February 2020 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Month: February 2020

Brain Drain – ‘Live and Let Live’: Introducing Localism

Posted on February 29, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

So Brain Drains … are bad!
Brain Gains … are good.
Nerds, Geeks and Freaks often emerge as high achievers and can propel society forward … or exact revenge.
We can foster high achievement in our children by modeling best-practices in parenting, like Tiger Moms.

That is the summary … of this February 2020 Teaching Series on Brain Drains by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean. This entry, 5-of-5, urges Caribbean people to “live and let live”, positing that we need to retain and attract good people, not judge and condemn them. This concludes the considerations of this Brain Drain series; see the full catalog here:

1. Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
2. Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
3. Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
4. Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
5. Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

“Do what you’ve always done; get what you’ve always got”.

Is this still a ‘bridge too far’ for the Caribbean?
You are not in this photo! You do not have to be, just ‘live and let live‘.

It is now time to do somethings different, so that we can get different results.

As related in a previous entry in this series, there are 2 dynamics associated with why people abandon their homeland: Push and Pull.

“Push” – people leave, to seek refuge elsewhere. Social defects result in narrow-mindedness of attitudes and values towards anyone that looks, talks, thinks or loves differently that those in the community. This includes those identified as LGBT, Disabled, Domestic-abused, Medically-challenged.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life elsewhere; many times people are leaving based on a mirage of “greener pastures”, though the “better prospect” may be elusive … especially for the first generation.

So if you don’t want the Brain Drain, there is something you can do to abate the Push factors:

Live and let live …

Would you want to be responsible for pushing people out? Would you want to be guilty of bullying someone to the extent that they just want to take their leave of your presence and proximity?

Would you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem? (This is not just theoretical; think of the recent Transgender Murder in Puerto Rico; yes, “this is on us”, we are the community that failed “Alexa Negrón Luciano”. See Appendix VIDEO.)

The way to forge change in our society is to promote a spirit of liberalism:

Political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.

What is shocking: We do this already – think of the reality at our “All-Inclusive” Hotel Resorts:

Do you really care what religion a resort guest practices on Sunday while on vacation? How about what he/she eats (vegetarian or carnivorous)? Would it matter who he/she shares the room with?

So we are already doing what is needed to reform and transform our societies; we are simply only liberal when the activities are wrapped around an economic engine, like a hotel resort.

This is the manifestation of localism – do what you want, just “over there” away from me. In the previous entry of this series on Brain Gains, localism was presented as follows:

One strategy that is emerging from the mitigation of Brain Drains , and for enabling Brain Gain, is that of localism.

Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity. – Source: Wikipedia

All-Inclusive Hotel Resorts – with their fenced-in/walled-off boundaries – are iterations of localism and/or Self-Governing Entities. See this manifestation in this news article here, showing how some Caribbean destinations roll out the welcome-mat for same-sex couples, while others have a reputation for homophobia:

Title: Gay and Lesbian Friendly Destinations in the Caribbean
By: Robert Curley

With its fun-in-the-sun destinations, carefree attitude, and myriad couples-oriented resorts, the Caribbean seems an ideal vacation spot for gay and lesbian couples. But not all Caribbean islands are created equal: some (notably the French, Dutch, and U.S. islands) roll out the welcome mat for same-sex couples, while others, like Jamaica, Barbados, and the Cayman Islands, have a reputation for homophobia. With the help of the travel experts at LGBT News, here are our picks for the top Caribbean destinations for gay travelers:

1 of 10 – Saba
The tiny island of Saba is known mostly for its diving, hiking, and other outdoor activities, but is quickly gaining a reputation as a bastion of tolerance in the Caribbean, too. Saba was the first place in the Caribbean where same-sex couples could legally wed, has a significant gay and lesbian population of its own, and several dive operators on the island run special outings for gay and lesbian travelers.

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2 of 10 – St. Barts
With its laissez-faire French culture and a myriad of private villas to choose from, St. Barts is has been called the most gay-friendly island in the Caribbean. This is the place to get lost in the Caribbean for a few days, far from the cruise-ship crowds. By any measure, with its mix of celebrities, yachties, high-end shopping, and vibrant nightlife, St. Barts is fabulous.

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3 of 10 – St. Martin/St. Maarten
Both Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin have long had a gay-friendly reputation, with many private villas for rent and beaches and bars where gay and straight couples peacefully coexist. St. Maarten’s reputation was sullied somewhat by a 2004 incident where a gay couple was assaulted near a popular beach bar, but island tourism officials were quick to apologize, and the island remains near the top of the list for many gay Caribbean travelers. Clothing-optional beaches and resorts on the French side of the island earn bonus points. Same-sex marriage is legal here.

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4 of 10 – Puerto Rico
Gay travelers in Puerto Rico will find the Caribbean’s only real gay nightlife scene: San Juan highlights include the Atlantic Beach Hotel and Bar (set on a gay beach and with a weekly drag show) and clubs like Eros. On both the mainland and the island of Vieques you can find gay-friendly resorts, and gay travelers in Puerto Rico have the benefit of protection by U.S. antidiscrimination laws, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

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5 of 10 – U.S. Virgin Islands
The U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix, in particular, has become a mecca for gay travelers, many of whom wind up at the welcoming Sand Castle on the Beach Resort in Frederiksted. Gay travelers can expect a friendly and tolerant attitude throughout the U.S.V.I., and if public displays of affection are not exactly embraced, the reaction is not likely to be more than a second glance. As with Puerto Rico, U.S. law makes same-sex marriages legal here.

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6 of 10 – Curacao
While some Caribbean island privately welcome gay travelers, Curacao has been the most public in its embrace: “With exceptional gay friendly hotels and attractions, [Curacao] encourages gay and lesbian travelers to visit the island and experience its ‘live and let live’ atmosphere for themselves,” says the Curacao Tourist Board, which has a marketing campaign aimed at gays and lesbians and includes information on gay-friendly hotels and clubs on its website. Same-sex couples can get married here, too!

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7 of 10 – Aruba
Like its Dutch Caribbean neighbors, Curacao and Saba, the oh-so-popular tourist destination of Aruba is one of the gay-friendliest places to travel in the islands. The Bucuti and Tara Beach Resorts are among several hotels and resorts that bill themselves as welcoming to LGBT visitors; the gay-ownedLittle David Guesthouse is another option. District 7 in Oranjestad is the island’s premier gay bar. All in all, this is a destination that celebrates its diversity openly and fully.

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8 of 10 – The Mexican Caribbean
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Cozumel, Tulum, and the Mexican Caribbean coastline (a.k.a. the Riviera Maya) recognizes same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City, and Cancun has been building a reputation as a gay-friendly destination. The city has gay nightclubs downtown and an unofficial gay beach in the Hotel Zone (Playa Delfines), and hosts the annual Cancún International Gay Festival in May and the Cancún Riviera Maya Gay Fall Festival.

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9 of 10 – Cuba
Cuba’s gay community has increasingly stepped out of the closet and into the limelight as the island nation has increased its interaction with the world, Fidel Castro’s daughter, Mariela, heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education and has advocated for LGBT rights. Vedado is Havana’s de facto gay neighborhood, Mi Cayito the unofficial gay beach, and many of the island’s casas particulares (B&Bs) are gay-friendly. Discrimination still lingers, but Cuba has come a long way since the days where gays were imprisoned and officially persecuted.

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10 of 10 – Unfriendly Islands
Ten formerly British West Indies nations still have “buggery” laws on the books and have displayed various levels of intolerance (ranging from mild disdain to outright hostility and criminal prosecution) toward gay and lesbian residents and travelers.

These include Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: Posted June 4, 2019; retrieved February 29, 2020 from: https://www.tripsavvy.com/gay-and-lesbian-friendly-caribbean-destinations-1488131

Notice the trending …

… the Dutch, French and American Caribbean territories are progressive, liberal and inclusive in their official and unofficial accommodations for the LGBT community – they have learned to “live and let live”. (Do you see how that works? No surprise these countries – France, Netherlands, USA – are very prosperous economically and their colonies represent their colonial masters adherence to Human Rights principles).

While All-Inclusive Resorts are mainstays in today’s Caribbean, the Go Lean book presents a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of formal Self-Governing Entities (SGE) under the administration of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap calls for legal and regulatory compliance by the local government to mandate a laissez-faire allowance of SGE’s. Consider this excerpt from the book (Page 80) for a full definition of the concept.

Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department – E2: Self Governing Entities (SGE)
The agencies of the [CU’s] State Department will promote and administer all Self-Governing Entities throughout the region. This refers to foreign military bases, scientific labs and industrial/commercial campuses. SGE campuses are presented as economic engines for the region. They will have to contract with their neighboring communities for utilities and services. Many times, these campuses may only be work-sites, and all human needs are dependent on the neighboring communities.

These facilities will not be subject to the laws of the local states of their address, rather CU, international, foreign sovereignty, or maritime laws will apply. This structure will not usher in some anarchist movement with “wild, wild west” guidelines. Rather, at the time of incorporation, by-laws (or constitutions) must be presented to the [CU’s} State Department for acceptance. In addition, the “due process” to apply changes to by-laws must also be submitted. This ensures that the SGE administration is in an orderly manner and does not undermine the original charter. For ongoing governance, the SGE must submit reporting (including board meeting minutes) to the State Department, quarterly.

The SGE will have controlled access for their boundaries (walls, fences, canals/waterways, etc) and their focus will be limited to the scope of their charter. A medical campus, for example, can conduct experimental therapies only on their designated grounds. Yet SGE’s must engage the neighboring localities for transport, and infrastructural needs. In the event of emergencies, (though the SGE will define proactively the responsible parties that can call 911), the CU institutions will have the right to intrude on the secured grounds to protect life, limb and/or property.

There is a Good Neighbor mandate for SGE’s to co-exist with their neighbors. So the administration of SGE’s will require careful collaboration with other CU departments, municipal authorities, national governments and foreign entities. The State Department therefore serves as 1st point of contact, a liaison office.

All the while, we have been proselytizing about SGE’s; now we see that this strategy can even be successful for mitigating the Brain Drain in the Caribbean. SGE’s can help to furnish the “Live and Let Live” mentality. The movement behind the Go Lean book have always championed this cause – this is a paramount strategy for reforming and transforming Caribbean society. See how SGE’s have been addressed in many previous Go Lean commentaries – consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17686	SGE’s allow Enterprise Zones & Industrial Parks despite Communism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15907	Industrial Reboot: Creating Naval Piers as SGE’s – Many benefits flow
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13677	Learning Lessons from the Economics of ‘South Beach’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13138	Prisons Industry – Can bring economic gains despite negatives
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12146	SGE’s for Shipbuilding – Facilitating ‘Commerce of the Seas’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7822	Cancer: Doing More with SGE Research Parks and Treatment Centers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037	“Training Our Dragons” – SGE’s mitigate the risks of Foreign Investors.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World – Role Model for Self-Governing Entities

Forging change in society is an Art and a Science.

All in all, it is not easy. In fact, the Go Lean roadmap describes the effort to forge change in the Caribbean as heavy-lifting. Alas, the roadmap has also identified “Soft Power” as an opening for the change to take root. A previous blog-commentary relating Soft Power of Amazon recruiting viable cities for their HQ2 identified:

Wow, what an expensive price to pay. People in cities like Atlanta actually have to clean-up their societal engines; they have to try and get along or Amazon will not consider them. Plus, Amazon is only considering 1 city, so if a community double-downs on the effort to forge a pluralistic democracy – fair treatment to all despite diverse backgrounds and lifestyles – and they are not selected by Amazon, then they would have loved their neighbors … for nothing.

How sad! This satirical comment is the height of sarcasm, but true!

So “can’t we all just get along” is no longer a question, it is now a ‘formula for success’. This is what we must do if we want our communities to survive and thrive, rather than suffer from one “societal abandonment” episode after another – Brain Drains. Even if you – the Public – cannot stomach the idea of people being different, just let them be in their own little corner or campus, in some SGE.

If this is still too much to ask, for any stakeholders in society, then the goal must be to disqualify that person, group, organization or institution. They must be named, blamed and shamed! We must abandon the bad orthodoxies of the past if we want to have a future; “Ghost Towns” do happen and we’d be on the way to such a disposition.

There is no guarantee for the survival of Caribbean communities. If we want to have a future, any future, we must reboot and turn-around. Yes, we can … it is only at the precipice that people change. See this poetic reference here from a previous blog-commentary:

“Well that’s where we are. You say we’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don’t take it from us. We are close to an answer”.

We are there now!

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to reboot the societal engines of the region. Everyone is involved. We must all live and let live. This is how we 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Appendix VIDEO – For transgender women, going to the bathroom can turn traumatic or even deadly – https://youtu.be/PFaf2A7wUCo

Bianca Graulau
Posted Feb 27, 2020 – When she used the men’s bathroom, she was sexually harassed. When she used the women’s bathroom, she was humiliated by a female customer, and then fired. Kristy Ramirez’s story is all too relevant after a transgender woman was killed in Puerto Rico hours after being seen in the women’s bathroom.

Bianca’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/biancagraulau/

Video credit: https://www.facebook.com/nandy.torres…

Category: News & Politics

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Civil Rights, Diaspora, Model, SGE, Tourism

Brain Drain – Tiger Moms – Is that so bad?

Posted on February 28, 2020 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Have you heard of retirement panning – pensions, Social Security, National Insurance, etc.?

Of course you have; but did you know that all of these concepts are new concepts – emerging for everyday acceptance only in the 20^th century.

What did people do before?

Two things: Savings and Children.

Most ironic, before the Second World War (1939 – 1945) the middle class was very sparse; there was mostly only rich or poor. So for the majority: the retirement plan was their children.

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. – The Bible Proverbs 22:6 NKJV

In modern times, and in the advanced democracies, people are facilitating their old age with the Art and Science of retirement planning. But for some ancient cultures, they still adhere to the ethos of “training children” for future success. This is the case for the Chinese Diaspora in America. They have the practice of strict upbringing and regimented discipline to the point of …

Tiger Moms …

Tiger parenting is strict or demanding parenting. Tiger parents push and pressure their children to attaining high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extracurricular activities such as music, using authoritarian parenting methods.^[1] The term “tiger mother” (or “tiger mom”) was coined by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua in her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.^[2] A largely Chinese-American concept, the term draws parallels to strict parenting styles typically enforced throughout households in East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} – Wikipedia

This is not a commentary on reforming or transforming Asian cultures. No, our focus is limited to the Caribbean only. But we can learn best-practices from studying this tradition. We want our children to achieve; we want them to be “all they can be”.

As related in a previous blog-commentary in this series, the song “The Greatest Love” (see Appendix VIDEO below), cast a light on an important directive that stewards of society should work towards – in fact, this should be a Community Ethos (spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices).

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way”.

If Caribbean parents can push and guide their children to be high achievers, would that be so bad?

If Caribbean children advanced to high achievement status, does that mean that they have to leave the Caribbean? No! Not any more…

This is the assertion of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, a roadmap for elevating the societal engines (economics, security and governance) in the region to make the 30 member-states better places to live, work and play. Now there is the opportunity to foster genius children and engage them for the betterment of our society. The opportunities will be here.

No more “fattening frogs for snake” – a Jamaican expression relating the actuality of the Brain Drain.

Speaking of the Brain Drain. This is the continuation of this February 2020 Teaching Series; this is entry 4-of-5 from the Go Lean movement. This entry asserts that we can defy the previous trend of losing our best and brightest to foreign destinations. The Go Lean book presents 144 different missions (strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies) for elevating the Caribbean homeland. Other entries in this Brain Drain series includes the following:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

As for the references to Tiger Mom’s or Tiger Parenting, it is advisable to fully consider (study) the context in that aforementioned 2011 book. See details here:

Book Review: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Paperback (2011)
By: Amy Chua
Summary
An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother’s exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards—and the costs—of raising her children the Chinese way.

“This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” —Amy Chua

All decent parents want to do what’s best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, her way—the Chinese way—and the remarkable results her choice inspires.

Here are some things Amy Chua would never allow her daughters to do:

have a playdate

be in a school play

complain about not being in a school play

not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama

play any instrument other than the piano or violin

not play the piano or violin

The truth is Lulu and Sophia would never have had time for a playdate. They were too busy practicing their instruments (two to three hours a day and double sessions on the weekend) and perfecting their Mandarin.

Of course no one is perfect, including Chua herself. Witness this scene:
“According to Sophia, here are three things I actually said to her at the piano as I supervised her practicing:

Oh my God, you’re just getting worse and worse.

I’m going to count to three, then I want musicality.

If the next time’s not PERFECT, I’m going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!”

But Chua demands as much of herself as she does of her daughters. And in her sacrifices—the exacting attention spent studying her daughters’ performances, the office hours lost shuttling the girls to lessons—the depth of her love for her children becomes clear. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is an eye-opening exploration of the differences in Eastern and Western parenting—and the lessons parents and children everywhere teach one another.

Source: Retrieved February 28, 2020 from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9160695-battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-mother

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Reviews:
“[E]ntertaining, bracingly honest and, yes, thought-provoking.”—The New York Times Book Review

At once provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ignited a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting. Amy Chua argues that Western parenting tries to respect and nurture children’s individuality, while Chinese parents typically believe that arming children with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence prepares them best for the future. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, the Chinese way – and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her choice inspires. Achingly honest and profoundly challenging, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is one of the most talked-about books of our times.

“Few have the guts to parent in public. Amy [Chua]’s memoir is brutally honest, and her willingness to share her struggles is a gift. Whether or not you agree with her priorities and approach, she should be applauded for raising these issues with a thoughtful, humorous and authentic voice.” —Time Magazine

“[A] riveting read… Chua’s story is far more complicated and interesting than what you’ve heard to date — and well worth picking up… I guarantee that if you read the book, there’ll undoubtedly be places where you’ll cringe in recognition, and others where you’ll tear up in empathy.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother hit the parenting hot button, but also a lot more, including people’s complicated feelings about ambition, intellectualism, high culture, the Ivy League, strong women and America’s standing in a world where China is ascendant. Chua’s conviction that hard work leads to inner confidence is a resonant one.”—Chicago Tribune

“Readers will alternately gasp at and empathize with Chua’s struggles and aspirations, all the while enjoying her writing, which, like her kid-rearing philosophy, is brisk, lively and no-holds-barred. This memoir raises intriguing, sometimes uncomfortable questions about love, pride, ambition, achievement and self-worth that will resonate among success-obsessed parents… Readers of all stripes will respond to [Battle Hymn of the] Tiger Mother.”—The Washington Post

Source: Posted December 27, 2011; retrieved February 28, 2020 from: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/0143120581/ref=asc_df_0143120581/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312069234664&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1067927149205499757&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026411&hvtargid=pla-436599159541&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316181119&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312069234664&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1067927149205499757&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026411&hvtargid=pla-436599159541
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VIDEO – Kids of ‘Tiger Mom’ speak out (from Harvard and Yale), 5 years later – https://www.nbcnews.com/video/kids-of-tiger-mom-speak-out-from-harvard-and-yale-5-years-later-611455555505

Posted Jan. 29, 2016 – She was one of the most controversial figures of 2011: Mother of two, Amy Chua, better known as “Tiger Mom” after she authored the book “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” and ignited a firestorm with her strict parenting methods. Five years later, her children are speaking out from Yale Law School and Harvard and say they plan to raise their kids the same way, TODAY’s Tamron Hall reports.

Of course, the reference to Tiger Mom (Mother) is a metonym for parent, guardian, grandparents, teachers (Music teachers), coaches, youth pastors or anyone else who takes the lead for guiding youngsters “in the way they should go”. This is one way we “teach them well to let them lead the way”. This is true even if it’s just “teaching some of them”, not all. (Also, consider the follow-up book in the Appendix below).

This is not the first time we have addressed the subject of teaching and tutelage for young people. In fact, any focus of guiding young people is actually a focus on the future. Of those 144 advocacies presented in the Go Lean book, one of them was specifically addressing the future. That advocacy is found on Page 26 of the book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines, under the title:

10 Ways to Impact the Future

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** This will allow for the unification of the region into a single market economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (based on 2010 figures), thereby creating the world’s 29th largest economy. The CU will then forge multiple Agencies to foster technology growth and garner benefits from the economic “Catch-Up” principle. This should double the GDP after 5 years and help create the structures for the meaningful future that past visionaries had foreseen.
2	Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is The 3-word phase “Return On Investment” imply investing time, talents and treasuries to a cause, though the rewards may not be immediate. History has shown (i.e. US during WW II) that people will postpone immediate gratification and endure hard sacrifices – if they must — so long as they are convinced the future can be better than the past. This is the ethos for communities that invest R&D dollars. This is the ethos that the CU must adapt in order to impact the future.
3	Cannot Only Consume, We Must Produce As Well
4	Learn Lessons of Oversight
5	Count on the Greedy to be Greedy
6	Need People Too – Not All About Money, or is it? The quality of life for the citizenry is very important, otherwise, people leave, and take their time, talents and treasuries elsewhere. Family, cultural pride is more important than economics, and yet when the economics are bad, people leave. This is evident by the large Caribbean Diaspora in foreign lands – where they re-assembled their culture and civic pride.
7	Include Everyone in the Plan
8	Grow from the Middle
9	Add Priority to Energy as a basic need – like Food, Clothing, Shelter
10	*If Not Now, Then* …**

The purpose of this commentary is not the ideology of Future Planning, rather it is about the Brain Gain. The current Brain Drain rate for the Caribbean has been reported to average 70 percent – that is 70 percent of all college-educated citizens have fled the region and now live in the Diaspora. We cannot have the same future that we have had in the past.

We must do better. Brain Drains should only be the reality of our past, not our future.

We now have a plan … we don’t even have to engage everyone in order to change society, just some people, some high-achievers that excel in their fields of endeavors. Tiger Moms are hereby needed to teach-guide-foster these achievers.

Consider the many previous blog-commentaries that the Go Lean movement have published related to Future Planning and fostering the development of our youth. See this sample list here-now:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17992	What Went Wrong? Losing the Best; Nation-building with the Rest
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13472	Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13466	Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12645	Back to the Future: Textbooks or Tablets in School?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11520	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Lower Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10351	Culture and Ethos are More Important than Strategy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9550	10 Things We Want from Chinese and 10 Things We Do Not Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269	Education & Economics – Need Top Level Attention
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5964	Lesson from Movie ‘Tomorrowland’: We only need ‘Some People’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5423	Extracurricular Music Programs Boost Students
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1634	Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1288	Future Bahamian Astronaut – Not so improbable

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way” …

… this is more than just the lyrics of a song – though music education seems to be a catalysts for achievement among young people – this is a recipe for reforming and transforming the Caribbean future. For many older Caribbean people, it may be too late to forge new values or attitudes (ethos), we may be limited to the next generations. So we need Tiger Moms and Dads … and teachers … and coaches, etc..

This is the heavy-lifting we must do to make our homeland a better place to live, work, learn 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.

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

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

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

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

————-

Appendix – Follow-up Book: Beyond the Tiger Mom: East-West Parenting for the Global Age (2016)
By: Maya Thiagarajan
How do Asian parents prime their children for success from a young age by encouraging them to achieve academic excellence? Why do Asian kids do so well in math and science? What is the difference between an Asian upbringing and a Western one?

These are just a few of the fascinating questions posed and discussed in Beyond the Tiger Mom, a captivating new book by educator, author, and mother, Maya Thiagarajan. In this research-backed guide, she examines each of the “tiger mother” stereotypes and goes beneath the surface to discover what happens in Asian parenting households. How do Asian parents think about childhood, family, and education and what can Western parents learn from them? And what benefits does a traditional Western upbringing have that Asian parents, too, may want to consider?

Some of the takeaways from this parenting book include:
The best of Asian parenting practices — such as how to teach children math, or raise tech-healthy kids
Teaching your child to broaden his or her attention span
Finding the right balance between work and play, while including family time
Helping your child see failure as a learning experience
And many, many more insights
Each chapter offers interviews with hundreds of Asian parents and kids and ends with a “How To” section of specific tips for Asian and Western parents both to aid childhood education and development inside and outside the classroom. Woven into this narrative are her reflections on teaching and parenting in locations that span the East and West.

In this book, Thiagarajan synthesizes an extensive body of research on child education and Asian parenting both to provide accessible and practical guidelines for parents.

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25986958-beyond-the-tiger-mom

———–

Appendix B VIDEO – The Greatest Love Of All (lyrics) – Whitney Houston, A Tribute – https://youtu.be/hRX4ip6PVoo

TheMusic1022

Published on Feb 15, 2012

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 — February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her awards include two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards in her lifetime. Houston was also one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. … RIP Whitney, you and your wonderful music will always be in our hearts.

Category: Entertainment
License: Standard YouTube License

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Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge

Posted on February 27, 2020 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Let’s talk about ostracism …

the act of being ostracized
noun:
exclusion, by general consent, from social acceptance, privileges, friendship, etc.

It’s no fun!

… especially for the recipient.

So many times, the victims face extreme resentful and uneasiness, hatred even …

The annals of American society is littered with tragedies of those who have been bullied or ostracized and have responded with violence, gun violence, school shooting, mass shootings, etc.

Just yesterday, a 51-year old gunman walked into his job in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; he killed 5 co-workers and then turn the gun on himself. – New York Times 🙁

Be afraid; be very afraid of the dire consequence of ostracism. But not all cases of ostracism is life-or-death, many times, it is just resentment and alienation – think Middle School clichés.

There is a social group that tends to be victimized the worst, at that level: Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”.

So many times, the people that are the most accomplished academically, are characterized more as Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”. Yet, these are the ones best suited for accomplishment and excellence.

The stone the builder rejected has become the cornerstone. – The Bible Matthew 21:42

Many times, the Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks” are anxious to grow-up and “go out” from their homeland, just as a payback for the years of ostracism and bullying – the ultimate “Revenge of the Nerds”. This scenario exacerbates the Brain Drain in the area. This is true, despite any yearning to family, homeland or culture – these ones just want to go. Once they leave, “Pandora’s Box” is opened and the repercussions and consequences are dire: things get worse, before it gets worst.

This disposition is 100% Push. (Considering the Brain Drain’s Push-Pull dynamics; where Push refers to the search for refuge and Pull refers to the lure of a different location). The actuality of this bad happenstance violates the mandate of this song:

I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way. – Song: The Greatest Love – https://youtu.be/hRX4ip6PVoo

We have had 60 years of futility with our best-and-brightest leaving us, abandoning the Caribbean homeland. The “jury is in”:

This is bad; bad for the people and bad for the homeland. Our best-and-brightest can easily assimilate to another culture – in a foreign land – but the resultant effect of our Brain Drain is less skilled workers; less entrepreneurs; less law-abiding citizens; less capable public servants. We would lose our best and leave the communities with the rest; thusly creating even more of a crisis.

Let’s do better … we already have to contend with the “Pull” – there is little we can do, outside of truth in messaging to convey that life for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown in the Diaspora is actually limited to “Less Than”. We do not need to further exacerbate our “Pull” imperilment with additional “Push” factors.

We must do the heavy-lifting to retain our people; we must protect the vulnerable, the weak and the innocent. We must be On Guard against bullying and other juvenile persecutions.

This was the quest of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). It is designed to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. It focuses on the needs of all the 42 million people in the homeland, working to dissuade additional emigration. It identified the additional mitigation we have to implement to abate the Push of bullying. Consider these excerpts:

Page 24 – Security Principles – 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.

Page 27 – 10 Ways to Foster Genius
Anti-Bullying Campaign – “Revenge of the Nerds”
As is usually the case with young children, genius abilities usually stand-out from peer groups and can therefore render one child to ridicule from others. At times, this behavior leads to extreme bullying. The series of movies “Revenge of the Nerds” have become classic in depicting the adolescent struggles of this reality; (some researchers credit the first movie – 1984 – for a drop in US girls pursuing technical careers) ^[18]. The CU classifies “bullying” as domestic terrorism; while no adult-style interdiction is intended, the community ethos of “saying NO to bullies”, goes far in fostering future innovators.

Page 36 – 10 Ways to Promote Happiness
Youth Programs
Youth suicides are not uncommon as societies increase up the economic ladder. Measures to monitor and mitigate for bullying and teen distress will allow the CU to “leave no child behind”. While no suicide is pleasant, the despair that results from a teen suicide wounds a community deeply, not only the immediate family, but also the extended family, school officials and other stakeholders.

Page 179 – 10 Ways to Improve Gun Control
Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign
The CU will implement a program similar to DARE (Drug-Alcohol-Resistance-Endeavors) in the US for drug, gang, violence anti-crime programs. The goal will be to minimize any lure young ones may see for dysfunctional gun behavior. Plus, Anti-Bullying campaigns will also be constant via media, internet, and life-coaching, school-mentoring programs.

Page 181 – 10 Ways to Mitigate Terrorism
Consider Bullying as Junior Terrorism
The CU wants to “leave no child behind”. So bullying will be managed under a domestic terrorism and Juvenile Justice jurisdiction. The CU will conduct media campaigns for anti-bullying, life-coaching, and school-mentoring programs. The problem with teen distress is that violence can ensue from bullying perpetrators or in response to bullying.

Page 220 – 10 Ways to Protect Human Rights
LGBT Toleration
It is no longer acceptable to deny natural rights or human rights to those with alternate sexual orientation. In fact, qualifications for current EU grants depend on compliance of this requirement, (not granting rights for same-sex marriage), allowing this class to live free of discrimination, hazing, bullying and abuse. These rules are codified under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This provides a right to respect for one’s “private and family life, his home and his correspondence”. The CU federal oversight is mandatory as these clauses clash with pro-Christian values.

Despite the emphasis here on Bullying, this is actually a commentary on the Brain Drain. This is the continuation, entry 3-of-5, of this February Teaching Series from the Go Lean movement; this entry asserts that we cannot afford to lose our Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”. These ones usually become the most accomplished from among their cohort (class or peer group). We “need all hands on deck”. Other Brain Drain considerations are presented in this series; see the full catalog here:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

There has been a number of references here to the title “Revenge of the Nerds”. This was a literary work and film production with a valid “moral of the story”. Truly, this is “Life Imitating Art” and “Art Imitating Life” …

Do you remember the 1984 Comedy movie? See the Trailer here:

VIDEO – Revenge of The Nerds | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX – https://youtu.be/kIZH5TKnEeg

20th Century Studios
Posted January 8, 2015 – In this hilarious satire on college life, a group of misfits led by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards decides to start their own fraternity after being rejected by every house on campus. Chaos results, with a brains vs. brawn battle, as the football team jocks try to run the nerds off campus. But as the nerds carefully engineer their revenge, it begins to appear as if their day is at hand.

Own it on DVD: http://fox.co/RevengeOfTheNerds

SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/FOXSubscribe

About 20th Century FOX: Official YouTube Channel for 20th Century Fox Movies. Home of Avatar, Aliens, X-Men, Die Hard, Deadpool, Ice Age, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Rio, Peanuts, Maze Runner, Planet of the Apes, Wolverine and many more.

Connect with 20th Century FOX Online: Visit the 20th Century FOX WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/FOXMovie Like 20th Century FOX on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/FOXFacebook Follow 20th Century FOX on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/TwitterFOX Revenge of The Nerds | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxMovies

Category: Film & Animation

Can you think of some famous or infamous Nerds who have gone on to success, whose very emergence has been a penultimate Revenge of the Nerds?

Think Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame …

Think Bill Gates of Microsoft fame …

Think Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame …

All of these “Original Nerds” have impacted society in shocking and disruptive ways (industries retreated, standards shifted, future projections altered and transformations forged). They have “gotten their revenge and have had the last laugh”. Consider this sample list of previous blog-commentaries highlighting these characters:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15875	Bezos: Amazon – ‘What I want to be when I grow up’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14316	Bezos: Forging Change: Soft Power – Clean-up or ‘Adios Amazon’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14224	Zuckerberg: Youth are only consuming media digitally, Duh!!!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13627	Bezos: Amazon Conquered the World in 20 Years
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291	Bezos: Big Tech’s Amazon – The Retailers’ Enemy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10869	Gates: Advocacy to ‘Tax the Robots’ to offset the Emergence of A.I.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8243	Zuckerberg: Philanthropy project makes First Investment: Newark
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6422	Gates: Microsoft Pledges $75 million for Kids in Computer Science
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1763	Gates: The World as 100 People – Showing the Gaps
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1404	Zuckerberg: Facebook goes down, the world stands still
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528	Zuckerberg: Facebook plans to provide mobile payment services

In addition, the Go Lean movement have frequently messaged on the perils of bullying and the resultant threat to the Brain Drain. Consider these previous Go Lean commentaries that have been published over the years – presented here in reverse chronological order:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18337	Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	Reforming LGBT Policies – “Can’t we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16408	Mitigating Home Violence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15998	Protecting the Vulnerable: The Kind of Society We Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14482	Protecting Rural Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13664	High Profile Sexual Harassment Accusers – Finally Believed?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Bullying in Schools
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11048	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Model of Hammurabi

“Can’t we all just get along” – Rodney King, 1993

These must be more than just idle words; these must be the public safety mandate of society. This is reflected in the implied Social Contract that establishes modern society:

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

Once we fail in this delivery, the consequence is societal abandonment – the Brain Drain.

Let’s do better!

Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to the empowerment here-in the Go Lean roadmap. This is how we can mitigate the Brain Drain …and 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.

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

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

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

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

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Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!

Posted on February 26, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Wait, what?!
Rather than the subtraction of a “drain”, there is a way to get the addition of a “gain”?
Then bring it on!

This is the change that is being promoted, projected and proposed for Caribbean people and Caribbean communities:

Yes, we can have a Brain Gain.

This simply means we have to do the heavy-lifting to retain our people and invite others to come join us. What a challenge?!

Challenge accepted!

This was the quest of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, it presented a roadmap for elevating the economic, security and governing engines of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. It focuses on the 42 million people in the homeland and the 20 million (plus or minus) in the Diaspora. Perhaps some of that Brain Gain will be those of the Diaspora repatriating, or just simply some empowering immigrants from foreign abodes.

“Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come” – Ancient Chinese proverb.

This is the continuation, entry 2-of-5, of this February Teaching Series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. The topic this month is on Brain Drains; we present the full width-and-breadth of the subject. Other Brain Drain considerations are presented in this series; see the full catalog here:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

As related in the first entry in this series, even advanced democracy countries, like the United States, have challenges with Brain Drains. As related in the AUDIO-PODCAST below, 60 percent of the US population live in urban-suburban areas, as more and more people abandon the rural areas and seek refuge near cities.

Why do they leave? For the same reasons the Caribbean suffers from such an atrocious Brain Drain rate:

“Push” – people leave, to seek refuge elsewhere. Social defects result in narrow-mindedness of attitudes and values towards anyone that looks, talks, thinks or loves differently that those in the community. This includes those identified as LGBT, Disabled, Domestic-abused, Medically-challenged.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life elsewhere; many times people are leaving based on a mirage of “greener pastures”, though the “better prospect” may be elusive … especially for the first generation.

While there are more jobs in the Big Cities, the American pastoral lands – fly-over country – have always featured great agricultural opportunities – a popular expression of entrepreneurship. But this is not just an issue of economics. Those who live in the rural areas and small town have always had the privilege of ignoring the locks on their doors – so there is less of a security threat (crime and organized gangs).

So what’s the Push dynamics that threaten the viability of rural citizens, especially young ones:

The cultural differences between Urban Progressives and Rural Conservatives is stark and must be reconciled.

This fact was related in the aforementioned AUDIO-PODCAST; let’s consider that now and see how some rural areas have found success in attracting empowering New Comers:

AUDIO-VIDEO – Reversing the ‘Brain Drain’ in Rural America? – https://the1a.org/segments/2019-10-09-migrating-to-the-midwest/

Posted October 9, 2019 – Rural America has never been only one place, one type of person or one type of job. And new data points to the growing complexity and diversity of those parts of the country. Author and podcast host Sarah Smarsh wrote in The New York Times recently about so-called “brain gain” instead of “brain drain.”

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported a prairie trend of young people, drawn by family ties and affordable entrepreneurship, returning to rural and small-town homes around college graduation. They’re opening restaurants or starting small, unconventional farming operations. One college senior founded a direct-to-consumer beef company in Otoe County, Neb., and sold $52,000 worth of meat in the past nine months.

This return — or refusal to leave — is good news for Americans who will happily remain in cities. The future of rural is intertwined with suburban and urban outcomes by way of food production, natural resources, the economy, political movements and beyond.

What makes for success in some spots? And what’s driving people away from others?

We expand on our previous conversation about how to report on rural America with Smarsh, data journalist Dante Chinni of the American Communities Project at George Washington University and Monica Potts, who moved back home to Clinton, Arkansas, to write about low-income women in her hometown.

Produced by Stacia Brown.

Guests:

Dante Chinni – Director of the American Communities Project at the George Washington University; data journalist for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal; author of “Our Patchwork Nation”.
Sarah Smarsh – Journalist; host, “The Homecomers” podcast.
Monica Potts – Journalist based in rural Arkansas.

One strategy that is emerging from the mitigation of Brain Drains , and for enabling Brain Gain, is that of localism.

Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity. – Source: Wikipedia

This localism is clearly gleaned from the foregoing PODCAST; it provides a model for other rural communities to emulate and for the Caribbean as well. The featured local communities began to realize that they had to be tolerant of visitors, strangers and foreigners. So localism in this case brought a certain amount of pragmatism:

The town must survive – “we must put aside our differences and work together”.

Ditto for the Caribbean region and 30 member-states. This is why the movement behind the Go Lean book has always championed the need to reform and transform community values. See how this has been addressed in many previous Go Lean commentaries – consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18410	Refuse to Lose – Remediating ‘Columbus Day’ & Reforming History
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18321	Unequal Justice: Reforming Sheriffs with ‘soft’ Tyrannicide
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	Reforming LGBT Policies – “Can’t we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16408	Reforming Bad Ethos on Home Violence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15998	Reforming Our Governance: The Kind of Society We Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15996	Reforming Our Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15886	Reforming Reinsurance to Reform Disaster Response
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9766	Rwanda’s Catholics Apologize for Genocide and Seeks to Reform
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=313	What’s Holding Back Jamaica’s Reforms

The opening theme in this commentary related the need to do the “heavy-lifting to retain our people and invite others to come join us”. This means being more willing to embrace empowering immigrants. Wow! This means overcoming the natural tendency to be xenophobic and expressing some disdain for strangers. But “the world is flat”, so to compete in this world will mean overcoming any dogma and orthodoxy. So rather than strangers, the advocacy is to think of outsiders as potential trading partners and new friends.

Can we consider this? Can we consider this … in regards to immigration and our view of new immigrants?

Yes, we can must … if we want to survive. Immigration policy has been a “lightning rod” issue in many communities. The American example is duplicitous: their President wants to “build a wall” to keep immigrants out, while the country’s economists tabulate the positive effects of immigration on their economy. Consider the lessons-learned in the Appendix VIDEO below.

Also consider how the Go Lean movement addressed the need to invite Empowering Immigrants in a previous commentary. This Case Study is presented regarding the once rural town of Huntsville, Alabama. They got over their reticence and disdain towards Germans – after World War II – and invited the Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun, and his team of other German engineers, scientists and technologists. The end result was the fostering of an advanced Scientific Climate for building rockets for NASA for the space expeditions in the 1960’s … and continuing until today. See a summary of that Case Study and related references here:

Much of America’s leadership in the Space Race during the Cold War years of 1950 to 1991 was due to the contributions of one empowering immigrant: Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun; see … more details …below.

…

Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German and later American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States and is considered one of the “Fathers of Rocket Science”. He was also a member of the Nazi party and the Schutzstaffel (SS), and was suspected of perpetrating war crimes during World War II.

In his twenties and early thirties, Braun was already the central figure in the Nazis’ rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the V-2 rocket during World War II. After the war, he and selected members of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the secret Operation Paperclip. Braun worked on the United States Army’s intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated by NASA. Under NASA, he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the super-booster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.^[1] According to one NASA source, he is “without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history”.^[2] In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science.
…
In 1950, at the start of the Korean War, von Braun and his team were transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, his home for the next 20 years. Between 1952 and 1956,^[63] von Braun led the Army’s rocket development team at Redstone Arsenal, resulting in the Redstone rocket, which was used for the first live nuclear ballistic missile tests conducted by the United States. He personally witnessed this historic launch and detonation.^[64] Work on the Redstone led to development of the first high-precision inertial guidance system on the Redstone rocket.^[65]
…
NASA was established by law on July 29, 1958. One day later, the 50th Redstone rocket was successfully launched from Johnston Atoll in the south Pacific as part of Operation Hardtack I. Two years later, NASA opened the Marshall Space Flight Center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) development team led by von Braun was transferred to NASA.

Source: Retrieved February 26, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

Huntsville, Alabama
The city is nicknamed “The Rocket City” for its close association with U.S. space missions.^[41] On January 31, 1958, ABMA placed America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit using a Jupiter-C launch vehicle, a descendant of the Redstone. This brought national attention to Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville, with widespread recognition of this being a major center for high technology.

On July 1, 1960, 4,670 civilian employees, associated buildings and equipment, and 1,840 acres (7.4 km²) of land, transferred from ABMA to form NASA‘s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Wernher von Braun was MSFC’s initial director. On September 8, President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicated the MSFC.^[42]

During the 1960s, the major mission of MSFC was in developing the Saturn boosters used by NASA in the Apollo Lunar Landing Program. For this, MSFC greatly increased its employees, and many new companies joined the Huntsville industrial community. The Cummings Research Park was developed just north of Redstone Arsenal to partially accommodate this industrial growth, and has now became the second-largest research park of this type in America.

Huntsville’s economy was nearly crippled and growth almost came to a standstill in the 1970s following the closure of the Apollo program. However, the emergence of the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and a wide variety of advanced research in space sciences led to a resurgence in NASA-related activities that has continued into the 21st century. In addition, new Army organizations have emerged at Redstone Arsenal, particularly in the ever-expanding field of missile defense.^[43]

Now in the 2000s, Huntsville has the second-largest technology and research park in the nation,^[44] and ranks among the top 25 most educated cities in the nation.^[45][46][47] It is considered in the top of the nation’s high-tech hotspots,^[48][49] and one of the best Southern cities for defense jobs,^[50] It is the number one United States location for engineers most satisfied with the recognition they receive,^[51] with high average salary and low median gross rent.^[52]

Source: Wikipedia retrieved February 26, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville,_Alabama#Missile_development

Go to Huntsville! Go visit! Tour and Engage!

This is the 5 L’s at work: Look, Listen, Learn, Lend-a-hand, then Lead!

This goal is among the missions and motivations of the Go Lean book, as related on Page 46:

Invite empowering immigrants to help us move our society and our economy to destinations where we have never been before.

We must reboot the 3 vital societal engines (economics, security, governance) by employing best practices in labor strategies. The Go Lean book provides 370 pages of details on how to spur such a reboot. First, it identified that new community ethos (attitudes and values) have to be adopted; then we must execute new strategies, tactics and implementations to elevate the societal engines. In fact, there is an actual advocacy for this purpose in the book; see here for some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 174, entitled:

10 Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** This treaty allows 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. The Single Market structure allows for the controlled movement of labor from state to state, and the opportunity to correct actuarial imbalances. The CU is a re-boot of the economic engines, the same way indentured servitude rebooted the labor pool in 19th century Guyana. The skills needed for today’s global economy may not be plentiful in the Caribbean and thus the need to invite empowering immigrants. In general, this group of immigrants should give more than they take; they should not be looking for jobs, rather they should create jobs.
2	DFI Time, Talent, Treasuries The CU will incentivize/promote direct foreign investments (DFI). The CU protections minimize the risk of failure, while extending greater reward because of the dynamics of this market. Members of the One Percent look for enterprising opportunities. The CU will therefore invite this Special Interest Group to immigrate to the region, along with their assets.
3	SGE Labor Rules
4	STEM Immigrants The same as there is now priority for educational ventures for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics, there is also the need for professionals (practitioners and teachers) in these fields. The CU will incentivize these immigrants.
5	Retirees and Tax Refugee – Long Term Tourists
6	Artistic Immigrants
7	Carnies – Event Staff
8	Refugees
9	Movie Making
10	Virtual Employees

Brain Gain, instead of Brain Drain – Yes, we can …

That opening quotation, originally published in a previous blog-commentary, is so apropos that it should be encored here:

“Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come”.

That previous blog-commentary identified tourists-visitors and repatriates (Re-patriots) as the target audience to “come from afar”. Now we are also applying this mantra to Empowering Immigrants.

Let’s get started and convert our atrocious Brain Drain to a Brain Gain. This is how we 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.

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

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

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

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

————

Appendix VIDEO – How does immigration impact the economy? | CNBC Explains – https://youtu.b e/f0dVfDiSrFo

CNBC International
Posted Dec 21, 2018 – It’s an incredibly complicated topic, with political disagreement about how immigration affects a nation’s economy. CNBC’s Uptin Saiidi explains the data behind the debate.
—–
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Category: News & Politics

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Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are

Posted on February 25, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Caribbean people are being urged to Stay Home, to remain in their homelands, or at least ‘in the region’. There are dire consequences when our people leave. So if one loves their homeland, they should Stay.

Abandoning the homeland, on the other hand, is not love. It could even be viewed as a serious offense to the country. In fact, in some ancient cultures, though this is the extreme, it was considered a capital offense – traitorous – and the penalty was death. See here:

Title: Overseas Chinese – History
When China was under the imperial rule of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911), subjects who left the Qing Empire without the Administrator’s consent were considered to be traitors and were executed. Their family members faced consequences as well. However, the establishment of the Lanfang Republic in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, as a tributary state of Qing China, attests that it was possible to attain permission. The republic lasted until 1884, when it fell under Dutch occupation as Qing influence waned.

Under the administration of the Republic of China from 1911 to 1949, these rules were abolished and many migrated outside the Republic of China …
Source: Retrieved February 24, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

Why would there have ever been the extreme consideration of death to migrants and punishment to their families? Because abandonment takes such a toll on the society left behind. This actuality is the painful truth – remember East Berlin. Plus, who are the first to leave? Never the least wanted in society; but rather, the ones to leave are really the ones society can least afford to lose: the smartest, strongest, most potential and most gifted citizens – a Brain Drain.

There is a lesson for us in this history: No doubt, migration – human flight or Brain Drain – is a serious problem; (a possible problem for the US too – see Appendix A below).

Don’t get it twisted, no one is asking Caribbean people to die for their country. Just the opposite … the quest is to live for it; and to “live in the country”. The dire consequence of the Brain Drain has been our disposition in the Caribbean and now it is a crisis. The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean identified the actuality of the Brain Drain or societal abandonment, with these opening words (Page 3):

There is something wrong in the Caribbean. It is the greatest address in the world for its 4 language groups, but instead of the world “beating a path” to these doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out. For some Caribbean countries, their population has declined or been flat for the last 3 decades. This is only possible if despite new births and the absence of war, people are fleeing. This scenario, human flight, is a constant threat to prosperity for all the Caribbean despite their colonial legacies. Our youth, the next generation, may not be inspired to participate in the future workings of their country; they may measure success only by their exodus from their Caribbean homeland.

For us in the Caribbean, it is important for us to understand the full width-and-breadth of Brain Drains. Every month, the movement behind the Go Lean book present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this February 2020, our focus is on the machinations that lead to Brain Drain. This is entry 1 of 5 for this series, which details that every community everywhere has people with brains – or those with genius qualifiers – it is just the opportunities that is missing in many communities. So there is the need to analyze the “Push and Pull“ factors that causes our genius-qualified-people to abandon this homeland and then identify the strategies, tactics and implementations that we must consider in order to abate this bad trend.

Firstly, the “Push and Pull” reasons are identified in the Go Lean book as follows:

“Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating based on a mirage of “greener pastures”; but many times, the “better prospect” is elusive for the first generation.

Other Brain Drain considerations are presented in this series; see the full catalog here:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

As alluded above, there are brains everywhere – every community have some degree of genius qualifiers. These ones simply have to be in the right market to be fully actualized … and appreciated.

This sounds eerily familiar … with the issue of foreign accents. In a classic “art imitating life” scenario, this was depicted in a favorite movie from the 2003 film Love Actually; imagine an average guy in England who is only perceived as average in every respect; but “take his talents to South Beach” – a metonym for any US City – and he is a Superstar. See this in the following VIDEO excerpt:

VIDEO – Colin goes to Wisconsin – https://youtu.be/pHqhAnguYJ0

Posted Dec 20, 2011 – Funny if you ever have been there with a foreign accent.

Category: Music

Movie: Love Actually

Those with genius-qualifiers only need to go somewhere else, where their “genius” is better appreciated and in demand – thus our Caribbean Brain Drain. These ones are lulled to these alternate markets and we push them away; thusly the identified Push and Pull factors are at play. (Where are the destinations for the Caribbean Brain Drain? See the answers in Appendix C below).

Consider the contrast at the beginning of this commentary, where ancient cultures dissuaded their people to leave because they were needed at home. But now, our Caribbean people are “pushed and pulled” out of our homeland so they can avail themselves with better opportunities; (i.e Barbados has a long list of “stars” that have left and thrived in their foreign abodes).

It’s time for a change; to do better … right here at home, to better appreciate and better utilize these brains – yes, we can.

This was the original motivation of the Go Lean book: to reboot the 3 vital societal engines (economics, security, governance) so that our young geniuses could find opportunities right here. The book provides 370 pages of details on how to spur such a turnaround, a reboot. First, it identified that new community ethos (attitudes and values) have to be adopted; then we must execute new strategies, tactics and implementations to elevate the societal engines. In fact, there is an actual advocacy for this purpose in the Go Lean book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 27, entitled:

10 Ways to Foster Genius

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) The CU treaty allows 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. The CU assumes a mission of working with educational and youth agencies to identify and foster “genius” in our society, as early as possible. Geniuses are different from everyone else, although they maybe fairly easy to spot, defining exactly what makes one person a genius is a little trickier. Some researchers & theorists argue that the concept of genius is too limiting and doesn’t really give a full view of intelligence; they feel that intelligence is a combination of many factors; thereby concluding that genius can be found in many different abilities and endeavors. The CU posits that any one** person can make a difference and positively impact their society; so the community ethos of investment in this specially identified group, geniuses, would always be a worthwhile endeavor.
2	Starting Early – “HeadStart” One researcher that tried to provide a more complete view of intelligence is Psychologist Howard Gardner; his theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) [6], identified eight types of intelligence or abilities: musical – rhythmic, visual – spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical – mathematical, bodily – kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. He later suggested that “existential or moral” intelligence may also be worthy of inclusion (not in this book). Many parents and educators feel that these categories more accurately express the strengths of different children, for which the CU will implement HeadStart-like programs (academies, camps, e-Learning schemes and mentorships) to foster the early development of participants.
3	Anti-Bullying Campaign – “Revenge of the Nerds” As is usually the case with young children, genius abilities usually stand-out from peer groups and can therefore render one child to ridicule from others. At times, this behavior leads to extreme bullying. The series of movies “Revenge of the Nerds” have become classic in depicting the adolescent struggles of this reality; (some researchers credit the first movie – 1984 – for a drop in US girls pursuing technical careers) ^[^18]. The CU classifies “bullying” as domestic terrorism; while no adult-style interdiction is intended, the community ethos of “saying NO to bullies”, goes far in fostering future innovators.
4	Genius Definition 1: Linguistic
5	Genius Definition 2: Logical-Mathematics
6	Genius Definition 3: Musical, Sound, Rhythm
7	Genius Definition 4: Bodily-Kinesthetic-Body Movement Control
8	Genius Definition 5: Spatial – Shapes/Figures Aptitude
9	Genius Definition 6: Interpersonal – Other People’s Feelings – Leadership
10	Genius Definition 7: Intrapersonal and Naturalistic – Self-Awareness

So where are the Brains? Unfortunately, not right here at home! Even though the Good Lord blessed these Caribbean lands – islands and coastal states – with equality in the proportion of genius people and passion – just like other lands.

There are simply not enough opportunities here. Alas, this is now a crisis and a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste” – so here comes change!

The points of effective, technocratic stewardship to foster geniuses and genius expressions in our communities have been further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19180	Katherine Johnson – RIP – Mathematics Genius & Role Model
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17992	What Went Wrong? Losing the Best; Nation-building with the Rest
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17561	Hip-Hop Genius – Grand Master Flash
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16698	The Genius, Legend and Legacy of Bob Marley
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11787	Caribbean Roots of Bruno Mars – Genius with the Power of Endurance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10609	The Caribbean Roots of the Cast of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9948	The Caribbean Roots of a Classic Hollywood Star: Sammy Davis, Jr.

“Take my talents to South Beach” – Famous exhortation from Basketball Great Lebron James in Summer 2010.

This declaration should not be necessary anymore. We must foster the proper environment right here to develop genius abilities – like in Sports – and to monetize it – thusly creating local/regional opportunities. Yes, we can …

Let’s get started! Let’s examine the full catalog of this series on Brain Drains and see what more we can do.

We must make this examination; we much take stock of what we have and who we have; we must make the effort to better develop our most valuable assets, our people. 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.

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

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

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

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

—————-

Appendix A – Could a ‘brain drain’ hit the U.S.?

Sub-title: When a country’s educated or entrepreneurial citizens leave all at once, the phenomenon is called “human capital flight” or “brain drain”.

By: Scotty Hendricks

Brain drain is a terrible phenomenon with a long and ignoble history.
Recently, it has occurred in several countries that were doing well even a few years ago.
Can it happen here?

Many of us who have ever dared to complain about the place we live in have heard the juvenile rebuttal “If you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?” As it turns out, sometimes people take that advice. When a country’s educated, intelligent, or entrepreneurial citizens take the advice all at once, the phenomenon is called “human capital flight” or “brain drain”.

Brain drain is pretty bad, and governments will go to great lengths to prevent it. Despite this, it can happen for many reasons almost anywhere.

How does it start?
As with all cases of emigration, there are push factors causing people to want to leave their countries, such as instability, political oppression, or lack of economic opportunity, and pull factors drawing them towards another country, such as better job opportunities, freedom, or political stability.

Often, the idea that the promise of lower taxes elsewhere is pulling all the talent out of one country and into another is proposed as the cause of brain drain by political leaders. The jury is still out on whether this is a significant factor for most people who do leave one country for another. Some papers say it is an important issue; others argue it isn’t.

What effects does it have on an economy?
That question is surprisingly difficult. It stands to reason that losing all your skilled workers at once would be devastating to an economy and a there is evidence to support that idea. It has been shown, however, that not all the effects are negative and that some countries benefit from sending their skilled workers elsewhere then hoping for remittances.

In any case, nobody likes to read headlines about all the educated people leaving the country in a hurry, and most societies consider brain drain to be dangerous.

Where have brain drains happened?
Turkey is currently suffering a bout of human capital flight as the wealthy, talented, and educated rush for the exits. This has been caused by many factors, not the least of which is the increasing authoritarianism of President Erdogan and the mismanagement of the economy under his ever increasing control. This is particularly interesting because, until recently, the Turkish economy had been doing well. It shows how a country’s fortunes can turn around in a hurry given the right events.

Venezuela offers a similar case, with the well documented ‘Bolivarian diaspora’. This exodus, initially limited to the wealthy and well educated but now including members of the lower and middle classes, was at first driven by the revolutionary administration of Hugo Chavez and its heavy-handed, socialistic tendencies. After his death and the collapse of the Venezuelan economy, the number of people leaving skyrocketed as living conditions deteriorated.

Sometimes the causes and results of brain drain are even written into history. As right-wing political movements came to power in 1930s Europe, many famous intellectuals got out as fast as they could. Thinkers like Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and Niles Bohr all took their brilliance to the United States where they could safely live and work. Later, East Berlin had such a bad brain drain problem that they built a wall to stop it. You might have heard of it.

What about America? Can it happen here?
Technically, America has brain drain already, but between different regions rather than to other countries.

Rural flight, the tendency for people living in rural areas to move to the cities, has been going on for a century now. The Great Plains region is particularly hit by this, with a long history of population declines and the exodus of young people.

Not to be outdone, the Rust Belt is also suffering from a loss of people and talent. This flight has been caused by many things including poor governance, a lack of economic opportunities, and the pull factor of other regions that are experiencing much faster growth.

However, on the national scale, the United States is still seeing a net influx of talented, well-educated individuals. There is a recognized problem in holding onto the students who come to the US for an education and then return to their home countries rather than stay and work here, but that is another issue. Some scientists and innovators have left the US as a result of recent policies, but these emigrants are still few in number.

However, as the examples of how quickly human capital flight can start show us, the risk is always there, and some problems could start driving the talented to greener pastures if they are aggravated. The American middle class is poorer than that of several other countries, including Canada and Australia. The poor in Europe are better off than the American poor. Our healthcare costs more and delivers less. Politically, well, things aren’t great when a third of the population thinks a civil war is imminent.
Is the U.S. at risk for a brain drain? Not right now, but the risk is always there. As the cases of Turkey, Germany, and Venezuela show us, it can take as little as a few difficult years to start the process. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, and migration between different continents becomes ever more practical, the ability for anybody to pack up and move to greener pastures is enhanced. While things are going well right now, history shows us how quickly things can change.

See the related VIDEO below.

Source: Posted January 10, 2019; retrieved February 26, 2020 from: https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/american-brain-drain

———-

Appendix B VIDEO – How immigrants and their children affect the US economy | Robert Kaplan – https://youtu.be/ZL7MOpMpjRQ

Big Think
Posted Jul 26, 2018 – Slowing workforce growth can affect American GDP growth unless we focus on skills training and immigration reform, says Robert Steven Kaplan, the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Without immigrants, our workforce would not expand, he argues, based on the fact that immigrants have made up more than half of the workforce growth in the United States in the last 20 years.

———————————————————————————-

New videos DAILY: https://bigth.ink Join Big Think Edge for exclusive video lessons from top thinkers and doers: https://bigth.ink/Edge

———————————————————————————-

Robert Steven Kaplan
Robert S. Kaplan is president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Previously, he was the Senior Associate Dean for External Relations and Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also co-chairman of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm, as well as chairman and a founding partner of Indaba Capital Management. Before joining Harvard in 2005, Kaplan was vice chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group with responsibilities for Global Investment Banking and Investment Management.

He has written several books on leadership and goal development, including ‘What You’re Really Meant To Do: A Road Map For Reaching Your Unique Potential’ published by Harvard Business Review Press. You can read his most recent essay here.

Category: Education

—————-

Appendix C – Where the Brains Are … literally

A large number of Caribbean people live abroad. They live in places like the US, Canada, the UK and Europe. We have previously published blog-commentaries that examined the destinations of the Caribbean Diaspora. The full series is as follows:

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RIP Katherine Johnson – STEM Forerunner & Rocket Scientist – Encore

Posted on February 24, 2020 in Ethos, Social

The world is mourning the passing of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Forerunner & Rocket Scientist Katherine Johnson (1918 – 2020).

She died today at the ripe old age of 101. See this news headlines and excerpt here:

Title: Katherine Johnson, groundbreaking NASA mathematician depicted in ‘Hidden Figures,’ dies at 101
Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician and trailblazer for racial justice who is one of the space agency’s most inspirational leaders, has died. She was 101.

Johnson died Monday of natural causes at a retirement community in Newport News, Va., family attorney Donyale Y. H. Reavis told The Associated Press.
…
See the full article here: https://www.foxnews.com/science/katherine-johnson-nasa-mathematician-hidden-figures-dies

We have detailed her life before, in a previous blog-commentary in planning for her 98th birthday in 2016. There was a movie too! A wonderful feature film starring famed African-American actress Teraji P. Henson. See that previous original blog-commentary that was published on August 16, 2016, here-now:

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

** August 26, 2016 **

This day is the 98th birthday for “Katherine Johnson”.

Who is Katherine Johnson? And why is she important in the discussion of Caribbean empowerment?

Katherine Johnson (1918 – ) was a rocket scientist, physicist, and mathematician before there were rocket scientists. Why is this important? It is as 19th century Essayist Oscar Wilde dubbed it:

“Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.

The focus here is on the “Art imitating Life”; no, even further than “art” is the “science”. The “art” in this case is the movie “Hidden Figures”. The “science” is the mathematics associated with rockets and trajectory: Rocket Science.

The movie HIDDEN FIGURES is the incredible untold story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big. – 20 Century Fox Studio

This is the power associated with film. It’s an art that can promote a science. This is in harmony with a previous blog/commentary – by the Go Lean … Caribbean movement – regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

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

The untold story of Katherine Johnson is not so “unfamiliar” to the African-American experience. There has been millions of similar tales, where those with genius-qualifying abilities had to languish in a world where they were considered “less than“. (See the Appendix VIDEO below).

Oh, how wrong that world was!

Today, we tell the tale of Katherine Johnson. We celebrate her for her accomplishments and inspiration she provides to future generations of scientists, mathematicians, African-descendents and women. She is the definition of “Shero”; she is all of that! See how this is portrayed in the new film here, opening in January 2017:

VIDEO: Movie Trailer ‘Hidden Figures’ – https://youtu.be/RK8xHq6dfAo

Published on August 14, 2016 – Watch the new trailer for [the movie] #HiddenFigures, based on the incredible untold true story. Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer & Janelle Monáe. In theaters this January [2017].

Why is this discussion of Katherine Johnson important in the discussion of Caribbean empowerment?

This is a story of one person making a difference! Her accomplishments required a resolve, determination and conviction to not buckle under the acute pressure to maintain the status quo. Her efforts and life’s pursuits helped to forge change in her homeland for her and all others that followed. The book Go Lean … Caribbean identified subjects like this as advocates; relating that their successful completion of their advocacy tend to benefit more than just them but the whole world (Page 122).

The story of Katherine Johnson is now being told as a movie. Movies can be effective for the goal of displaying a better view of people … and the community failings they have had to overcome. Previous Go Lean commentaries presented details of other movies that had the potential of reflecting and effecting change in society. See this sample here:

‘Concussion’ – The Movie; The Cause

Lesson from ‘Star Wars’ – ‘Heroes can return’

The Movie ‘Good Hair’ and the Strong Black Woman

Movie ‘Tomorrowland’ – Feed the Right Wolf

Documentary Movie: ‘Merchants of Doubt’ – Scary Proposition

Movie Lesson: ‘Only at the precipice, do they change’

The heroism of Katherine Johnson is against the backdrop of America’s segregation past. There is no way to justify America’s days of racial separation and oppression. Good riddance!

Surely, today our communities reflect a more inclusive environment. Surely?

Unfortunately, no!

America, still, and the Caribbean more, is plagued with a “climate of hate” in too many places. Far too often, in our own backyards, a class of people is oppressed, repressed and suppressed just because …

… the reasons do not even matter. It is just plain wrong and unwise and unproductive for our mission to retain our local geniuses.

Our community needs all hands on deck, with everybody contributing: all races, all genders, all ages, all classes of people. This point has also been conveyed in previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample here:

Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate

Gender Equality Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’

The Plea for Women in Politics

A Lesson in Civil War History – Compromising Human Rights

Socio-Economic Change: The Demographic Theory of Elderly Suicide

LGBT & Buggery in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!

The ‘Luck of the Irish’ – Past, Present and Future Lessons

10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: #7 Discrimination of Immigrants

The book Go Lean…Caribbean (and subsequent blog/commentaries) relates that we must do better than the American history. We have a problem now with societal abandonment for “push and pull” reasons. In order to encourage people to stay home and impact their homeland, we need to protect and promote those with genius qualifiers. There is a lot at stake.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Fostering genius is very important to this movement. The book states (Page 27):

The CU assumes a mission of working with educational and youth agencies to identify and foster “genius” in our society, as early as possible. Geniuses are different from everyone else, although they maybe fairly easy to spot, defining exactly what makes one person a genius is a little trickier. Some researchers & theorists argue that the concept of genius is too limiting and doesn’t really give a full view of intelligence; they feel that intelligence is a combination of many factors; thereby concluding that genius can be found in many different abilities and endeavors. The CU posits that any one person can make a difference and positively impact their society; so the community ethos of investment in this specially identified group, geniuses, would always be a worthwhile endeavor.

Fostering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers is integral to the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The goal is to identify students early with high aptitude in STEM areas, then develop them through academies and science fairs. The CU will even fund free tuition for these ones at local colleges/universities or forgive-able loans for those wishing to matriculate abroad. This is a matter of community ethos, defined as in the book as the fundamental spirit of a culture that drives the beliefs, customs and practices of a society. The book refers to this spirit motivating our Focus on the Future. This spirit would be embedded in every aspect of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. See here how the prime directives reflects this:

Optimization the economic engines of the Caribbean to elevate the regional economy to grow to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new (direct & indirect) jobs, including STEM-related industries with a projection of 40,000 Research & Development direct jobs and 20,000 Technology direct jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the people and economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these economic and security engines.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform Caribbean STEM education initiatives – also the economic and governance aspects as a whole. The roadmap opens with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 13 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

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

The Go Lean book envisions the CU – a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean chartered to do the heavy-lifting of empowering and elevating the Caribbean economy. The mission is to mitigate further brain drain of Caribbean citizens with STEM abilities. The book details the economic principles and community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize STEM initiatives in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier – Indirect Jobs from Direct Ones	Page 22
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation	Page 23
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future – Foster a Future Focus	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – For STEM & other fields	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Anecdote – Valedictorian and Caribbean Diaspora Member	Page 38
Strategy – Customers – Citizens, Business Community & Diaspora	Page 47
Strategy – Meeting Region’s Needs Today, Preparing For Future	Page 58
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patent, Standards, & Copyrights	Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Implementation – Assemble all Super-Regional Governing Entities	Page 96
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers	Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Better Manage Debt – Better Student Loans Dynamics	Page 114
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans – Forgivable Provisions	Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – STEM Professionals	Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217

The Go Lean movement celebrates Katherine Johnson today as a role model in STEM. (Though she is an African-American with no Caribbean connection). She is recognized worldwide – just wait until the movie is released – as a woman of accomplishment – in 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

“So if you think your job is pressure-packed, hers meant that forgetting to carry the one might send somebody floating off into the solar system.” – US President Barack Obama said in honoring Katherine Johnson on November 24, 2015.

This day – August 26 – is also Women’s Equality Day – commemorating women being granted the right to vote in the US on August 26, 1920.

So we celebrate all women that strive to achieve; there are those that do a lot; there are also women that choose to do little, or nothing. We celebrate them too. That is their equal right!

Yes, we can all do better than the past experiences from our communities. The Caribbean can be better!

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

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

Appendix VIDEO: Celebrating Katherine Johnson’s Great Mind – Human Computer – https://youtu.be/Bdr9QBRcPEk

Published on Sep 1, 2015 – In the early days of spaceflight, if NASA needed to plot a rocket’s path or confirm a computer’s calculations, they knew who to ask: Katherine Johnson.

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Arts, Civil Rights, Gender, History, Obituary

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Coronavirus – Facts and Fictions

Posted on February 21, 2020 in Economics, Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is a serious threat in the world … one that is imperiling life and systems of commerce: Coronavirus; see this news story-highlights, and related VIDEO here:

Title: Coronavirus is deadlier than flu, study finds
The fatality rate of the new coronavirus is far higher than that of the seasonal flu, according to a new analysis from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found a fatality rate of 2.3 percent in China as of last week, though later figures suggest the rate has increased. In the U.S., flu fatality rates hover around 0.1 percent. Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

Yesterday: Americans flown home from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan said they were unaware until late that some evacuees were infected. “I didn’t know until we were in the air,” said Carol Montgomery. “I saw an area of plastic sheeting and tape.”

Closer look: Cambodia’s decision to let hundreds of passengers leave another cruise ship on which a person was infected could dramatically complicate the effort to contain the virus.

Another angle: HSBC, one of Hong Kong’s most important banks, said today that it would cut 35,000 jobs over the next three years, in part because of disruptions caused by the outbreak. On Monday, Apple cut its quarterly sales expectations and warned that the virus threatened global supply chains.

Related: The Tokyo Marathon, which planned to accept about 38,000 runners, will be restricted to about 200 elite participants. The race is scheduled for March 1.

Source: New York Times – Retrieved February 18, 2020 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/briefing/coronavirus-michael-bloomberg-boy-scouts.html

———–

VIDEO – China Coronavirus Death Toll Rises to 2,118 – https://youtu.be/a_WeUpwJNVA

Bloomberg Markets and Finance
Feb.19 — China is saying the death toll from the coronavirus has climbed to 2,118, with the total amount of cases reaching 74,576. Bloomberg’s Tom Mackenzie and Yvonne Man report on “Bloomberg Markets: Asia.”

Category: News & Politics

As with many threats in society, there abounds a lot of misinformation, half-truths and outright lies. Consider:

This new Coronavirus started in Wuhan Province, China. But not all Chinese are affected. In fact with a population of 1.4 billion, the near 75,000 afflicted people worldwide is less than 1/10 of 1 percent.
There have been previous Coronavirus strains. (Older cans of Lysol spray declare that they kill “coronavirus”; see photo below).
The disease is not automatically fatal – only 2,118 people have died so far – mostly those advanced in age and/or with depressed immune systems. Many more die every year with the “normal” seasonal flu.
Not all Chinese people are from China – Sinophone people amount to 1.5 Billion. Few Chinese Diaspora have had any exposure to the ailment.
The disease does not live away from mammals. Chinese made products pose no threats.
Communist China does not allow people to freely leave China, even under normal circumstances, unless there is some special reason to do so. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative region, governed like a separate country. The freedoms of movement there are not equated on the mainland.
Flu Season has a limited shelf-life; it is expected to naturally end in the northern hemisphere by late Spring 2020.
No Caribbean area cruise ships or passengers have been affected – the potential risk is not abated.

This disease poses a danger; there is the need for remediation and mitigation. There is the need for a hero … we need a hero. This sounds so much like a song from my formative years.

I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life
(Song by Bonnie Tyler 1984; see VIDEO & Lyrics at https://youtu.be/OBwS66EBUcY; see Appendix)

Alas, there is no hero … for this peril. There is no Superman, no Wonder Woman, no Avengers nor Captain Marvel. The remediation and mitigation that we need will not be miraculous; it must simply come from … us. Yes, we can … do the heavy-lifting ourselves to protect our society.

This was the quest as related in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book surveyed the world scene and saw the need for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region to confederate, collaborate, consolidate its efforts to be able to deal with an actuality like this Coronavirus Epidemic.

We need that vision now!

The book related that a roadmap must be put in place to introduce and implement a deputized agency, a federal technocracy to act on behalf of all these countries and to do the heavy-lifting of Homeland Security, to remediate and mitigate all threats, foreign and domestic; this would naturally include Disease Control and Management. That roadmap called for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), with a Cabinet-level Department of Health. The functionalities of this “Security Apparatus” is described as follows:

Strategies – Comparing Strategies – Healthcare –vs- Bush Medicine (Page 50)
The CU plans calls for some health care reform, under the guise of homeland and economic security, emergency management and cross border initiatives (disease management and organ transplantation).

Tactical – Separation of Powers – I2: Department of Health – Disease Control & Management (Page 86)
Due to the systemic threat, epidemic response and disease control will be coordinated at the CU level. This agency will manage the detailed inventory needs of pharmaceuticals (vaccinations, etc.) so that the Group Purchasing Organization can negotiate for volume-wholesale pricing/discounts and delivery schedules on the regional level.
The data associated with Flu Shots, Vaccinations, STDs should be mined and published by the CU.
This agency will also sponsor Disease Management schemes to identify, educate, treat patients with chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, heart, COPD, and other ailments that tend to have no cure, but the affected could prosper with proper management.

Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Healthcare – Public Health Extension (Page 156)
Due to the systemic threat, epidemic response and disease control will be coordinated at the federal level. Also, the acquisition of public-bound pharmaceuticals (vaccinations, etc.) can be negotiated at the regional level, using the Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO) envisioned in this roadmap. This will lead to a better supply and pricing dynamics. …

Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Cancer – Public Health Administration (Page 157)
Not all [disease] cancer is hereditary or tied to lifestyle (smoking, obesity, diet), sometimes there are environmental agents. The CU treaty grants jurisdiction for systemic threats, epidemic response and/or disease control. Despite the pro-business ethos, the CU will assuage any threat of new/existing industrial endeavors with thorough environmental impact studies.

We have been here before …

This is turning out to be a very dangerous disease outbreak – an epidemic. However, this is not the first one … for the world or even to originate from China. In fact, Coronavirus is being compared sharply to the 2003 crisis with the SARS epidemic that imperiled Hong Kong. See this excerpt from a previous blog-commentary on SARS:

A Lesson in History – SARS in Hong Kong
Sadly, we report – though it is only a reminder – that there is no cure for the common cold; nor its more debilitating “Big Brother”, influenza or “the flu”.

Sometimes the flu is just the flu. Symptoms may include cough, sore throat, fever, myalgia (muscle pain), and lethargy (fatigue or drowsiness, or prolonged sleep patterns). Unfortunately this normal start for influenza may morph into more serious concerns. For example, consider the SARS epidemic of 2003; see Appendix A. The same symptoms, above, were the applicable descriptors at the start of the SARS outbreak.

Why would anyone think of anything more than the common/annual flu? How can a community – the Caribbean region in this case – manage such an epidemiological crisis?

For this, we have a well-documented lesson from Hong Kong in 2003. There is much for us to learn from this lesson in history.

The people, institutions and governance of the Caribbean need to pay more than the usual attention to the lessons of SARS in Hong Kong, not just from the medical perspective (see Appendix B), but also from an economic viewpoint.

During the “heyday” of the SARS crisis, travel and transport to Hong Kong virtually came to a grinding halt! Hong Kong had previously enjoyed up to 14 million visitors annually; they were a gateway to the world. The SARS epidemic became a pandemic because of this status. Within weeks of the outbreak, SARS had spread from Hong Kong to infect individuals in 37 countries in early 2003.
…
Prior to this SARS outbreak, the WHO [(World Health Organization)] had developed a Pandemic War Plan, reserved for the worst situations; see this link here, [which was presented then as Appendix C]. This features strategies and tasks to identify, isolate and eradicate a major virus outbreak … at the start. But the War Plan presents a cautionary warning: should the disease ever escape the isolation attempts, the result could be socio-economic disaster, with millions dead.

The possibility of this warning is the motivation of this commentary and the Go Lean movement.

In general, the CU will employ its own “War Plan”; its strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives. …

The issue in this commentary relates to economics, security and economic security; in effect this is a governance issue. This is an issue of business continuity for the region. …

The Go Lean movement posits that wisdom, prudence and best practices can be adopted by careful study of complex matters. This is defined … as a hallmark of a technocracy.

The Coronavirus is a serious threat; this is not the first and may not be the last! This is why the Go Lean movement urges the Caribbean to prepare now, with the implementation of the technocratic CU Trade Federation and its related agencies. How? Well, the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – provides 370 pages of step-by step directions.

The points of effective, technocratic medical stewardship, gleaned from facts in medical and economic history, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15310	Industrial Reboot – Trauma 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8943	Zika’s Drug Breakthrough
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7822	Doing More in the Fight Against Cancer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7430	Brazilian Shrunken Head Babies: Zika or Tdap?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7327	Zika – A 4-Letter Word
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2397	Stopping Ebola
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1003	Painful and rapid spread of Chikungunya virus in the Caribbean

Let’s hope this new Coronavirus threat subsides … soon.

The Go Lean movement (book and subsequent blog-commentaries) stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit; no one member-states has the prowess to tackle these potential pandemics – like Coronavirus – alone. Therefore, we must heed the warnings in advance and prepare our economic, security and governing eco-system.

Tongue-in-cheek reference to Caribbean Cruises amidst the Coronavirus Outbreak

We must learn from China.

“There but for the Grace of God go I” – Old Expression

The Caribbean is very dependent on tourism. Our way of life would not endure so well if we were at the epicenter of Coronavirus, or some similar pandemic; so we empathize and sympathize with China.

Heavy-lifting indeed …

This is why the Go Lean book (Page 10) advocates for the people and governing entities of the Caribbean member-states …

… “to provide new guards for their future security” …

… by deputizing the authority and responsibility to the CU Trade Federation to do the heavy-lifting of protecting the member-states during pandemics. As related in a previous blog-commentary:

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me

This is how we 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Disaster, Health, Transform

[Top]

Guyana Diaspora – Not the Panacea

Posted on February 11, 2020 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

It is Election Time in Guyana … March 2, 2020.

What are the issues at stake?

Some say the economy;
For some, it is security-public safety issues.
All vested parties, conclude that better governance is a universal requirement; see the Appendix VIDEO for local insights.
Whatever the motivation, everyone is being urged to vote the issues, and not race (Afro-Guyanese –vs- Indo-Guyanese) nor political legacy.

There are many factors in Guyana that need addressing; this beautiful Caribbean country on the South American mainland is one of the worse for the societal abandonment problem. See this chart here – from a previous blog-commentary – which shows that 89% of the college-educated population has fled this homeland:

Guyana therefore has a large Diaspora … abroad.

Could the strategy for reforming and transforming Guyana simply be The Diaspora?

This is the assertion of one of the candidates for President of Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali; see this news story here about a recent political rally:

Title: Ali plans to get Diaspora involved in every aspect of national development
Sub-title: Speaking at his party’s rally on Sunday in Stewartville, Mr. Ali said the diaspora should not be ignored and he has no problem with those who have dual citizenship.

The Presidential Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party, Irfaan Ali, believes that members of the Diaspora could play a meaningful role in Guyana development and a government under his watch would include the diaspora in every aspect of decision making in Guyana.

Speaking at his party’s rally on Sunday in Stewartville, Mr. Ali said the diaspora should not be ignored and he has no problem with those who have dual citizenship.

“You are a born Guyanese and you have a right here and we love you and this is your home. We are going to aggressively involve the Diaspora in every aspect of national life and development, they must come back and work and be part of the future”, Ali told his supporters at the large rally.

Ali also released a menu of development plans for the Region 3 area that he intends to put in place if he wins the upcoming elections.

He said the West Demerara will see a superhighway and a new fixed bridge across the Demerara River with improved health and educational facilities under his leadership.

Mr. Ali also promised to do more to assist the farmers of Region 3.

The Region 3 residents were also told that revenues from the oil and gas sector will trickle down to them, with training and jobs being made available.

Ali who also lives in the West Demerara area believes the residents of the region must continue to support his party to ensure development of their communities.

Source: Posted & retrieved February 10, 2020 from: https://newssourcegy.com/news/ali-plans-to-get-diaspora-involved-in-every-aspect-of-national-development/

Don’t get it twisted, the Diaspora has not been, is not currently nor will they ever be the panacea for what ills Guyana. Plus the [majority of the] Diaspora is not even listening to this appeal from the home country. So calling out to them is a waste of Guyana’s time and the Diaspora’s time.

This is a constant message from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. This was well communicated in a series of previous blogs on this same subject, for one Caribbean country after another:

The Diaspora – of all Caribbean countries – never listens to the appeals of their former homelands. Alas, Barbados [Guyana] is not the first to waste time, talent and treasuries to engage their Diaspora and urge them to come back and/or to invest in the homeland.

This quest has been pursued throughout the Caribbean world. Yet the failures has been loud.

Why? Because they – the Diaspora – are gone!

Yes, there is this preponderance for governments (and citizenry alike) in the region to pursue this same Diaspora strategy. [Since] the calendar year of 2017, we published a number of commentaries on this Caribbean pre-occupation, with these entries relating these homelands:

Barbados – April 30, 2019 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17325

Grenada– November 3, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13438

Dominica– October 18, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13288

Haiti– September 30, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105

Jamaica– September 20, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13040

Bahamas– September 4, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12911

St. Lucia– March 3, 2017 – https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657

The Diaspora is not the panacea, or cure-all, for the Caribbean ills.

There is a rhyme-and-reason for why a strategy of depending on the Diaspora fails every time:

The troubling flaw for the Diaspora strategy is that the expectation is that these people who have left ‘here” will now turnaround and fix what is broken here. [But] this is a fallacy!

Rather than a strategy to “Invite the Diaspora to Remember Us”, there needs to be a Way Forward with strategies, tactics and implementations to elevate the societal engines of the Caribbean so that people do not have to leave in the first place.

Why do people leave?

The reasons have been identified as “Push and Pull”:

“Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating based on a mirage of “greener pastures”; many times, this is elusive for the first generations.

It is far better to mitigate these “Push and Pull” factors; this would dissuade our people from leaving in the first place.

These words here are different than what the political candidates are promising for the Guyana March 2, 2020 Poll. Why?

The approach is different!

Guyana’s political establishment is proud of their independence status – one of the first in the British West Indies to secure this status. The Go Lean book, on the other hand, serving as a roadmap for a Way Forward, declares that this country went down the wrong road, that the key to success for Guyana is not independence, but rather it must be interdependence. The problems in Guyana are “too big for Guyana alone” to assuage, they need confederated solutions with their regional neighbors, who are all “in the same boat”.

This Go Lean roadmap is the Way Forward for Guyana.

The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), asserts that the panacea for Guyana is not the Diaspora, but rather the strategies, tactics and implementations of this regional construct. The quest of this CU charter is not CariCom or the “Caribbean Community”. No, we are advocating for something better. We are advocating for economic empowerments, a regional security apparatus to optimize public safety and justice standards for all stakeholders – citizens, visitors and trading partners – and a technocratic regional governance.

How do we go about elevating these 3 vital societal engines (economics, security, governance)? Throughout the 370 pages of the Go Lean book, the details are provided as turn-by-turn directions on how to adopt new community ethos (attitudes and values), execute new strategies, tactics and implementations. These will reboot Guyana … and the other CariCom member-state on the Guiana Platte (Suriname). In fact, this actual advocacy in the Go Lean book contains specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 240, entitled:

10 Ways to Impact The Guianas

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states for 42 million, including the independent states of Guyana and Suriname. Other territories that made up The Guianas region include French Guiana, Spanish Guiana (today, the Guayana Region comprises three of the federal States of Venezuela: Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), and Portuguese Guiana (Brazil’s State of Amapa). On the CU roadmap, annexations will be explored in Year 5; French Guiana is ideal candidate, but not the Venezuelan and Brazilian regions. But there is the immediate need for foreign policy synchronizations with these other states for common pool resources and regional threats.
2	Trading Partners based on Nature not Politics
3	Homeland Security Pact – Assurance of Economic Engines
4	Disaster Planning, Preparation & Response
5	Caribbean Dollar and the Caribbean Central Bank The CU Treaty allows the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to manage the monetary policy of the Caribbean Dollar, in place of the Guyanese Dollar or Suriname Dollar for global trade (supplanting US$). The independent-professional management will assuage devaluation risks while garnering the benefits of money multiplier. The C$ will be pegged to a basket of currencies, including the US dollar, Euro, British pound, so as to maximize value in the international markets.
6	Emigration Circuit Breaker Some chronic problems related to economic progress has been the shortage of skilled labor and a deficient infrastructure. The CU seeks to offer an alternative to citizens abandoning the region for EU or US shores. A diverse, well-managed economy of 42 million people, rather than the minimal 700,000 of Guyana alone and 540,000 of Suriname, offer more options to assuage pressures for Guianian talent fleeing. The whole CU can provide solutions to contend with the scarcity of skilled labor, innovation deficits, and financial risks in social pension systems.
7	Extraction of Natural Resources
8	Tourism Collective Bargaining
9	Financial Receivership
10	Host Country Entitlements

Guyana has had some encroachments of Failed-State status in the recent past; (plus the dire straits of Venezuela next door). Their societal engines are so deficient that they now have one of the highest suicides rates in the world. This is not a proud legacy to boast, but rather an emphatic cry for help. Here comes help!

In fact, the dire status and issues of “Guiana Region” has been detailed in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17691	‘Free Market’ Versus … Socialism – Very Prevalent in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16172	A Lesson in History: Jonestown, Guyana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13299	Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Respecting Diwali
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12581	State of the Union – Annexation: French Guiana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12098	Inaction on Venezuela: A Recipe for ‘Failed-State’ Status
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5396	‘Significant’ oil deposit found offshore Guyana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2602	Guyana and Suriname Wrestle With High Rates of Suicides

So for the March 2, 2020 election, we urge the citizens of Guyana to vote early and often; just know that your Diaspora will probably have a small turn-out, (for those that are eligible from their foreign abodes). Do not waste time, talent and treasuries trying to engage this population. These one have left; support the ones who are still there and engaging their civil duty.

As related in a previous blog-commentary – A Change is Gonna Come – this Chinese proverb is apropos:

“Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come”.

A change will come to Guyana. We urge the stakeholders there to hold-on and hold-out for the reformations and transformations that will come, either with the General Election on March 2, 2020 or soon thereafter with the Go Lean roadmap. We urge all Guyana stakeholders and Caribbean stakeholders alike to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap … to do the heavy-lifting of elevating our regional society and making our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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APPENDIX VIDEO – This Week in 60 Minutes … – https://youtu.be/baIzuIIatx0

Peoples Progressive Party/Civic
Posted February 8, 2020 –

Category: News & Politics

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