland if there are no justice assurances; privacy is rarely a determination. This is why we must consider the actuality of American jurisprudence in our competitive assessment. Especially considering modern challenges of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT).

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap details on the security and justice mandates to elevate our society; this includes the community ethos (attitudes and values) that we need to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland. The roadmap stresses that in addition to economic reforms, we must equally reform/transform our security-justice eco-systems. Consider this excerpt on security principles from Page 23:

Book Excerpt: c. Security Principles

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

c-1. Privacy versus Public Protection
The institutions and agencies of the CU must respect the privacy of Caribbean residents in their homes, vehicles and offices. But when a person goes out into the public, there cannot be any expectation of privacy, it is then the community ethos that public protection is paramount to individual privacy rights. Therefore the community will work with law enforcement agencies to identify, warn and report any terroristic threats or suspicious activities.

Imagine a suicide bomber attending Carnival and detonating a bomb and killing hundreds. Far-fetched? Yet incidences like this are not uncommon, not just in failed-states like Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine, but also recently in the UK, Spain and in Boston USA during their annual marathon in April 2013. Would such an event happen in some CU member-state? We hope not. But hope alone cannot be our only defense; we must prepare, plan, monitor and mitigate – we must police our communities. We have a number of population groups that have been cited as high risk: Muslim fundamentalists, Black Nationalists, White Supremacists, and especially narco-terrorists/gang participants. This roadmap therefore posits that intelligence gathering must commence at the outset of this federation, and public protection must “trump” personal privacy.

c-2. Whistleblower Protection
The CU must allow for anonymous reporting of potential threats. If a report (whistleblower) is harassed as a result, the community must come to his/her aid and protection. For starters, the CU will offer toll free numbers and mobile-apps and web-interfaces to allow anonymous reporting of suspicious activities.

“If you see something, say something”.

c-3. Witness Security & Protection
Beyond initial reporting, the CU will allow for Witness Security (WitSec) and Protection so that there will be no bad consequences for doing the right thing. Since most of the “homeland” are islands, there are not a lot of places whistleblowers and eye-witnesses can go to seek refuge. Therefore, all communities in the region must come together to provide a joint solution. This responsibility, WitSec, therefore becomes an exclusive federal (a la “Federation”) deliverable.

c-4. Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
The CU security pact must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The community must accept that young ones will go astray, so Juvenile Justice programs should be centered on the goal to rehabilitate them into good citizens, before it’s too late. So community messaging (life-coaching and school-mentoring programs) must be part of the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.
Source: Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 23

To do better than our American counterpart would mean doing “whatever it takes” to ensure justice in our society. This is among the mandates of the Social Contract, “where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights”.

Remember Edward Snowden? See summary here:

Title: NSA records all phone calls in the Bahamas, according to Snowden
According to the below [a] news article, the US National Security Agency is gathering and analyzing mobile phone calls on Bahamians talking to Bahamians. This article raises so many questions for a Caribbean consideration:

Is this OK with the political/social leaders of the Bahamas?

Is this OK with the people of the Bahamas?

Why is this effort exerted by the US and not the Bahamas?

Could the local obstacle be the costs of the ICT investment?

Is there any value to this intelligence gathering? Have crimes and terroristic attacks been mitigated?

The book Go Lean…Caribbean identifies that intelligence gathering & analysis can be advantageous for the security of the member-states in the Caribbean region. Whatever your politics, you want a measure of peace-and-security in the region. Based on the foregoing article, there is some value to a cross-border, regional intelligence/security apparatus.

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the need and provisions for optimizing justice institutions in the region; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18371	Unequal Justice: Student Loans Could Dictate Justice
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18351	Unequal Justice: Envy and the Seven Deadly Sins
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18337	Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Sheriffs and the need for ‘soft’ Tyrannicide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17267	Way Forward – For Justice: Special Prosecutors
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16668	Justice and Economics – Need to Optimize Bankruptcies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5238	#ManifestJustice Activism – Optimizing Prisoners for Profit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684	Role Model for Justice – The Pinkertons

In the opening submission of this series, it was articulated how the American Bill of Rights was designed to be embedded in the country’s legal foundation in 1791 so that subsequent majorities could not readily violate the rights of minorities. This is a good premise … on paper. But the reality is that the legal foundation is equally hard to reform even if it is discovered to be harmful for the overall society in subsequent years, decades and centuries. Think:

First Amendment protections for Fake News or …
Second Amendment protections for Assault Weapons.

Fixing America is not so easy; many people echo the feeling of “God-damned Bill of Rights“; think of the passions of the young people at the “March For Our Lives” in March 2018.

We can do better here at home in the Caribbean – where the American Bill of Rights do not apply – We have no excuse!

Yes, we can be Better Than America; we can do better than the Bill of Rights. This is a tall order and Big Deal for the stewards of a new Caribbean. But this Big Deal is still conceivable, believable and achievable with a coordinated regional effort – “many hands make a big job, small”. 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 A – Comparative analysis of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy

By: Yue Ma
Policing: An International Journal – ISSN: 1363-951X
Publication Date: 1 September 1999
Abstract
The exclusionary rule remains one of the most controversial doctrines in America’s constitutionalized criminal procedure. Jurists and commentators criticize the American exclusionary rule as a rule unique to American jurisprudence. Though American jurists and commentators’ criticism focuses on the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule, the criticism of the American exclusionary rule with reference to practices in foreign countries serves to create and maintain the misconception that the United States is the only country that has the exclusionary rule. The belief that the exclusionary rule exists only in the United States is far from accurate. This article examines the historical development and the current status of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy. Attentions are especially devoted to analyzing the characteristics of the American exclusionary rule with reference to exclusionary rules in other countries.

Source: Ma, Y. (1999), “Comparative analysis of exclusionary rules in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy”, Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 280-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639519910285053

—————–

Appendix B – The Exclusionary Rule: A Comparative Analysis

Source: Shellie Labell (2014). Leonard Birdsong Legal Blog Site; Published January 28, 2014 retrieved from: http://birdsongslaw.com/2014/01/28/comparative-approach-exclusionary-rule/

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APPENDIX C VIDEO – Search and Seizure: Crash Course Government and Politics #27 – https://youtu.be/_4O1OlGyTuU

CrashCourse
Published Aug 15, 2015 – This week Craig talks about police searches and seizures. Now, the fourth amendment says that you have the right to be protected against “unreasonable searches and seizures” but what exactly does this mean? Well, it’s complicated. The police often need warrants issued with proof of probable cause, but this isn’t always the case – such as when you’re pulled over for a moving violation. We’ll finish up with the limitations of these protections and discuss one group of people in particular that aren’t protected equally – students.

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

Support is provided by Voqal: http://www.voqal.org

All attributed images are licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…

Category: Education

—————–

APPENDIX D VIDEO – Beyond Search & Seizure | Jeffrey Rosen | TEDxPhiladelphia – https://youtu.be/iV4q4nRPyoY

TEDx Talks

Published Feb 9, 2016 – Ubiquitous surveillance is threatening American values of privacy and equal justice in ways the founders of the Constitution never could’ve imagined when they penned the Fourth Amendment that protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. In this spellbinding talk, Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, describes how the use of public surveillance systems, brain scans, DNA collection and consumer profiling calls for new translations of the amendment so that it protects privacies in the 21st century that the Constitution’s framers took for granted in the 18th. Recognizing that ubiquitous surveillance is akin to the general warrants that sparked the American Revolution, we must all demand zones of immunity that protect privacy and equality in the digital age.

Jeffrey Rosen is president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a museum and civic-education headquarters dedicated to non-partisan Constitutional discussion and debate. Well-versed in American freedoms and rights, he is a law professor at George Washington University and a contributing editor to The Atlantic, and has been referred to as “the nation’s most widely read and influential legal commentator.” Among many other works, he is the author of The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America, and co-editor of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Category: Nonprofits & Activism

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Civil Rights, History, Model, Power, Security

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Second Amendment: No Slavery Legacy

Posted on November 23, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

We – the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) – said we were going to break-down the BIG FAT LIE and ascertain the truth of the “masterpiece” of the American Bill of Rights. Here we go:

The “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” with its laissez-fare attitudes towards gun ownership and stockpiling of lethal weapons is not a positive attribute.

It is Bad … for America, and the its role-modeling for the rest of the world.

“Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter”. This was the clear warning from a previous blog-commentary from June 23, 2018:

Title: ‘Time to Go’ – Mandatory Guns: “Say it Ain’t So”
For our American counterparts, this [statement] is apropos: “Live by the Gun; Die by the Gun”.

Consider the recent school shootings and mass shootings, is there any doubt to the fulfillment of these words: America and guns go hand in hand.

Here’s proof! [There is] this town in Georgia [that] tried to mandate that every home own a gun. …

Say it Ain’t So! Is this the life that Caribbean people want? It should not be!

Yet, we are losing so many of our people to this eventuality. Our people leave due to “Push and Pull” reasons. “Push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that moves people to want to get way; and “pull” factors refer to the impressions and perceptions that America is better. Surely a mandatory gun culture is not better!

The purpose of this commentary is to relate two strong points of contention:

We need to dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to the American homeland.

We need to encourage the Caribbean Diaspora to repatriate back to their ancestral homeland.

… Despite all the efforts to change this disposition, America’s consistency with guns continue, even now to the point that some communities want to mandate that every household have a gun. This is not the case in the Caribbean … if only, we can “prosper where planted” there.

Yes, we can!

… underlying the Second Amendment (of the US Constitution) is the white supremacy defect. This ignominious Second Amendment is a product of the previous Slave Culture, as one original motivation in 1791 was to suppress insurrection, allegedly including slave revolts ^[60][61][62]. A previous blog-commentary entitled 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US detailed this rationale:

The “right to bear arms” has a personal application beyond the country’s entitlement to maintain a militia. This “right” has been interpreted in a manner in which any normal “man” can get possession of guns and other armament. This proliferation of guns in society results in the highest rate of gun violence in the world, even an unconscionable rate of school shootings.The Go Lean roadmap purports that this status has also caused discord – a gross abuse and availability of illegal guns – in bordering communities of Mexico, and Caribbean states of the Bahamas, and the DR. This propels our gun-related crime.

The US still has some societal defects – racism and Crony-Capitalism for example – that are so imbrued that they are tied to the country’s DNA. This is why the Go Lean movement posits that it is easier to effect change at home in the Caribbean, than in the foreign country of the US.

The Bill of Rights sounds so altruistic, but when we break it down, we find that it was perpetuating some of darkest motives of the human experience: like Slavery and the African experience in the New World.

The US Constitution made this possible – how else could a small number of slave masters dominate a large population of slaves on a plantation – it permitted it; normalized it and glorified it. Surely any fruit from such a rotten tree must itself be:

Rotten.

Do you still think that US Constitution and/or Bill of Rights is a masterpiece?

This is the continuation – 2 of 6 – of the November 2019 series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Each month, we publish a series of teaching commentaries – as a supplement to the 2013 book. This month, we are examining the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. As we analyze the American Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, we realize that any jurisprudence without a motivation to maintain an evil institution like slavery already stands above the flaws of the US Constitution. The Judeo-Christion origins of the US Constitution belies the teachings of its founder – Jesus Christ – who taught that institutions must be built on solid moral foundations. This was clearly absent in the US historicity. The full catalog of this series is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, we are reminded that we can easily implement common-sense gun-controls and restrict the availability of lethal weapons and our citizens access to them. We can do better than America’s experiences – we do not have the Slavery legacy to protect. We can codify our own Constitutional provisions with better than this faulty language:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.^[93]

To do better than our American counterpart would encompass doing “whatever it takes” to keep our people safe; to monitor and mitigate against any and all perceived threats, foreign or domestic. We need common sense gun regulations. This is the epitome of the Social Contract, “where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights”.

The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of roadmap details on the security and justice mandates to elevate our society; this includes the community ethos (attitudes and values) that we need to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland. Yes, the roadmap details “how” our region’s reboot can reform and transform the societal engines to provide better protections and gun control. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 179, entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Gun Control

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market The [CU] treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the member-states. In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security pact to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will elevate and consolidate the registration, gun-permitting process to regional oversight. The goal is to apply learned-lessons from the US example. For Third World countries, as most of the CU apply, undisciplined gun use affect the Failed-State indicator: Criminalization / De-Legitimization of the State. The CU’s mandate is to manage the image and reality of Failed-States.
2	Background Checks It’s a best practice to restrain certain aspects of the population access to guns (felons, defendants on bail, targets of restraining orders). This includes gun purchasing and ownership. So the CU Gun Registration regulation (within CariPol) will enforce strict background checks for ALL purchases: retail, wholesale and private-party. This regulation will also be post-reactive in the event a CU resident becomes a subject of legal/police action so as to suspend their gun rights.
3	Ballistics Testing The CU will extend gun registration/regulation beyond our American neighbors. To facilitate subsequent investigation of gun crimes, every registered gun must complete ballistic tests and the results must be on (computer) file at CariPol.
4	Mental Illness Data It is a public safety best practice to restrict gun ownership to anyone with documented mental illness. Again, the CU will extend the regulation beyond the American model and include mental health treatments and psychotropic prescriptions.
5	Intelligence Gathering and Big Data Analysis
6	United States (FBI / ATF) Coordination
7	Private Security Bodyguards
8	Private First Responders / Bounty Hunters
9	Gun Buybacks The CU will maintain a constant program for anonymous gun “buybacks”. These endeavors will be funded with CU funds and coordinated with not-for-profit foundations. The acquired guns will all be registered, for serial numbers and ballistic testing results, and then destroyed; unless needed for legal prosecutions.
10	Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the eco-system of common sense gun control and regulations; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15658	Sad: Caribbean Diaspora Tragedy with the American Gun Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14556	Observing the Change … with Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14114	School Shootings ‘R’ Us – 11 in 23 Days
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13213	‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13126	“Must Love Dogs” – Providing K9 Solutions for Better Gun Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12400	Accede the Caribbean Arrest Treaty
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11332	Boston Bombing Anniversary – Learning Lessons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Model: Shots-Fired Monitoring – Securing the Homeland

Many Caribbean people have fled their homeland seeking refuge in the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”; some of them have lost their life as a tragic consequence.

Rest in Peace: Botham Jean
Rest in Peace: Helena Ramsay

This reasoning is why the Go Lean movement have repeatedly urged Caribbean people to Stay Home and/or Return Home. Our motivation is logical, practical and methodical; (also see Appendix VIDEO below as it relates the currency of “Guns and Race” in America still):

We can more effectively effect change here in the homeland, than trying to reform or transform a foreign destination … that was specifically designed for the suppression of Black-and-Brown people.

Yes, we can be Better Than America by building up our Caribbean homeland. It is conceivable, believable and achievable that 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.

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

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

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

Category: Comedy
License: Standard YouTube License

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History, Power, Security

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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – We can do better!

Posted on November 22, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

What makes America better?
Our freedom …
… our Constitution is a masterpiece;
… but other countries have freedom too. – Dialogue from TV Show Newsroom (See Appendix VIDEO below).

Many people still believe that America is the “greatest” because of its Constitution. It is time now to break-down this BIG FAT LIE of a thesis and then ascertain the truth. Remember this assertion:

When I was a boy, heaven was up here – [pointing in a gesture] – and America was here [only a little lower in the gesturing]. – See previous Go Lean blog-commentary with this portrayal.

Is America just a product of good advertising or is there any truth to this “masterpiece” assessment of the Constitution?

Firstly, that “masterpiece” Constitution was ratified in 1789 and then immediately engaged in an Amendment process to add-more and make it better. There was the pronounced need to ensure protection against any emergence of tyranny by the new government. These protections were codified in the First 10 Amendments, better known as the Bill of Rights; this is the feature that valued the new Constitution as a masterpiece.

Let’s examine these closer …

American History presents the case of an overarching need to rebel against the tyranny of imperial power. This was the motivation for the country’s Founding Fathers and the originators of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. That document codified this motivation with these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Why is this American Constitutional History important from a Caribbean perspective?

Today we have to compete with America, but now they are economic tyrants due to their size, strength and wealth; they are “eating our lunch”. We have a critical brain drain problem in which we lose so many of our citizens, who have abandoned their homelands … for American shores. When they do this and naturalize as American citizens, they are required to take an oath and vow to defend this same Constitution; with these sentiments:

… that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;

Let’s keep it real! Those in the Caribbean, where 29-of-the-30 member-states reflect a Majority Black-and-Brown ethnic reality, that 1789 Constitution allowed you to be enslaved and only valued you at 3/5^th the value of a man. So perhaps that Constitution needs to be “taken down a notch” in its glorification. (Note: the 13^th Amendment abolished slavery, but after nearly 100 years later in 1865).

The effort in this commentary is part of the quest to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play, even Better Than America. Therefore, we too need a masterpiece quality in our laws and statues. How do we compare? How should we compare? In addition, with our effort to appoint New Guard for our regional governance, how can we apply the lessons from America’s Constitutional History?

Here’s the encyclopedic reference to those Bill of Rights … that supposedly made the US Constitution such a masterpiece:

Reference: United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution, and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the U.S. Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the English Bill of Rights (1689) and the Magna Carta (1215).^[1]
…
The Supreme Court … concluded … that the founders intended the Bill of Rights to put some rights out of reach from majorities, ensuring that some liberties would endure beyond political majorities.^{[88][89][90][91]}

First Amendment – Freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble/petition

Second Amendment – The right of the people to keep and bear Arms

Third Amendment – Restricting the quartering of soldiers in a private house

Fourth Amendment – Restrictions against unreasonable searches and seizures

Fifth Amendment – Protects against double jeopardy and self-incrimination and guarantees the rights to due process, grand jury screening of criminal indictments, and compensation for the seizure of private property under eminent domain.

Sixth Amendment – Grants the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury in the jurisdiction where the crime have been committed.

Seventh Amendment – Guarantees jury trials in federal civil cases

Eighth Amendment – Restricts against excessive bail and cruel-and-unusual punishments

Ninth Amendment – Reserves the privilege that “other” rights not enumerated in the Constitution are retained by the people

Tenth Amendment – Reinforces that powers not delegated to the Federal Government as being reserved to the States or the people.

Source: Retrieved November 21, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

For the new Caribbean, we want to compete better with America. We do not want “them eating our lunch”; we want to appeal to our people that they can better succeed in their quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness right here at home.

Yes, we can “prosper where we are planted”. However, this quest must be more than just a vision (dream); we must have the legal structure to ensure societal success. We must conceive, believe and achieve!

This is the charter and the roadmap for the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. Every month, we publish a series of teaching commentaries – as a supplement to the 2013 book; for November 2019, we are presenting the thesis that we can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. We are presenting this thesis by analyzing the American Bill of Rights and how our proposed treaty – to confederate a new Caribbean regional administration – is founded on even better principles than theirs. The full catalog of this series is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

In this series, a reference is made to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines of the 30 Caribbean member-states for the Greater Good. We need to ensure that governmental institutions never abuse Human Rights or become tyrannical in their execution of the implied Social Contract (where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights).

When Human Rights are abused, we fail to guarantee “justice for all”, and our people seize upon the opportunity to leave, and then our critical plight of societal abandonment worsens even more. people seek refuge on foreign shores, like America. So the need to optimize our governance and justice institutions is ever-present; and it transcends borders, politics, class, language and race. It is a Human Right for people to feel justified to pursue justice – even heightened as a religious devotion – for themselves and for their children.

This need for justice, free of tyranny, have been elaborated upon in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice – A series on the Tyranny of American Sheriffs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18100	Cop-on-Black Shootings in America’s DNA
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17667	Is the US a ‘Just’ Society? Hardly!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14413	Repairing the Breach: ‘Hurt People Hurt People’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13476	Future Focused – Policing the Police
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on ‘Terrorism’ and Bullying
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5238	Prisoners for Profit – Abuses in the Prison Industrial Complex
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5304	Mitigating the Eventual ‘Abuse of Power’

The First Amendment was also first in importance; it stressed freedom of speech and free flow of knowledge. This freedom was presented as a mitigation to ignorance, orthodoxy and dogma – which many times stemmed from religious practices. The American experience, therefore, called for a Separation of Church and State so as to not elevate one group of religious practitioners over another group. The thinking – derived from the European Enlightenment movement – assessed that religious orthodoxy had a dysfunctional past. The Enlightened strategy was to divest all religions from State Power, therefore de-clawing the fangs that had tyrannized previous societies. During those Bad Old Days, the religious tyranny was so unjust that historians dubbed European civilization as in the Dark Ages. The mitigation from the Enlightened Movements brought a new progression in liberalism.

The First Amendment was designed to continue that progression in American society.

This is also the design for the Go Lean roadmap.

The Caribbean member-states need progress and more liberalism. The imperial forces that tyrannized American society also afflicted the history of the Caribbean but we never rebelled; no revolutionary change; only evolutionary change. There is therefore the need to weed out many of the bad practices of our orthodox society. This quest – battling against orthodoxy – aligns with many previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17915	What Went Wrong – We never had our War
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18421	Introducing Formal Reconciliations to now ‘Refuse to Lose’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16534	European Reckoning – Christianity’s Indictment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13579	Colonialism’s Bloody History Revisited
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11812	State of Caribbean Union: Hope and Change from Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10532	Learning from Stereotypes – Good and Bad
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10216	Waging a Successful War on Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9595	Vision and Values for a ‘New’ Caribbean

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, for better protection of Human Rights. One advocacy provides lessons that we learn by considering history of the US Constitution. See excerpts and headlines from this advocacy from Page 145 entitled:

10 Lessons from the US Constitution

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy initiative: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).
This treaty calls for the unification of the region into a single market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 member-states and 42 million people. The mission of the CU is to provide economic empowerment, homeland security and emergency management (disaster recovery). The CU is a neo-governmental entity, modeled after the European Union (EU). The EU attempted to codify a Constitution, though not ratified by the national legislatures of France and the Netherlands. So the EU Parliament accomplished the same objectives by amending the original treaties with the provisions from the proposed Constitution. The lesson is that the legal protections must be codified in the CU Treaty.

2 Articles of Confederation
The 1789 US Constitution was preceded by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, an agreement among the 13founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid-1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all 13 states was completed in early 1781. Even when not yet ratified, the Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Indian relations. Nevertheless, the weak government created by the Articles became a matter of concern for key Nationalists. On March 4, 1789, the Articles were replaced with the new US Constitution. This new Constitution provided for a much stronger national government with a chief executive (the President), courts, and taxing powers.

3 Amendments – Living Document
The US Constitution can be changed through the amendment process. Constitutional amendments are added to it, altering its effect. Changing the “fundamental law” is a two-part process: amendments are proposed then they must be ratified by the states. The Constitution has been amended 17 additional times (for a total of 27 amendments).

4 Bill of Rights – Immediately Proposed
The first ten amendments, ratified by 3/4 of the states in 1791, are known as the Bill of Rights. These 10 Amendments, limitations to protect the natural rights of liberty/property, were proposed almost immediately after the Constitution was ratified (adopted by the First Congress in August 21, 1789), recognizing an important fact that the public (average man) may have to be gradually conditioned to acknowledge and accept the rights of other people in a progressive society.

5 Values -vs- Verbiage
The US Constitution was written, followed by its amendments, to use broad language – a model for the CU – so that the principles primarily can be applied in statues for everyday laws. This indicates that constitutions should be strategic, depicting the values and vision of a society, while the legislative products (statues) should be tactical and specific.

6 US Court Interpretations ==> Model for CU

7 Ratifying – High Burden

8 Repeal and Secession

9 Slavery!

10 International Treaties

The Caribbean must foster a better society that mitigates the tyranny of religious orthodoxy. We can benefit from the American example of how they weeded out uncanny religious influences; they made a constitutional provision – First Amendment to the United States Constitution – that separated religious influences from federal governance (and later adopted for state governments):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.^[93]

The Go Lean roadmap calls for Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Press and Freedom of Assembly, but we can do better than the American experience:

Freedom of Religion – Despite the 1789 start, America didn’t show respect for the “non-Christian” faiths of its indigenous people until the 1960’s. The Go Lean roadmap calls for respect of all people in all 30 member-states and respect for all of their religious devotions: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and others including Indigenous or Animists.
Freedom of Press – Fake News is a modern pang of distress; the Social Contract must allow for a quest for truth and protection against erroneous information. We can do better!.
Freedom of Assembly – The actuality of Self-Governing Entities may allow for a declaration of Private Property. This would differ from the American standard in that economic interest can be shielded from demanding local governance.

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens – to lean-in to this comprehensive Go Lean roadmap to elevate Caribbean society. Our Caribbean can be even better than America as 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.

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

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

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – The Newsroom – America is not the greatest country in the world anymore…(Restricted language) – https://youtu.be/wTjMqda19wk

Published on Jul 21, 2012 – Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) hits the nail straight on the head in the opening minutes on HBO’s new series ‘The Newsroom’. He is asked by a college student a simple question during a campus debate. ‘What makes America the greatest country in the world?’. Daniels initially goes the politically correct route then at the last minute goes with a honest, bold, straight forward answer that sums up a lot of the world’s problems that so many are afraid to accept because we all want to believe in our system and that it is our system that works. The evidence that is out there today is to the contrary and he discloses such information in his argument. We used to be the world’s best of the best and now we are just pretending. The first step to solving a problem is to admit there is one.

Category: Entertainment
Show: The Newsroom : We Just Decided To

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Missing Out on the ‘Rush’ – Encore

Posted on November 20, 2019 in Ethos, Industries, Strategy

The United States is missing out!

This is the summary of the VIDEO here from the news magazine 60 Minutes, as broadcasted on November 17, 2019 about the missed opportunities in the ‘Rush’ to source Rare Earth elements by deep-sea mining activities. See this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Why the U.S. is missing out on the race to mine trillions of dollars worth of metals from the ocean floor – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-earth-elements-u-s-on-sidelines-in-race-for-metals-sitting-on-ocean-floor-60-minutes-60-minutes-2019-11-17/

Published on November 17, 2019 – Rare earth elements and metals used in cell phones, supercomputers and more are sitting on the ocean floor, ready to be mined by multiple countries. So why is the U.S. on the sidelines?

Used for entertainment [and educational] purposes only. The property and rights for this video/audio go to ©CBS.

Perhaps the US, as the richest Single Market economy in the world can afford to pass up these economic opportunities. Maybe …

For us in the Caribbean, we cannot miss out.

We need all the economic help we can get. This was the strong urging from a previous blog-commentary on Rare Earths from March 23, 2015 and the new “Rush” to source (mine or extract) them.

Why is the US sitting on the sidelines?

The foregoing VIDEO explains that “they refuse to cede any governing authority to” … the International Seabed Authority, a subset of the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Perhaps they have the luxury to maintain this arrogance. We do not! On the contrary, here in the Caribbean, we are doubling-down on the UNCLOS protocols.

Let’s get busy in this new Gold Rush – this was the mandate from the prior blog-commentary. It is only apropos to Encore that submission now. See the commentary here:

—————

Go Lean Commentary – Rare Earths: The new ‘Rush’

There’s “Gold in dem there hills” – Legendary exclamation of the discovery of gold in 1848/49 California – the “Forty-niners”.

Thus started the California Gold Rush. Now there is a new rush … or quest; this time for alternative minerals to be extracted from the earth – all over the planet – that are considered even more valuable than gold: Rare Earth.

This class of minerals was recently depicted in an exposé by the CBS News Magazine 60 Minutes:

Video Title: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/modern-lifes-devices-under-chinas-grip – Modern life’s devices under China’s grip?

From smartphones to cars and defense missiles, modern U.S. life depends on rare earth elements but China dominates the industry. (VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).

The summary of the VIDEO portrays that the United States initially had the lead in this field of Rare Earth extraction and sourcing; but the US de-prioritized this substance, while China transcended it and now exploits the market to near-complete domination.

The urgency of Rare Earth is not so unfamiliar to this commentary. This point was declared emphatically in the book Go Lean … Caribbean in numerous references:

o Ways to Impact Extractions (Page 195) – There is a “rush”/quest to harvest rare earth elements.^[159] These include lanthanide elements (fifteen metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57 through 71, from lanthanum through lutetium) for metals that are ferromagnetic, this means their magnetism only appear at low temperatures. Rare earth magnets are made from these compounds and are ideal in many high-tech products. The CU will foster the regional exploration and extraction of these pricey materials.

o Start-up Benefits from the EEZ (Page 104) – The new Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) powers allows for the administration of mineral extraction (mines) and oil/natural gas. Risk management and disaster mitigation plan must therefore be embedded into every drilling permit/license, as a CU mandate is to protect tourism product – a “bird in hand is better than two in the bush”. In addition, there is the harvest possibility of rare earth elements, like lanthanide and lutetium. Recently (2010), these minerals were priced even higher than gold at $2,200/kg.

o Reference footnote # 159 (Page 361) – The Economist Magazine. “The Difference Engine: More precious than gold”. Posted September 17, 2010; retrieved for the book in September 2013 from: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_metals. This news article stressed this point:

… the recent moves by the Chinese to restrict their exports of rare-earth elements—scandium, yttrium and lanthanum, plus the 14 so-called lanthanides. Today, China supplies 97% of the world’s demand for rare-earth metals, thanks to a far-sighted government policy going back to the 1960s that envisaged the rare earths as “the oil of the twenty-first century”.

The foregoing VIDEO depicts the need for technocratic management of the extraction process for Rare Earths. There is now a great demand for these minerals; but the supply source is rather limited. Yet they are not so rare; they may even be found in the Caribbean region. Thus the need to explore these opportunities. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society. 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 protect the resultant economic engines and the environment.
Improvement of Caribbean governance – including oversight of Self-Governing Entities and the Exclusive Economic Zone – to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to promote and oversee the effort for the exploration and extraction of these minerals, recognizing that modern life needs the efficiency that comes from science. The “brick-and-mortar” of a lot of today’s electronic equipment and computer components depend on the magnetic properties associated with Rare Earth minerals. The progress that the CU envisions in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) will require engagements with the metallurgy of electronics. We need full exploration of the Caribbean homelands and waters for natural sources of these minerals. Plus with “prices higher than gold”, there is the economic incentive to push forth investments in this industry space.

Early in the book, the need is stressed to be on-the-look-out for opportunities to optimize the region’s economic-security-governing engines. These pronouncements are stated in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 & 13):

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

v. Whereas the natural formation of our landmass and coastlines entail a large portion of waterscapes, the reality of management of our interior calls for extended oversight of the waterways between the islands. The internationally accepted 12-mile limits for national borders must be extended by International Tribunals to encompass the areas in between islands. The individual states must maintain their 12-mile borders while the sovereignty of this expanded area, the Exclusive Economic Zone, must be vested in the accedence of this Federation.

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.

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

This commentary previously discussed details of mineral/oil extractions in the Caribbean region. Here is a sample of earlier blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4476	Lessons Learned from Big Salt mining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3743	Caribbean Oil Producer – Trinidad – cuts 2015 budget as oil prices tumble
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3213	Gas Prices Drop Below $2 due to global extraction policy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Recycling Rare Earths materials – Entrepreneurism in Junk

The Go Lean roadmap details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the progress in the wide fields of extractions for mining, materials and drilling administration. The following list applies:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
Anecdote – Pipeline Transport – Strategies, Tactics & Implementations for minerals	Page 43
Strategy – Mission – Regulatory powers mineral/oil exploration and extraction in the EEZ	Page 45
Strategy – Competitive Analysis – Businesses – Emergency Planning –vs- Litigation	Page 52
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy to $800 Billion – Industrial Extractions Driver	Page 68
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Environmental Control & Regulatory Commission	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Extractions (Mining, Materials, Drilling) Administration	Page 83
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Transportation – Turnpike Operations – Pipelines	Page 84
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government Permitting	Page 93
Anecdote – Caribbean Energy Grid Implementation	Page 100
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ	Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Ideal for mines	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Develop Pipeline Industry – For Rare Earth Transport	Page 107
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Monopolies – Environmental concerns, systemic threats	Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Extractions – Mining, Materials, Drilling Optimization	Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry	Page 206
Appendix – North Dakota Extractions – Economic-Societal Effects of a Boom	Page 334

This commentary asserts that the need is undeniable for mineral exploration and extraction. This can help to build-up the economy and command more respect in the world’s industrial landscape. Shepherding the Caribbean economy – for Rare Earths extractions – is the job for technocrats, trained and accomplished from the battles of globalization and trade wars.

Industrial policy is among the heavy-lifting tasks for the lean, agile operations of the CU technocracy. Everyone, the people, businesses and institutions are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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An Ode to JPMorganChase – This is how ‘Change’ happens

Posted on November 19, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

Plan. Do. Review.

We told you change was imminent … for Detroit.

We, the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), published a detailed blog-commentary on May 22, 2014 – 5 plus years ago – on the plans for this one bank, JPMorganChase, who was advocating for a turn-around for the distressed City of Detroit in Michigan (USA). This is an excerpt from that previous submission:

The same as there is profit involved in destruction and construction, there is profit to be made in community redevelopment, within a city or even for a region. …

The City of Detroit is in crisis. In July 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to seek bankruptcy protection. It is currently $19 billion in debt and has an unemployment rate of about 14% – more than double the national average. This is why the study of Detroit is such an ideal model for the Caribbean. We have many communities within the Caribbean’s 30 member-states with similar unemployment, urban blight, brain drain, and acute hopelessness.

… the rebirth of Detroit will be financed, in part, with $100 million of community investment dollars from JPMorganChase. The Go Lean roadmap presents a plan to generate funding to Pay for Change (Page 101). Both the JPMorganChase / Detroit plan and the CU/Go Lean plan extend over a 5 year period. The Detroit plan is branded the “Motor City Makeover”; this branding and messaging is important for soliciting support and participation from the community in general. This parallels to the CU/Go Lean effort to foster the attitudes and motivations to forge change from Caribbean stakeholders. This is defined in the book as a community ethos. One such ethos is turn-around: a collective vision, succeeded by appropriate steps and actions, to reject the status quo and demand change.

How has the “Motor City Makeover” been received in the 5 years since? Has the community responded? Have they supported this advocacy? Has there been return on the investment?

Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes.

See here, this review of the JPMorganChase effort from the news magazine 60 Minutes, as broadcasted on November 10, 2019. See this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – A mega-bank’s data-driven investment in Detroit – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jamie-dimon-jp-morgan-chase-ceo-makes-data-focused-investment-in-detroit-60-minutes-2019-11-10/

Published on November 10, 2019 – JPMorganChase is using data to invest more efficiently, helping entrepreneurs open businesses in parts of the city that most need their services.
Used for entertainment [and educational] purposes only. The property and rights for this video/audio go to ©CBS.

In summary, JPMorganChase invested in Detroit and now has returns on that investment. This is how ‘Change’ happens.

The Go Lean movement also invested (time) in Detroit …

… we too have returns, rewards and reflections from our time of observing-and-reporting from there – which started 5 years ago. Consider the many lessons-learned about turn-around and re-development from these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14825	May Day! May Day! We Need Help With Jobs!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11453	Location Matters, Even in a Virtual World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11386	Building Better Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10140	Lessons Learned: Detroit demolishes thousands of abandoned structures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8669	Detroit makes Community College free
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7789	An Ode to Detroit – Good Luck on Trade!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601	Beware of Vulture Capitalists – Lesson from Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7268	Detroit giving schools their ‘Worst Shot’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7235	Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale on Infrastructure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6965	Secrecy, corruption and ‘conflicts of interest’ pervade state governments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6609	Before and After Photos Showing Detroit’s Riverfront Transformation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269	Education & Economics: Welcome to Detroit, Mr. President
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6022	Caribbean Diaspora in Detroit … Celebrating Heritage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5055	A Lesson from an Empowering Family in Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4913	Ann Arbor: Model for ‘Start-up’ Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4476	De-icing Detroit’s Winter Roads: Impetuous & Short Term
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713	NEXUS: Facilitating Detroit-Windsor Cross-Border Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3326	M-1 Rail: Alternative Motion in the Motor City
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3311	Detroit to exit historic bankruptcy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3164	Michigan Unemployment – Then and Now
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3152	Making a Great Place to Work® – A Detroit Example
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480	A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1656	Blue is the New Green – Managing Michigan’s Water Resources

These past 5 years have been busy for the Go Lean movement. In addition to observing-and-reporting on Detroit, we have also observed-and-reported on JPMorganChase – from the inside; (this writer worked for JPMorganChase and Jaime Dimon on 2 separate occasions). See the lessons-learned from this financial institution from these previous Go Lean commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16836	Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’; Here comes “JPM Coin”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16002	Good Governance: Good Corporate Compliance; JPMC Model
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11184	JPMorganChase spent $10 billion on ‘Fintech’ for 1 year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=970	JP Morgan Chase $100 million Detroit investment not just for Press

This tenure with JPMorganChase now comes to an end; as we repatriate back to our Caribbean homeland. And so we say:

Ode to JPMorganChase; thanks for the lessons-learned.

These lessons-learned may be more than just pedestrian; they may actual change our Caribbean world. Like Detroit, we need to redevelop, turn-around and reboot. The JPMorganChase example above may just be an example of the Corporate Vigilantism that we need to forge change in society.

Corporate Vigilantism?

This has been exhaustingly defined in a previous Go Lean commentary; consider this excerpt:

Corporate Vigilantism – can be effective for forging change. Imagine the pressure: no credit line, mortgage, installment loan, credit card processing, nor check-cashing for the business. This can affect a company’s ability to meet payroll or operate as an ongoing concern. This is called controlling the purse strings.

And what is the bank asking for their continuation of business-as-usual?

Common sense … regulations …

We have been paying more than the usual attention to this banking industry, company (JPMorganChase), City of Detroit and turn-around advocacy. It is past time now to manifest the needed change in our Caribbean society.

This corresponds to the 5-L’s approach that we have previously defined:

Look
Listen
Learn
Lend-a-hand
Lead

Let’s get busy …

The JPMorganChase tenure … is now over! (The same as the Detroit tenure is over; goodbye and good luck to them).

The Go Lean book doubles-down on lessons-learned from the other communities, past and present. The 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. Many of these strategies-tactics-implementations were conceived based on lessons-learned from the other observed stakeholders.

We have looked, listened, learned, lend-a-hand in Detroit and at JPMorganChase; now we are ready to go back to the Caribbean … and lead. This is the approach for us to make our own homeland 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.

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

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

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

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1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy initiative: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This treaty calls for the unification of the region into a single market, thereby expanding to an economy of 30 member-states and 42 million people. The mission of the CU is to provide economic empowerment, homeland security and emergency management (disaster recovery). The CU is a neo-governmental entity, modeled after the European Union (EU). The EU attempted to codify a Constitution, though not ratified by the national legislatures of France and the Netherlands. So the EU Parliament accomplished the same objectives by amending the original treaties with the provisions from the proposed Constitution. The lesson is that the legal protections must be codified in the CU Treaty.
2	Articles of Confederation The 1789 US Constitution was preceded by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, an agreement among the 13founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid-1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. The formal ratification by all 13 states was completed in early 1781. Even when not yet ratified, the Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Indian relations. Nevertheless, the weak government created by the Articles became a matter of concern for key Nationalists. On March 4, 1789, the Articles were replaced with the new US Constitution. This new Constitution provided for a much stronger national government with a chief executive (the President), courts, and taxing powers.
3	Amendments – *Living Document* The US Constitution can be changed through the amendment process. Constitutional amendments are added to it, altering its effect. Changing the “fundamental law” is a two-part process: amendments are proposed then they must be ratified by the states. The Constitution has been amended 17 additional times (for a total of 27 amendments).
4	Bill of Rights – *Immediately Proposed* The first ten amendments, ratified by 3/4 of the states in 1791, are known as the Bill of Rights. These 10 Amendments, limitations to protect the natural rights of liberty/property, were proposed almost immediately after the Constitution was ratified (adopted by the First Congress in August 21, 1789), recognizing an important fact that the public (average man) may have to be gradually conditioned to acknowledge and accept the rights of other people in a progressive society.
5	Values -vs- Verbiage The US Constitution was written, followed by its amendments, to use broad language – a model for the CU – so that the principles primarily can be applied in statues for everyday laws. This indicates that constitutions should be strategic, depicting the values and vision of a society, while the legislative products (statues) should be tactical and specific.
6	US Court Interpretations ==> *Model for CU*
7	Ratifying – High Burden
8	Repeal and Secession
9	Slavery!
10	International Treaties