Go Lean Commentary
The news in the below article is common … the other way around.
The United States government frequently post Travel Advisories for tourists to foreign countries, even the Caribbean in general and the Bahamas – the country of focus – in particular. But this time, the tables are turned. See the Travel Alert preceded by a related news article here:
Title: The Bahamas Just Issued A Travel Advisory For The U.S., Citing Police Violence
By:Salvador Hernandez, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Sub-title: “Young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational.”
The Bahamas on Friday issued a travel advisory [as follows] for citizens planning to go to the United States, warning them about the tensions in some cities over the shooting of young black men.
“Do not get involved in political or other demonstrations under any circumstances and avoid crowds,” the government warned.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration specifically warned young males to be aware of how they interact with U.S. police officers, telling them to “exercise extreme caution.”
“In particular, young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police,” the advisory states. “Do not be confrontational and cooperate.”
The advisory comes after five officers in Dallas were shot and killed Thursday by a sniper targeting police. Seven other officers were injured in the attack.
About 800 protesters were marching in the Dallas after police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. On Friday, protests against police violence against black men also occurred in Atlanta, New York, and Phoenix.
The warning from the Ministry of of Foreign Affairs was also posted on the government’s Ministry of Environment and Housing Facebook page, and Consulate General’s New York website, and its own Facebook page.
The U.S. issues similar advisories when violence has broken out in other countries. For example, the State Department issued travel advisories for France after the terror attacks in Paris, in Bangladesh after 20 hostages were killed, and Mexico during a wave of drug cartel violence.
While some countries have warned its citizens about crime in foreign cities, a warning about possible unrest in the U.S. is uncommon.
An official with the U.S. Department of State declined to comment on the warning issued by the Bahamas.
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Alert!
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Issues Travel Advisory for Bahamians traveling to United States of America
For Immediate Release
8 July 2016
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has taken a note of the recent tensions in some American cities over shootings of young black males by police officers.
At the commencement of the Independence holiday weekend, many Bahamians will no doubt use the opportunity to travel, in particular to destinations in the United States.
We wish to advise all Bahamians traveling to the US but especially to the affected cities to exercise appropriate caution generally. In particular young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate.
If there is any issue please allow consular offices for The Bahamas to deal with the issues. Do not get involved in political or other demonstrations under any circumstances and avoid crowds.
The Bahamas has consular offices in New York, Washington, Miami and Atlanta and honorary consuls in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Houston.
Their addresses are on the Ministry’s website – mofa.gov.bs
Pay attention to the public notices and news announcements in the city that you are visiting.
Be safe, enjoy the holiday weekend and be sensible.
Source: Posted July 8, 2016 from: http://mofa.gov.bs/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-and-immigration-issues-travel-advisory-for-bahamians-traveling-to-united-states-of-america/
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VIDEO – Officer lashes out at ‘racist’ cops in viral video – http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/07/09/officer-lashes-out-racist-cops-viral-video-newday.cnn
Cleveland police officer Nakia Jones posted a video on Facebook strongly criticizing “racist” police officers. Source: CNN
This is not a “cry wolf” scenario; there have been some real tragic episodes impacting the American social order… especially this week. Consider this recap:
- A Facebook video vent viral showing white police officers killing a black man, Alton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday.
- A Facebook video vent viral showing a white police officer killing a black man, Philando Castile, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Wednesday.
- On Thursday, a sniper – Micah Johnson, a Black man – opened fire on white police officers protecting a protest rally in Dallas, Texas by the Black Lives Matter movement, killing 5 officers and injuring 7 others, claiming to be enraged by the Cop-on-Black killings above.
Yes, there is the need for this unprecedented* advisory.
According to the book Go Lean…Caribbean, advisories of this sort need to be permanent, not just temporary. This is due to the many societal distresses incurred by Bahamians and Caribbean citizens traveling to the US for permanent residency; these ones should be warned. This book posits that it is easier for the Black-and-Brown populations of the Caribbean to prosper where planted in the Caribbean rather than fleeing to the US for refuge.
Neither societies are perfect! But the Go Lean book asserts that the societal engines in the Caribbean are easier to optimize than the societal defects in the American homeland.
The Go Lean book and movement serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). With the word ‘Trade‘ in the CU‘s branding, obviously the CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment; but the truth of the matter is that the security dynamics of the region are inextricably linked to this economic endeavor. 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 roadmap posits that the Caribbean region must work to optimize its society. So the request is that all Caribbean member-states form and empower a federal government to execute a limited scope on Caribbean nations and territories. The goal is to confederate under a unified entity for both economic and security causes. The Caribbean’s public safety must be holistic!
The Go Lean roadmap puts the focus on the Greater Good. This is defined as “the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.” – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).
The US has bad actors.
The Caribbean has bad actors.
The Bahamas has bad actors.
The book contends that bad actors emerges just as a result of economic success. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:
x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.
xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.
The Caribbean appointing “new guards”, or a security pact to ensure public safety is a comprehensive endeavor, encapsulating the needs of all Caribbean stakeholders: governments, institutions and residents.
As the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs give a travel advisory to Black Bahamians (90% of population) traveling to the US to avoid danger in interacting with the US police establishment, the planners for an elevated Caribbean society, the Go Lean movement, give warning that the presence and practices of our American neighbors are not always benevolent for us in the Caribbean.
This is a mission of the Go Lean roadmap, to dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to the American homeland.
Why do they flee?
“Push” and “pull” reasons.
Where as “push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that moves people to want to get away, “pull” factors, on the other hand, refer to the impressions and perceptions that America is better.
These travel advisories now say to Caribbean people: America could be harmful to your health and welfare!
Touché …
Let’s hope these advisories lower the “pull” factors.
The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide better optimized Caribbean life (economic and security concerns):
| Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Minority Equalization | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Cooperatives | Page 25 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations | Page 34 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing | Page 35 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
| Tactical – Confederating a non-sovereign union | Page 63 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – CU Federal Agencies -vs- Member-states | Page 75 |
| Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change | Page 101 |
| Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives | Page 102 |
| Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives | Page 103 |
| Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate | Page 118 |
| Planning – Big Ideas – Regional Single Market | Page 127 |
| Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better | Page 131 |
| Planning – Ways to Better Manage the Caribbean Image | Page 133 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy | Page 151 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs | Page 152 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance | Page 168 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract | Page 170 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership | Page 171 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice | Page 177 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime | Page 178 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security | Page 180 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis | Page 182 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters – Many flee after disasters | Page 184 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora | Page 217 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage | Page 218 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights | Page 220 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living | Page 234 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact US Territories | Page 244 |
If only we had Caribbean member-states giving travel advisories to Caribbean citizens in the past; with warnings like:
Caution: Abandoning your homeland is bad for you … and your homeland.
… or …
Caution: The grass is not greener on the other side.
This subject of “push and pull” has been frequently blogged on in other Go Lean commentaries; as sampled here with these entries muting American “pull” factors:
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8202 | Respect for Minorities: Lessons Learned from American Dysfunction |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8200 | Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8099 | Caribbean Image: ‘Less Than’? |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7221 | Street naming for Martin Luther King unveils the real America |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7204 | ‘The Covenant with Black America’ – Ten Years Later |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6189 | A Lesson in History – Hurricane ‘Katrina’ exposed a “Climate of Hate” |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5733 | Better than America? Yes, We Can! |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527 | American Defects: Racism – Is It Over? |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5333 | Racial Legacies: Cause and Effect |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5304 | Mitigating the Eventual Abuse of Power |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4863 | Video Evidence of American Injustice |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360 | Dreading the American: ‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’ |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 | A European Sport’s Problem with Blatant Racism – Also Relevant |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=546 | American Model: Book Review – ‘The Divide’ – … Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341 | Hypocritical US slams Caribbean human rights practices |
| https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 | 10 Things We Don’t Want from the US: Racism against immigrants |
Underlying to the prime directive of elevating the economics, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, is the desire to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. We know “bad actors” will emerge – they always do – so travel advisories will continue to be issued on both sides: Caribbean and American. We want proactive and reactive mitigations to ensure our Caribbean communities are safe for our stakeholders (residents and visitors). We entreat the American forces to work towards ensuring safety for our Caribbean citizens when they are visiting or studying in the US. We do not want “bad actors” in either homeland disrupting the peace.
The Go Lean roadmap was composed with the community ethos of the Greater Good foremost; “the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few” (Page 37). All Caribbean stakeholders are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂
Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
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* Appendix – Unusual Advisories on Travel to the United States
News Article Title: 25 Unusual Foreign Travel Warnings for Visiting the U.S. By: Shaunacy Ferro
What do foreign tourists worry about when they visit the U.S.? Expensive emergency healthcare, overly sensitive attitudes towards nude sunbathing, and gross tap water, apparently. That’s according to travel warnings for potential U.S. tourists from around the world. These government-issued advisories can seem like common sense for Americans, but they also reveal significant cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries.
Most countries warn their citizens of America’s high rates of both firearm possession and crime. Don’t anger Americans, several countries subtly hint, lest they have a gun. Many warn visitors to get travel insurance since, unlike at home, they won’t be covered by a national healthcare system should they get injured. Others provide even more specific advice to avoid certain neighborhoods and businesses. Here are 25 unexpected travel warnings from around the world aimed at those visiting the U.S. [(Click here for the actual details of each of these headlines)]:
1. DON’T GET RIPPED OFF AT AN ORLANDO GAS STATION (UK)
2. TAKE CARE OF THE FLOWERS (CHINA)
3. DO NOT USE HOTMAIL OR GMAIL (AUSTRALIA)
4. DO NOT STALK ANYONE (GERMANY)
5. WATCH OUT FOR GUNS AT NIGHTTIME (CANADA)
6. STAY AWAY FROM THE EAST COAST (CHINA)
7. REALLY, WATCH OUT FOR GUNS (GERMANY)
8. DOORS MIGHT BE CLOSED (RUSSIA)
9. DO NOT INSPIRE ROAD RAGE (CHINA)
10. DO NOT TALK TO PROSTITUTES (GERMANY)
11. DON’T PEE IN THE STREET (SWITZERLAND)
12. DON’T JOKE ABOUT BOMBS (UK)
13. TRY TO AVOID BEING NAKED (GERMANY)
14. FEEL FREE TO SHACK UP (AUSTRIA)
15. DON’T CUT IN LINE (CHINA)
16. DON’T EXPECT AIR TRAVEL TO BE SAFE (CANADA)
17. VACCINES DON’T CAUSE AUTISM (MEXICO)
18. THE TAP WATER TASTES GROSS (AUSTRIA)
19. THE AMERICAN DREAM ISN’T REAL (RUSSIA)
20. EXPECT HARASSMENT IN ARIZONA (MEXICO)
21. YOU MIGHT GET EXTRADITED (RUSSIA)
22. WATCH OUT FOR EXPENSIVE DOCTOR VISITS (AUSTRALIA)
23. DON’T LEAVE TRASH IN YOUR CAR (CANADA)
24. TAXI DRIVERS KNOW NOTHING (RUSSIA)
25. PAY YOUR TRAFFIC TICKETS (GERMANY)
Source: Retrieved July 9, 2016 from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/68276/25-unusual-foreign-travel-warnings-visiting-us