Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

If only we can get people addicted to ‘home’ then they would want to stay ‘here’ or come back home.

We can! We can tease, tempt and program people to become addicted to being ‘home’, and homesick whenever they are away from home.

This would be similar to getting people addicted to …

… drugs, sex, Rock-n-Roll, games, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling and other vices.

This refers to a scientific process involving brain chemistry. The brain chemistry is dopamine. It is possible to make people addicted to different elements, whether they be physical and conceptual. See the details in the encyclopedic Appendix below.

This is an important issue. The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – wants to forge change in the Caribbean. We want to dissuade the bad trend of our people abandoning their homeland – fleeing – and pursuing life in the Diaspora abroad. We need our people at home. We need them to be addicted to their homeland and love it, and to miss it when separated. This describes …

Homesickness …
… the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home.^[1] Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home and attachment objects.^[2] Sufferers typically report a combination of depressive and anxious symptoms, withdrawn behavior and difficulty focusing on topics unrelated to home.^[3][4][5]

Homesickness is defined so similarly to withdrawal symptoms! And the reward-motivated behavior is powerfully addictive; think of a slot-machine in a casino.

Drug abuse = Bad! Casino gambling = Bad! Homesickness = Good.

The Go Lean book describes the effort of dissuading Caribbean residents from societal abandonment as heavy-lifting. The book explains that there are 2 reasons why people leave their beloved homelands – “Push” and “Pull” factors:

• “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. For these people, it is like “they are on fire” and need to stop-drop-and-roll.
• “Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating on the false perception that they can have a better “home” abroad. They have a deficient longing for their homeland.

In order to neutralize the “Push and Pull” factors, the heavy-lift of reforming and transforming Caribbean society must be done. This movement has identified many previous strategies, tactics and implementations (8 in total) for forging change in the region. These require technocratic deliveries and best-practices. The Go Lean book details the efforts to change the minds (head), hearts and hands (actions) of Caribbean people. This commentary describes one way to forge change, getting the people addicted to their homeland.

Yes, this is possible; it is scientific, and not science fiction. This approach is at work right now in the smart-phone industry; they employ strategies, tactics and operational efficiency to compel people to engage their devices … continuously. They make people addicted.

How can we introduce this addiction in our homeland, to forge change? Fortunately, the devices are already there; we only need to brain hack, to customize the content, for addiction.

See this Art-and-Science portrayed in this news story VIDEO here, from 60 Minutes:

VIDEO – Brain Hacking – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/brain-hacking

Published April 9, 2017 – Why can’t we stop looking at our smartphones? And are the designers of the apps and content on them using brain science to keep us hooked? Anderson Cooper reports.

Various strategies, tactics and implementations for forging change have been identified in a series of previous Go Lean blog-commentaries over the past 2 & 1/2 years, this is the ninth submission. These were presented as follows, in reverse chronological order:

1.      Forging Change – Addicted to Home (Today)
2.      Forging Change – Arts & Artists (December 1, 2016)
3.      Forging Change – Panem et Circenses (November 15, 2016)
4.      Forging Change – Herd Mentality (October 11, 2016)
5.      Forging Change – ‘Something To Lose’ (November 18, 2015)
6.      Forging Change – ‘Food’ for Thought (April 29, 2015)
7.      Forging Change – Music Moves People (December 30, 2014)
8.      Forging Change – The Sales Process (December 22, 2014)
9.      Forging Change – The Fun Theory (September 9, 2014)

This commentary is urging Caribbean stakeholders to customize the content on smart-phones and media (social website www.myCaribbean.gov) to forge addiction for the people that live, work and play there.

There is an art-and-science to this quest:

#addictionbydesign

The stakeholders in the smart-phone and social media industries have a proven track record. According to the foregoing VIDEO, whether they want to or not, these ones are “shaping the thoughts, feelings and actions of people [consuming their products]; they are programming people”.

We – the Go Lean movement – want to shape the “thoughts, feelings and actions” of Caribbean people. Understanding the science of Dopamine, allows us to structure the appeal and messaging to create an addiction – home-sickness – among Caribbean residents.

This quest will require a genius application of Art-and-Science to make this effort successful. The Go Lean book (Page 27) describes the process of starting early to identify Caribbean youth with genius qualifiers for the Arts and Science – we need them now. We need them to compete like “Drug Dealers” to get people in the community hooked on the content of Caribbean life: expressions of arts, music, dance, stories, drama, news, information, films, movies, TV shows and other media portrayals. While the actual content creators and curators may only be a handful of professionals, those with genius qualifiers, the impact, the addiction, can be felt on the whole community. This is an expression of the Greater Good. This is defined in the Go Lean book (Page 37) as:

“The greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”. – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832, a British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer.

This is why the Go Lean book, while commencing as an economic empowerment plan, devotes so many pages to the arts, music, media, social media, technology and communications.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic, security and governing empowerments. Therefore the Go Lean roadmap has 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 economic engines.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap asserts that forging change in the Caribbean will be a hard, heavy-lift task and many alternate strategies – the 9 from above – may have to be engaged. Any one person – artists or technologists – can make a difference and positively impact society; such a person can be a champion for our Caribbean cause . We can all work to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. This is why fostering the genius ability in Caribbean citizens is presented in the book (Page 27) as a community ethos.

The Go Lean book presents this and other (new) community ethos for the region to adopt, plus new strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to execute to forge change in the region. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

The Go Lean roadmap offers the technocratic execution of these deliverables. Imagine identifying and fostering the genius abilities of technologists (programmers, coders, designers, project managers and behaviorists) and artists (singers, actors, dancers, musicians, performers, etc.). The end-product of their genius may be Caribbean residents longing to stay home and foreign-based residents (Diaspora) being/becoming homesick. From the outset, the Go Lean book recognized the significance of our Diaspora and successful careers in these cutting-edge fields, with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to foster the eco-system for developing and deploying smart-phone arts-and-sciences. There is a lot of progress to be garnered from this field. The more lucrative the industry, the more participation from technologists and artists, the more impactful the content addiction can have on our society. We simply need to foster the regional industry and participation.

This quest – fostering the economic opportunities from smart-phones/social media – has been addressed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; see sample here:

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to optimizing Caribbean societal engines – economic, security and governance – by means of initiatives in the industry for Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) – including smart-phones and social media applications. But this roadmap is bigger than just smart-phones; its a concerted effort to elevate life in Caribbean communities – to make our society worthy of homesickness.

The Caribbean needs to be successful in keeping their citizens at home; we need our people to want to stay home or to long to come back. We can do this; we can make people homesick – by lowering the “push-and-pull” factors. We must forge change here. And we can; this quest is conceivable, believable and achievable. We can make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂 

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

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Appendix Reference – Dopamine

Dopamine (DA, contracted from 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families that plays several important roles in the brain and body. It is an amine synthesized by removing a carboxyl group from a molecule of its precursor chemical L-DOPA, which is synthesized in the brain and kidneys. Dopamine is also synthesized in plants and most multicellular animals.

In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior. Most types of rewards increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and many addictive drugs increase dopamine neuronal activity. Other brain dopamine pathways are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of various hormones. These pathways and cell groups form a dopamine system which is neuromodulatory.

Outside the central nervous system, dopamine functions primarily as a local chemical messenger. In blood vessels, it inhibits norepinephrine release and acts as a vasodilator (at normal concentrations); in the kidneys, it increases sodium excretion and urine output; in the pancreas, it reduces insulin production; in the digestive system, it reduces gastrointestinal motility and protects intestinal mucosa; and in the immune system, it reduces the activity of lymphocytes. With the exception of the blood vessels, dopamine in each of these peripheral systems is synthesized locally and exerts its effects near the cells that release it.

…

Cocaine, substituted amphetamines (including methamphetamine), Adderall, methylphenidate (marketed as Ritalin or Concerta), MDMA (ecstasy) and other psychostimulants exert their effects primarily or partly by increasing dopamine levels in the brain by a variety of mechanisms.^[84] Cocaine and methylphenidate are dopamine transporter blockers or reuptake inhibitors; they non-competitively inhibit dopamine reuptake, resulting in increased dopamine concentrations in the synaptic cleft.^{[85][86]:54–58} Like cocaine, substituted amphetamines and amphetamine also increase the concentration of dopamine in the synaptic cleft, but by different mechanisms.^[24][86]

The effects of psychostimulants include increases in heart rate, body temperature, and sweating; improvements in alertness, attention, and endurance; increases in pleasure produced by rewarding events; but at higher doses agitation, anxiety, or even loss of contact with reality.^[84] Drugs in this group can have a high addiction potential, due to their activating effects on the dopamine-mediated reward system in the brain.^[84]

Source: Retrieved April 14, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine