Tag: College

Caribbean Unity? Ross University Saga

Posted on August 28, 2018 in Government, Implementation, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

11Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? 12And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. – The Bible Ecclesiastes 4:11 – 12 Berean Study Bible

It is so unfortunate that these Caribbean islands think that they are … “islands”. Didn’t they ever hear:

‘No man is an island’? – English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631)
The phrase ‘no man is an island‘ expresses the idea that human beings do badly when isolated from others and need to be part of a community in order to thrive. Donne was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism.

These islands do acknowledge that there are other islands, but rather than cooperating and collaborating together, the strategy seems to be limited to just competition – “It’s Better in … “

This is the continued focus of this series of commentaries on Caribbean [dis]unity. This submission is 2 of 4 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the societal defects in the region that prevents us from banding together. We do not reform nor transform like other communities; we do not confederate nor consolidate; we somehow think that we are better than our neighbors and can survive alone. What a joke!

The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Caribbean Unity? – What a joke – Tourism Missteps
  2. Caribbean Unity? – Ross University Saga
  3. Caribbean Unity? – No Freedom of Movement in/out of French Antilles
  4. Caribbean Unity? – Religion’s Role: False Friend

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd unity in this region. But first we must accept that Caribbean Unity is a joke, despite a previous formal exercise in regional integration called CariCom. In truth, CariCom is not the first integration attempt:

  • In the English-speaking islands, there was the disastrous West Indies Federation.
  • In the Dutch-speaking islands, there was the now-defunct Netherlands Antilles.

This talk of Caribbean Unity/Disunity is not just academic; this has real world implications. Just last year, the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica was devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Maria; the operations of their biggest non-tourism economic engine – Ross University and their 3500 students – was greatly impacted. The end result, another island, Barbados seems to have recruited Ross University to “relocate shop” to their island … permanently – not just during the recovery. This charge reflects the disunity of the region. Dominica and Barbados should have been collaborating, not competing.

This is not just our movement’s complaint alone; many community leaders identify and observe this bad trend. Consider here, this news article relating the story:

Title: Ross University saga an indictment on CARICOM
The leader of the Lucian Peoples Movement, Therold Prudent, has declared that the Ross University saga involving Dominica and Barbados, is an indictment on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the regional grouping to which both countries belong.

The institution is relocating from Dominica to Barbados.

“It just proves that we are like crabs in a barrel,” Prudent told St Lucia Times in an interview Friday.

“We are continually fighting each other for a little bread, for opportunity, whereas we should be standing with each other and at least saying to this University ‘Listen, this is a sister Island. You can’t just pick up and go and just come into another Caribbean Island because you believe that the terms aren’t favourable to you anymore in that particular country.’”

The LPM leader asserted that countries within CARICOM need to speak with one voice.

He expressed the view that the Ross University issue demonstrates that foreigners and investors understand the disunity and weakness in CARICOM and Caribbean Islands.

According to Prudent, the investors understand that all they have to do is “put a carrot before us and we will jump for it, not mindful if it is going to cost the other nation or country which is a part of CARICOM. ”

He said CARICOM has not lived up to expectations, including speaking with one voice on the international stage and adopting a unified foreign policy.

“Right now we are in a situation where everybody is looking after themselves and it is not about the region as a whole” the LPM leader lamented.

He told St Lucia Times that under such circumstances, it is easy for investors to disrespect the Caribbean.

On Tuesday, Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley was quoted as  denying that there was anything underhanded by her administration, in accepting the Ross University School of Medicine’s move to the island from Dominica.

Mottley asserted that the hands of her administration are clean, local media reports said.

Last Friday,  Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that Ross University, which had been forced to relocate its operations to St Kitts and the state of Tennessee in the United States following the passage of Hurricane Maria last September, would be leaving the Eastern Caribbean nation after 40 years.

Source: Posted August 10, 2018; retrieved August 23, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/08/10/prudent-ross-university-saga-an-indictment-on-caricom/

As related in the foregoing, these words by a St Lucian Opposition Party Leader is quite an indictment:

“… foreigners and investors understand the disunity and weakness in CARICOM and Caribbean Islands”

Our disunity is a joke … to the rest of the world!

No doubt, there should be regional integration. In fact what is needed is a Single Market. The spirit of CariCom – attempting integration – is a good one; but the execution is failing. The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – opened with an honest assessment of CariCom; it stated (Page 14):

In July 2013, the Caribbean Community (CariCom) celebrated its 40th anniversary of ascension to pomp and gallantry… and much criticism. Many political and social commentators expressed how the CariCom had disappointed so many in their delivery of any reasonable success for economic integration. One commentator, Caribbean icon Sir Shridath Ramphal, (who served as the second British Commonwealth Secretary-General from 1975-1990; Foreign Minister of Guyana from 1972 – 1975; and previous stints as Chancellor at the University of the West Indies – until 2003 – and of the University of Guyana), charged that the leadership in the Caribbean region has “put the gears of the CariCom Single Market in neutral and the gears of its Single Economy into reverse”.

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean seeks to reboot and relaunch the integration effort. But this time, with all Caribbean member-states (30), not just the English-speaking, but partnering with the French Antilles and Spanish-speaking states as well. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an elevated entity that graduates from CariCom. The CU is design to reach greater heights than CariCom ever contemplated; see Appendix CU > CC below.

There are a lot of issues that affect the economic landscape that are too big for any one member-state to contend with alone. Category 5 hurricanes are one of them. The facilitation to restore and recover should be a regional effort and not just a national issue. Obviously, Dominica failed in its delivery for Ross University; see the encyclopedic details on that school history and recovery here (and the Appendix VIDEO on Ross 40th Year Timeline below):

Title: Ross University School of Medicine
History
The medical school was founded in 1978 as The University of Dominica School of Medicine by Robert Ross, an entrepreneur.[2][3] At the time, it was housed in leased facilities at The Castaways Hotel, with an inaugural class of 11 students. In 1982, the University of Dominica School of Medicine formally changed its name to Ross University School of Medicine at the request of the government of Dominica.

In 1985 California state medical licensing officials (the Board of Medical Quality Assurance), began investigating RUSM, along with other medical schools located in the Caribbean.[4] The officials released a report stating that RUSM at that time had nearly no admissions standards, and that the school was in the business of providing medical degrees to “everyone that wants one.”[4] RUSM agreed to implement a number of changes recommended by the board and has since graduated over 11,000 practicing physicians.[4]

In the late 1990s, RUSM expressed interest in opening a new medical school in Casper, in the U.S. state of Wyoming, but accreditation was denied by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the organization that accredits MD-granting medical schools in the United States.[5] Some local individuals welcomed the economic impact of a new medical school on the town, but critics questioned the quality of education at a for-profit institution.[5] In 2003, RUSM was acquired by DeVry Education Group,[6] which has since renamed itself Adtalem Global Education.

The school was impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017, when the Category 5 storm made landfall on the island of Dominica. The hurricane knocked out communications, effectively isolating RUSM from the outside world. The campus suffered moderate damage from the effects of Maria. Students and faculty were located through a university-initiated roll call, and then were evacuated from the campus to the U.S. mainland.[7]

In October 2017, the university announced that classes for the fall semester would resume mid-October aboard the GNV Excellent, an Italian ferry that would be docked off the coast of the island of St. Kitts. The ship was reconfigured as an educational venue. [7]

In November 2017, Ross University School of Medicine announced plans to relocate temporarily to Knoxville, Tennessee for continuation of medical school classes. Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), based in Harrogate, Tennessee and with operations in Knoxville, will provide the necessary operational capacity and the technical capabilities to support RUSM faculty, students, and staff. [8]

Ross University School of Medicine has announced that the main campus will be relocated from Dominica to Barbados for the beginning of the 2019 Spring semester. [9] [10]

Source: Retrieved August 23,  2018 from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_University_School_of_Medicine#History

Poor Ross University and poor Dominica.

The governance in this Caribbean region is so poor that these institutions could not anticipate the worst-case scenario of a hurricane. Sad! 🙁

The Caribbean as a region and the nation-state of Dominica has an inadequate status quo for providing the needs of the people and trading partners in these homelands. We are also inadequate for dealing with the challenges of nation-building. As a regional construct, we must do better! We must convene, consolidate, collude, confederate and collaborate, not compete.

The CU is designed to be a technocratic intergovernmental entity that shepherds economic growth for the full Caribbean region and mitigate against related security challenges – including preparation and response for natural disasters. The goal is to use a regional focus to reboot and optimize the region’s societal engines. The Go Lean/CU roadmap will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

The Go Lean book stresses that the required reform to transform Caribbean disaster preparation may be too big for any one country (think: Dominica); the solution must be a regional delivery (think: CariCom). This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.

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.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, for better preparation for natural disasters. Consider this specific implementation the book, where the functionality of the Emergency Management Agency is described; this is a subset of the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department. This is described in the book as follows on Page 76 with the section title:

B – Homeland Security Department

B4 – Emergency Management

This area is perhaps one of the most important functions of the CU. The Emergency Management Department will coordinate the planning, response, rebuilding and recovery before, during and after natural disasters and other emergency events. This is the risk management arm of the CU Trade Federation. As such, the scope of Emergency Management will also include education, mentoring, monitoring, mitigation, licensing and coordination of all volunteer activities.
…
Emergencies also include the man-made variety as in industrial (oil spills, factory accidents, chemical spills), explosions, terroristic attacks and prison riots. The purpose of the Trade Federation is to enhance the economic engines of the region.

While the # 1 economic driver in the region is tourism, any poorly managed episode of “man-made” emergencies will have devastating effects on tourist bookings. Therefore, the CU must respond quickly, forcefully and professionally to contain the physical and image damage that can occur from these incidents.

Though not exclusive, this agency will coordinate its specialized services, skill-sets and occupations like Paramedic, EMT, Search-and-Rescue, Canine (K-9) with other governing (law enforcement) entities. Regional training will therefore be coordinated, licensed, and certified by this CU Emergency Management Department.

This Emergency Management agency will also coordinate the training and management of animal responders, in conjunction with the other federal agencies of Justice, Agriculture, Interior (Parks). The animals will include bomb sniffing dogs, cadaver dogs, drug dogs and mounted police horses.

There is also an economic/financial scope for this department. As the effort for a comprehensive property-casualty fund to cover the entire Caribbean region will also be coordinated by this agency. The classic solution is a large pool of premium payers and claims filed by the affected area. Beyond this model, there are also advanced products like re-issuance side-cars for market assimilation. The public can then invest and profit from the threat/realization of regional risks. This derivative product is a bet, a gamble, but in the end, the result is an insurance fund of last resort, much like the Joint Underwriters Agency (JUA) in Florida.

The Caribbean must foster a better disaster preparation and response apparatus. Systems of commerce are at stake. So the Go Lean roadmap address “this” as a Prime Directive, asserting that the region’s security and economics must be managed with the same priorities. This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for regional disaster preparation and response; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15059 Regional Tourism & Disaster Coordination – No Longer Optional
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15031 “Profiting” from Hurricanes – Disaster Risk Funds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15012 In Life or Death: No Love for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14832 Example of Manifesting Environmental Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391 After Maria, Destruction and Defection for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996 After Irma, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12977 After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12900 The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12879 Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455 Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6893 A Meteorologist’s View On Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817 Caribbean grapples with intense cycles of flooding & drought

In summary, the Caribbean has a problem. So many of our people – and institutions – flee their homelands, especially in the aftermath of disastrous storms. The reasons they leave are defined as both “push” and “pull”. “Push” would refer to the resultant deficient infrastructure forcing stakeholders to abandon the community, and “pull” would refer to the perception that there are better economic opportunities elsewhere, so these ones are lured or pulled to make a living elsewhere.

Ross University was pushed from Dominica and pulled to Barbados! This is a direct product of deficient recovery!

In general, 70 percent brain drain rate has been reported among the professional classes., so our problem experienced by Ross University in this case is not unique. This lack of recovery ability emerged before Hurricane Maria and will continue long after … if the region do not implement better recovery systems and schemes.

It is time now to deploy the practical measure of a better recovery system and scheme – think Regional Risk Reinsurance Funds. This starts with the concepts of confederation and collaboration; not competition. This is our best hope for the future.

So we must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines to better allow for our tropical realities. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. These practical measures are conceivable, believable and achievable.

All Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – are urged to lean-in to this roadmap for change … and empowerment. We can make our region a better place to live work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

—————

Appendix – CU > CC (CU Greater Than CariCom)

There have been some efforts at regional integration, but only for individual language groups.

The Caribbean Union is the next evolution from the structured economic integration that became the Caribbean Community, but now for all neighbors. The globally accepted 7 degrees of economic integration, which spurned CariCom, are defined as:

  1. Preferential trading area
  2. Free trade area, Monetary union
  3. Customs union, Common market
  4. Economic union, Customs and monetary union
  5. Economic and monetary union
  6. Fiscal union
  7. Complete economic integration

CariCom was enacted in 1973 as Stage 3; but Stage 4 was ratified in 2001 and branded the Caribbean Single Market & Economy. This effort sputtered – see Anecdote # 1. The CU is a new manifestation of Stage 4; a graduation for CariCom.

Source: Book – Go Lean … Caribbean Page 3

—————

Appendix VIDEO – RUSM 40th Anniversary Timeline – https://youtu.be/R62eushQSdE

Ross University School of Medicine

Published on Jun 22, 2018 –

Category: Education

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Graduation Speakers – Say ‘Something Nice’ or Nothing At All

Posted on May 27, 2018 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Congratulations to all the graduates in the Class of 2018.

Way to go! Before you move the tassel from left to right, you have to endure the invited speaker who should deliver an inspired Commencement speech. To that speaker, we urge: “Say something nice or say nothing at all”.

Please learn the good lesson from this bad speech delivered last year to the combined graduating classes – 400 students – of all 4 public high schools in Grand Bahama (Freeport), Bahamas in June 2017.

This was really bad!

First though, some background …

… this was one month after the new government came into power in the Bahamas. The political party, Free National Movement, with the Leader and thusly the new Prime Minister, Dr. Hubert A. Minnis, was voted in with a landslide victory on May 10, 2017. The party, and new Cabinet, was thrust into power by a mandate of the Bahamian people; their demand for a change because the assessments before were so very bad. The new Minister of Education, Jeffrey Lloyd was called on to give this graduation speech. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that this was his first one; see here:

Title: Education Minister tells GB Public School Graduates to Think Globally, Get Qualified, Come Back and Build Their Country

By: Andrew Coakley, Bahamas Information Services

FREEPORT, Grand Bahama – Minister of Education the Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd told the 2017 graduating class of public school students in Grand Bahama that The Bahamas critically needs their talents to positively shape and form the future of these islands.  “Go out and see the world – there are six or seven continents in this world — go and visit them all, and even work in them all, but come back home and build your country,” said Minister Lloyd.

“We need your talents, your brilliance, your capabilities and your insights so that we can become the best little country on God’s earth.”

The Education Minister’s remarks came during graduation ceremonies for the Ministry of Education’s Inaugural Bahamas High School Diploma, which was held at the Grand Lucayan resort on Friday, June 9, 2017. The ceremony combined the public schools on Grand Bahama, inclusive of Jack Hayward High School, St. George’s High School, Eight Mile Rock High, as well as students from the Beacon School.

“Today, there are nearly 50,000 students in the public schools in this country,” said Minister Lloyd.  “Young people like you, under the age of 20, make up approximately 40 percent of the population of this land. Those under 30 make up almost 60 percent of this population.

“So, without a doubt, the future social atmosphere, the cultural identity, the economic and political reality of this country is directly tied to the constructive development of you. This is a time of great opportunity; it is also a time of great trial and challenge.

“There are many, many negative influences that swirl about in your young lives.”

He apologized to those graduates who may not have had the opportunity to have positive role models in their lives and within their environments. He said those are not the paradigm they must follow, but that Jesus, the Christ is the role model to follow.

“And what he invites you to understand graduates, is that you must let no one take your greatness, your potential, your power, your magnificence nor your splendor from you,” said Minister Lloyd.

The Education Minister reminded the students that they live in what is considered to be one of the most exciting times in mankind’s history.

Minister Lloyd reminded teachers that education has changed and is constantly changing; now it is driven by technology.

“So educators, if you are not tech savvy, you better get there, because that is the world we live in today. Unlike anytime in our history the re-dedication of the educational professional to their craft and the outcomes they seek, what we seek, is never more powerful.”

Minister Lloyd left the graduates with three final thoughts as they move to the next level of their lives: Think globally, get qualified and become mobile.

Source: Posted June 12, 2017; retrieved May 26, 2018 from The Official Website of the Government of The Bahamas

We have made this assessment of the speech and verbiage of this new government before. These words by the Education Minister is the same bad advice:

“Go out and see the world … visit them all, and even work in them all, but come back home and build your country”.

Yeah, nobody does that! They leave; they very seldom come back!

The Education Minister here seems to be doubling-down on failure. In a previous blog-commentary, the Prime Minister, Dr. Minnis, addressed a Bahamian Diaspora group and he portrayed them as if they were the panacea, the “cure-all”, for what ails the Bahamas. This attitude truly reflects why the Bahamas, and especially this 2nd city of Freeport, is failing in all their societal engines. The problem is abandonment or human flight. Now, the chief educator in the country stares down at these young impressionable men and women and urges them further to …

Leave!
Get world experience and then maybe, if its not too much trouble, come back.

It is a well known fact, that the college educated populations in the Bahamas do NOT come back. In fact, according to a World Bank study, the country suffers from a 61 percent abandonment rate.

Most of what ails Freeport and the whole Bahamas (actually true for the entire Caribbean) is the human flight of their most educated citizens. A country cannot “nation build” without nation-builders. A government policy that urges young ones to leave and complete their development abroad is a flawed strategy; it should not be spoken. This is not just a problem for the Bahamas,  but has been consistently lambasted in these other Caribbean member-states:

This commentary is from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We have criticized every Caribbean member-state that projects policies that encourage more traffic among their Diaspora – those who had fled, being “pushed” or “pulled” away from their homeland. This policy-strategy double-downs on the failure of why the Diaspora left in the first place. A previous commentary explained:

The subtle message to the Caribbean population is that they need to leave their homeland, go get success and then please remember to invest in us afterwards.

… It is so unfortunate that the people in the Caribbean are beating down the doors to get out of their Caribbean homeland, to seek refuge in these places like the US, Canada and Western Europe. … We have such a sad state of affairs for our Caribbean eco-system as we are suffering from a bad record of societal abandonment.

This movement advocates for the people of Freeport, people of the Bahamas and the people of the Caribbean. We want them all to “prosper where planted” in their Caribbean homelands. But first, we must “stop the bleeding” – even student loans have been defaulted by those abandoning their Bahamian homeland. Leaving home to matriculate and/or work has a serious and consistent track record of failure. This should never be the theme of a Commencement address.

Our quest should be to “stop the bleeding”. This is truly a quest, and not just an idea. This is not easy; there is heavy-lifting involved. We must assess the reasons why people leave, the “push and pull” factors, then conceive strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to assuage the bad trend. Yes, this quest is conceivable, believable and achievable.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – Freeport, for the Bahamas and for all member-states. The book asserts that the region must work to hold on its populations – especially the well-educated classes – not send them away and see them never return from foreign shores. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents these 3 prime directives:

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

The book aligns with the vision of the Education Minister and the  Prime Minister of the Bahamas in the desire to reform and transform their community. But the Go Lean roadmap does not double-down on the failing policy of “leaving off” from nation-building for the hope that maybe someday, the student can nation-build later. Rather, the book provides the turn-by-turn direction of how to reform Bahamian (and all Caribbean) education systems now with the new education regime that the Education Minister alluded to in his ill-fated speech:

Minister Lloyd reminded teachers that education has changed and is constantly changing; now it is driven by technology.

The Go Lean movement has consistently urged Caribbean communities to invest … in post-secondary education options right here in the region, or better still, right here at home, maybe even e-Learning solutions. These points were exhaustingly detailed in these previous blog-commentaries:

There is a reason, this commentary can criticize the Minister of Education, the Honorable Jeffrey Lloyd. Despite his knowledge, desire and hope for the students in his audience, he could not present this “study local and online” plan. The problems facing the Bahamas are too insurmountable for the Bahamas alone. This government’s scope is only a population of 320,000; the ideal solutions require more leverage, a BIGGER market. This is the strategy of the CU/Go Lean roadmap; it  targets all 30 Caribbean member-states and their 42 million people. The larger scope is accomplished by forging a Single Market of all these countries and catering for the educational needs of this full Single Market.

Yes, a better educational landscape – one that minimizes the risk of abandonment – is ushered in with an interdependence of the Caribbean member-states. This was an early motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14) of the book:

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.

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.

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries … [and] invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … impacting the region with more jobs.

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 vision of Caribbean interdependence is a great theme for a Commencement address. Describing the prospects of an inviting homeland where the students can prosper would be an truly inspirational speech. Inspiration is one of the mandates of any good Commencement address; see Appendix. So to the Honorable Minister Jeffrey Lloyd, we hereby deliver to you this previous blog-commentary for your consideration; and grant you permission to glean from its inspiration and messaging:

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

… Changing one-self; changing the community and changing the world; these are great aspirations! This is such a familiar theme for the [Go Lean] movement …

Yes, the societal defects of the Caribbean can be fixed – remediated and mitigated – but “if it is going to be, it starts with me”; it is necessary for all stakeholders to engage in the effort to turn-around the Caribbean. To forge change, the region must consider top-down and bottoms-up approaches, so we need the multitude of Caribbean people (bottoms-up) and politicians and community leaders (top-down) to lean-in to this quest to turn-around the community. Yes, it starts with “me”, as in everyone.

So Minister Jeffrey Lloyd, we urge you to say “something nice” … like this or say nothing at all.

For an example of an inspiring Commencement address, see this VIDEO in the Appendix below.

Freeport is in dire straits. The city needs its young men and women to be champions at home, not on the road. So urging Freeport’s human capital to leave is just irresponsible. Any effort to reboot Freeport can only be exerted by being in Freeport. This commentary had previously detailed the assessment and possibilities for Freeport; see this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10470 More ‘Bad News’ for Freeport
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7528 A Vision of Freeport as a Self-Governing Entity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449 ‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now? Case Study: Freeport
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5542 Freeport’s Bad Model: Economic Dysfunctions with Rent-Seeking
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4185 Caribbean Ghost Towns: It Could Happen…Again in Freeport
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037 How to Train Your ‘Dragon’ – Freeport Version
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641 ‘We Built This City …’ on Music and Entertainment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2585 A Lesson in History for Freeport – Concorde SST
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=300 Dire City – ‘10,000 Bahamians Living in Darkness in Grand Bahama’

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 Freeport and the regional collective of Caribbean communities.

To the people of Freeport, and to all the Caribbean, we urge …

Stay Home! Do NOT double-down on failure … by fleeing. The grass is not greener on the other side – of the border – you can thrive more at home than as an alien resident in another land. In North America or Europe, you will always be “alien”.

As related in this commentary, joining the Diaspora is bad for the Diaspora and bad for the Caribbean. The Diaspora should not be counted on to come back and save their previous Caribbean homes. No we must do the heavy-lifting ourselves. We can succeed to make our homelands better places to live, work and play so that our citizens can prosper where planted. This way, they wouldn’t have to leave in the first place. 🙂

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

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

—————

Appendix VIDEO – Chadwick Boseman’s Howard University 2018 Commencement Speech – https://youtu.be/RIHZypMyQ2s

Howard University

Published on May 14, 2018 – Howard University alumnus Chadwick Boseman provides words of inspiration to the Class of 2018 during Howard University’s 150th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 12 in Washington, D.C.

  • Category: Education
  •  License: Standard YouTube License
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Counter-culture: Monetizing the Change

Posted on May 11, 2018 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Put your money where your mouth is” – Popular Challenge

It is appropriate to look back 50 years at the height of the counter-culture – Hippie movement – and ask the question:

Were the counter-culturists willing to pay for the change they were demanding?

As asserted in the last submission of this series of commentaries on the counter-culture of the 1960’s/1970’s, the counter-culturists didn’t just go away, they won! They had some relative victory and transformed the mainstream values of society.

A counter-culture typically involves criticism or rejection of the status quo powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society. There was a subsequent shift in the Social Contract deliveries after this counter revolution.

But how did the advocates pay for the change?

In the height of the 1960’s counter-culture movement, this question was asked – by the Number 1 English-speaking band, The Beatles – and the answers didn’t emerge for years, decades and generations.

The question was in the form of a song – You say you want a Revolution – see here (and the lyrics in Appendix A below):

VIDEO – The Beatles: Revolution (1968) – https://youtu.be/BGLGzRXY5Bw

The Beatles

Published on Oct 20, 2015 – The Beatles 1 Video Collection is Out Now. Get your copy here: http://thebeatles1.lnk.to/DeluxeBluRay

“When you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out”

“I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single: as a statement of The Beatles’ position on Vietnam and The Beatles’ position on revolution. For years, on The Beatles’ tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war.” – John Lennon.

“Plugging directly into the Abbey Road desk and pushing the needles into the red achieved the fuzz-guitar sound. According to George Martin “We got into distortion on that, which we had a lot of complaints from the technical people about. But that was the idea: it was John’s song and the idea was to push it right to the limit. Well, we went to the limit and beyond.”

“Revolution” was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and filmed on the 4th September 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios. “Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right”

Music video by The Beatles performing Revolution. (C) 2015 Calderstone Productions Limited (a division of Universal Music Group) / Apple Films Ltd.

Only now, 50 years later, are we able to look (back), listen and learn the lessons from those times. (This exercise is part-and-parcel of the popular 5 L’s methodology: Look, Listen, Learn, Lend-a-hand and Lead). Monetizing the change is easier said than done!

The Beatles stated:

“But if you want money for people with minds that hate … All I can tell is brother you have to wait”

What did the counter-culture movement do so as to monetize the change that they were protesting for? As these groups assimilated their victories into mainstream society, they forced changes to the financial-economic systems as well. For example, one innovation that emerged in the US was moving away from institutional pensions to a new scheme of Individual Retirement Accounts or the 401(k). See more here on the US program, though this term 401K has been used in many other countries as a generic term for Individual Retirement Accounts:

Reference Title: 401(k)
In the United States, a 401(k) plan is the tax-qualified, defined-contribution pension account defined in subsection 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code.[1] Under the plan, retirement savings contributions are provided (and sometimes proportionately matched) by an employer, deducted from the employee’s paycheck before taxation (therefore tax-deferred until withdrawn after retirement or as otherwise permitted by applicable law), and limited to a maximum pre-tax annual contribution of $18,500 (as of 2018).[2][3]

Other employer-provided defined-contribution plans include 403(b) plans for nonprofit institutions, 457(b) plans for governmental employers, and 401(a) plans. These plans may provide total annual addition of $55,000 (as of 2018) per plan participant, including both employee and employer contributions.

History
In the early 1970s a group of high earning individuals from Kodak approached Congress to allow a part of their salary to be invested in the stock market and thus be exempt from income taxes.[4] This resulted in section 401(k) being inserted in the then taxation regulations that allowed this to be done. The section of the Internal Revenue Code that made such 401(k) plans possible was enacted into law in 1978.[5] It was intended to allow taxpayers a break on taxes on deferred income. In 1980, a benefits consultant and attorney named Ted Benna took note of the previously obscure provision and figured out that it could be used to create a simple, tax-advantaged way to save for retirement. The client for whom he was working at the time chose not to create a 401(k) plan.[6] He later went on to install the first 401(k) plan at his own employer, the Johnson Companies[7] (today doing business as Johnson Kendall & Johnson).[8] At the time, employees could contribute 25% of their salary, up to $30,000 per year, to their employer’s 401(k) plan.[9]

Taxation
Income taxes on pre-tax contributions and investment earnings in the form of interest and dividends are tax deferred. The ability to defer income taxes to a period where one’s tax rates may be lower is a potential benefit of the 401(k) plan. The ability to defer income taxes has no benefit when the participant is subject to the same tax rates in retirement as when the original contributions were made or interest and dividends earned. Earnings from investments in a 401(k) account in the form of capital gains are not subject to capital gains taxes. This ability to avoid this second level of tax is a primary benefit of the 401(k) plan. Relative to investing outside of 401(k) plans, more income tax is paid but less taxes are paid overall with the 401(k) due to the ability to avoid taxes on capital gains.

For pre-tax contributions, the employee does not pay federal income tax on the amount of current income he or she defers to a 401(k) account, but does still pay the total 7.65% payroll taxes (social security and medicare).
…
Source: Retrieved May 10, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)

This commentary continues the series on the counter-culture of the 1960’s/1970’s. This series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean considers the experiences of how people deviated from the mainstream society to forge change in their communities. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Counter-culture: Embracing the Change – Battling against Orthodoxy
  2. Counter-culture: Manifesting Change – Environmentalism & ‘Climate Change’ abatement
  3. Counter-culture: Monetizing the Change – Education, Healthcare & Retirement Mandates
  4. Counter-culture: Pushing for Change – Is Ganja here to stay?

All of these commentaries convey “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can forge a change culture when established institutions are dysfunctional and defective; the status quo must be protested. This entry – 3 of 4 – considers the financial and economic changes that emerged as a result of the 1960’s counter-culture movement; subsequently a more independent spirit emerged for planning retirement, education and healthcare. Today there are solutions that deviated from the previous broken institutional offering.

The affected countries – United States, Canada and Western Europe – are in better financial dispositions now than they were in the 1960’s. There are lessons for us to learn and apply here in the Caribbean.

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

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. The deficient delivery of Caribbean Jobs is a sore subject regionally; this is responsible for so much abandonment.
  • 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.

As the foregoing details, 401(k) Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) brought a revolutionary shift in American society for Middle Class economic values. No longer where citizens dependent on broken institutions to deliver their financial solutions late in life. This spirit was also manifested in other areas of American financial life:

  • Education / College Planning – A 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan designed to encourage saving for future college costs. 529 plans, legally known as “qualified tuition plans,” are sponsored by states, state agencies, or educational institutions and are authorized by Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code – Source: SEC.gov.
  • Health Savings Accounts – HSA‘s are tax-advantaged medical savings accounts available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP).[1][2] The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. HSA funds may currently be used to pay for qualified medical expenses at any time without federal tax liability or penalty. Beginning in early 2011 over-the-counter medications cannot be paid with an HSA without a doctor’s prescription.[3] Withdrawals for non-medical expenses are treated very similarly to those in an individual retirement account (IRA) in that they may provide tax advantages if taken after retirement age, and they incur penalties if taken earlier. The accounts are a component of consumer-driven health care. Source: Wikipedia.

All of these financial-economic empowerments enhanced the Middle Class eco-system for young men … and women. The counter-culture brought a lot of opportunities for women … finally. Women in the workplace! It was real thing!

So society changed upwards … for the better by ushering in dual income households (DINC = Double Income No Children). Imagine all the additional capital added to the securities markets (Wall Street) because the Middle Class was now participating in deferred savings and investments schemes. Consider the Economic Study in Appendix B.

Household Budget Before the 1960’s Revolution.

Household Budget After the 1960’s Revolution; a Bigger Pie.

Society also changed downward … because less and less women were fulltime homemakers. Family harmony suffered!

Lessons abound by studying the pro’s and con’s of the after-effect of the counter-culture on Middle Class American life.

The Go Lean book stresses that quest to reform and transform Caribbean societal engines can benefit by looking, listening, learning about the American Middle Class experience; then the goal would be to lend-a-hand and lead with a regional focus. 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.

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.

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. Just “how” can the Caribbean region pay for our revolution, the empowerments to elevate our regional society. This is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 101, entitled: “10 Ways to Pay for Change“. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here:

10 Ways to Pay for Change

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
The [CU] treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, expanding to an economy of 30 member-states of 42 million people, to impact a GDP of over $800 Billion. In order for the CU to reboot the economic engines of the region, the political entity of the unified Caribbean must be rebooted first. That entity is the CariCom. In a commissioned 159-page study, the Turning Around CariCom report published one recommendation after another, all with the same pre-amble: “the budget must be substantially increased”. The analysis of that report is a chicken-and-egg conundrum, the CariCom construct can effectively increase the economics of the region, IF the region increases the funding of the CariCom. The CU Trade Federation implodes that quandary, as the CU will generate its own initial funding, as listed here, below.
2 Spectrum Auctions
The CU will function as a government-owned multinational corporation to deliver services for an integrated Caribbean administration. Having the regional authority, the CU will hold auctions for the radio spectrum in the region. This will generate the CU’s own initial revenue stream, as only rights are being awarded; there is no performance – no fabrication of products or rendering of services. With this strategy, there will be revenues to return back to CU share-holders, member-states, even in the 1st year. (See Appendix IB – Page 279 – for samples/examples).
3 SGE Licenses
4 GPO Logistic Fees
An important CU mission is the Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), an extension of the current Office of Trade Negotiations; but the CU will make purchases and fulfill delivery to member-states, for a handling fee.
5 Regional Lottery
6 EEZ Exploration Rights
7 Homeland Security – Private Protection Licensing
8 Homeland Security – Hurricane Insurance Fund
9 Warrants
Paying for Change first optimizes the payment terms. All CU payments to member-states will be in the form of warrants attached to bonds; this allows the CU to pay lower interest rates. These warrants make the bonds sellable to the public.
10 Foreign Aid & Grants including Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

There have been a number of blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that highlighted the regional economic revolution; this is part-and-parcel to rebooting the Caribbean eco-system. See a sample list of those previous blogs-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744 Caribbean Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13677 Economics of a Beach City: ‘South Beach’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10585 Two Pies: Economic Plan for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269 Education & Economics – Michigan Model
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=599 Ailing Puerto Rico open to radical economic fixes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=242 The Erosion of the Middle Class

In summary, it is only logical that the stewards for a new Caribbean consider the practicalities of how to pay for or monetize “their revolution”. If we want to be serious about effecting change in our society – we do – then we must have a formidable strategic, tactical and operational plan. This is the modus operandi of the Go Lean roadmap: a plan that is conceivable, believable and achievable for making the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂

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

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

————

Appendix A – Song Lyrics: Revolution (1968) by The Beatles

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be
All right, all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be
All right, all right, all right

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul Mccartney

Source: Retrieved May 10, 2018 from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beatles/revolution+1_10026331.html

————

Appendix B – The Effects of Pension Funds on Markets Performance: A Review

Abstract – The worldwide reforming process of pension systems triggered by the demographic transition and globalization has led several countries to implement multi‐pillar pension systems and enhance pension funds. For this reason the studies on the effects that pension funds exert on markets performance have been flourishing in the last decades. In this paper, we provide an updated review of the empirical advances in this field of study, with particular focus on the effects that pension funds produce on labour markets, financial markets and economic growth.

Read the full report at: https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12085

Source: Posted August 22, 2014; retrieved May 10, 2018 Wiley Online Library

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‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – Undermining College Enrollment

Posted on April 30, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary 

Let’s go over this again…

As reported in a previous blog-commentary last year …

Loose lips sink ships …

… this is an American-English idiom meaning “beware of unguarded talk”. The phrase originated on propaganda posters during World War II.[4]  There are similar expressions in other cultures:

The British equivalent used “Careless Talk Costs Lives“, and variations on the phrase “Keep mum“,[5] while in neutral Sweden the State Information Board promoted the wordplay “en svensk tiger” (the Swedish word “tiger” means both “tiger” and “keeping silent”), and Germany used “Schäm Dich, Schwätzer!” (English: “Shame on you, blabbermouth!”).[6]
Source: Retrieved 04-07-2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_lips_sink_ships

Yes, inappropriate talk can undermine societal engines … and economic engines.

Universities, even not-for-profit ones, need to preserve their economic engines. They must have an influx of new students to replace the ones that graduate every year. Where do these students come from?

The economics of universities are simple, especially state-sponsored universities:

  • In-state students pay a per-credit fee for tuition, since state taxes subsidize schools
  • Out-of-state students pay a higher per-credit fee, sometimes double the in-state rate
  • Foreign students must pay out-of-state tuition every year; there is no in-state option for them
  • More revenues – and no financial aid or discounts – are associated with foreign students.

For many American universities, the appeal to lure international students is a “hen that lays golden eggs”. It will be unbecoming to compromise this business arrangement. Enter …

Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States

As reported in that previous blog-commentary, the “United States is suffering the dire consequence of ‘loose lips sinking ships’ right now. The new President – Donald Trump – has made disparaging remarks about certain foreign groups, and then introduced policies that reinforce his disdain for these foreigners”.

As a result, more and more foreign students are refusing to come to the US to matriculate. See the full article here and the Appendix VIDEO below:

Title: Trump blamed as U.S. colleges lure fewer foreign students
Sub-title: U.S. colleges blame the administration’s immigration policies as they fall behind foreign competitors in vying for international students.

American universities are losing out to colleges in other countries in the race to enroll international students, and they’re blaming President Donald Trump.

Foreign competitors are taking advantage of Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, aggressively recruiting the types of foreign students and faculty who would have typically come to the United States for their higher education. The data already show that U.S. colleges are falling behind foreign competitors during the Trump era.

New foreign student enrollment in the U.S. dropped by 3 percent during the 2016-17 school year, and that decline is projected to double this school year, data show. At the same time, universities overseas are seeing increases as high as the double digits. The decline in foreign students enrolling in American colleges is just the latest evidence of Trump’s immigration policies shutting doors in America. The U.S. is also granting fewer visitor visas to people from around the world.

Trump is responsible for the decline in student enrollment, U.S. universities argue — especially his travel ban, which goes before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Dozens of higher education groups wrote in an amicus brief for that case that Trump’s travel ban is a “clarion message of exclusion to millions” that harms universities’ ability to enroll international students and recruit top faculty.

Overseas, they’re gloating. “We don’t actually need to be negative about the American academy, as President Trump is doing more damage to ‘brand America’ on his own than any competitor country ever could,” Phil Honeywood, the CEO of Australia’s international education association, told POLITICO.

“There is no doubt that President Trump’s much-publicized antagonism toward Muslims and migrants has sent out negative messages to students who would otherwise have America at the top of their list as a study destination,” said Honeywood. Australia — long one of America’s top competitors — has seen big jumps in students enrolling from Muslim majority countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia and in the Middle East, he said.

And it’s not just Australia, which saw a 12 percent increase in international students last year. Universities in Canada, China, New Zealand, Japan and Spain all posted double-digit increases in international enrollment, according to data from the nonprofit Institute of International Education.

Meanwhile, the U.S. decline tracked by the IIE was the first time that number had dropped in the 12 years the group collected such data. While the 2017-18 data are not yet available, the decline was projected to more than double, based on the findings of a separate online enrollment survey IIE conducted in October.

Universities say they need to continue to attract the world’s brightest students for America to maintain its scientific edge. They argue foreign students often become important economic drivers, pointing to famous foreign-born entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who grew up in South Africa and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. International students can also help with the bottom line, since they often pay full freight, and some universities charge them more to attend.

“Where the United States retreats, there’s a vacuum, and other countries will rush to fill it,” University of California President Janet Napolitano, who served as Homeland Security secretary in the Obama administration, told POLITICO. “American education has always led the world — and it still leads the world, and it should lead the world. But we are leading the world in an atmosphere where the White House, at least, is sending a very kind of ‘stay away’ message — and that’s a challenge.”

The university groups wrote in the Supreme Court brief that since Trump signed the travel ban, international students have expressed concerns about coming to the U.S. to study, while faculty have turned down jobs and foreign scholars have pulled out of American academic conferences.

“Foreign students, faculty and researchers come to this country because our institutions are rightly perceived as the destinations of choice compared to all others around the globe,” the brief said. The president’s proclamation “altered those positive perceptions with the stroke of a pen,” it said.

In the case, the Supreme Court will hear arguments that Trump overstepped his authority in issuing an order limiting visas to eight countries, six of which are majority Muslim. Among the questions the justices are expected to consider in the case, which was brought by the state of Hawaii and the leader of a Muslim group there, is whether the president’s order violated the Constitution’s ban on establishment of religion by targeting Muslims.

The administration has contended the travel ban is a necessary national-security step, and government attorneys have argued it’s not related to Trump’s vows on the campaign trail to institute a Muslim ban.

It’s not just the travel ban. The Trump administration is considering restricting visas for Chinese citizens, which could hurt Chinese students studying at American universities. Administration officials portray the possible restrictions, as well as steep tariffs, as a response to alleged intellectual property theft.

American colleges, meanwhile, have aggressively pushed for lawmakers to find a way to preserve the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protected from deportation and gave work permits to undocumented individuals brought to the country as children. Trump scrapped the program.

Foreign universities have watched the political climate shift and are pouncing on the opportunity to lure away would-be students and faculty.

“At a time of closing borders and closing minds, students from around the world are choosing Canada,” a group of Canadian universities boasted late last year.

Canada saw an 18 percent jump in international enrollment in 2016. New Zealand saw the biggest boost — a 34 percent increase. International enrollment jumped 25 percent in Spain, 13 percent in Japan and 11 percent in China.

“Ten years ago, China wasn’t even on anyone’s radar screen as a competitor,” said Rachel Banks, director of public policy at NAFSA: Association of International Educators, America’s main international education lobbying group. “They were not active. They were not aggressive at all.”

China has set a goal of enrolling half a million students by the year 2020, and the nation is on a path to exceed that goal early, she said. International students have been a big part of that growth.

Many of these countries long have had aggressive strategies to recruit internationally and have built immigration policies around those efforts.

Australia, for example, allows foreign students to stick around for 18 months after graduation to gain experiential training. Graduates in high-need occupations are able to stay and work for as long as four years. And the country has a path to permanent residency for all foreign graduates.

And they’re not just targeting students.

French President Emmanuel Macron last year announced France would give four-year grants to professors, graduate students and other researchers willing to work on climate change research. Just last month, Canada announced its universities had successfully poached 24 faculty members from colleges in other nations. More than half of them came from American universities, including Harvard, Brown and Duke.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been spending time in Silicon Valley, trying to convince startups there that Canada might be a more friendly place as the U.S. continues to restrict immigration, including through additional scrutiny of work visas.

“That’s pretty telling,” Banks said.

American universities have tried to counter the narrative. Colleges have written letters expressing their continued support for international education, and some have even offered assistance, such as additional housing, for international students. They’ve lobbied aggressively against restrictive immigration policies and entered court battles. The University of California is among the plaintiffs challenging Trump’s decision to scrap DACA.

“The key for us is to be able to still attract the best and the brightest from all over the world,” University of Southern California President C.L. Max Nikias told POLITICO. “That has been part of the strength of who we are as a country.”

Source: Politico – posted April 23, 2018; retrieved April 30, 2018 from: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/23/foreign-students-colleges-trump-544717

College is a big investment; yet nobody wants to spend their BIG money in a place where they are not welcomed.

This lesson must be learned in the Caribbean. We have the same threats afoot. But unlike the US, who has the leverage and surety of “richest Single Market economy in the world” to absorb any fall, our Caribbean member-states are mostly Third World and failing. This commentary has previous detailed how societal deficiency has resulted in a Brain Drain among the educated classes in the Caribbean homeland – all due to “push and pull” reasons. We persecute certain groups in our society; at times our community leaders are projecting “a climate of hate”.

In general, neutralizing a “hateful attitude” has been an ongoing theme for the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book presents the Caribbean region a roadmap to elevate all societal engines, including economics, homeland security and governance. In fact, the prime directives of the roadmap includes the following 3 statements:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety for all and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance for all people, even minority groups, to support these economic and security engines.

The Go Lean book introduces the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as an intergovernmental agency for 30 regional member-states, to provide a better – technocratic – stewardship for the regional economy. We need all community stakeholders to “not sink ships” with their unbridled hatred and disdain for people who may look, act and speak differently than them.

The movement behind the Go Lean book hereby makes this urging to the Caribbean political, social and religious leaders:

Learn from the fallacy of President Trump.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people and leaders – to lean-in for the empowerments described here-in and in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is about jobs and economic opportunities – education included; we need better engines to make our region more prosperous. We can elevate our communities through education!

It is conceivable, believable and achievable to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

———–

Appendix VIDEO – US universities experiencing massive drop in foreign students – https://youtu.be/uIVdCg5zm-4

Published Dec 7, 2017 – FRANCE 24 live news stream: all the latest news 24/7 http://f24.my/YTliveEN Decisions made by US President Donald Trump’s administration are having an effect on the number of foreign students coming to America to study.

A new report says dozens of campuses across the country have lost a big chunk of their foreign students and the drop in numbers means a drop in money as well. In the past school year, foreign students contributed some $37 billion to the US economy, and helped fund around 450,000 jobs. Our correspondents report from Indiana University. Also on the show: An Argentinian court has sentenced former military personnel for their involvement in crimes committed at a notorious torture center during the country’s so-called “Dirty War”, some four decades ago. Only a fraction of the estimated 5,000 anti-government activists who were sent there survived. And in Canada, the small town of Chruchill is the scene for a wintery spectacle every year. In October and November, polar bears travel through the town as part of their winter migration. The move is proving popular with tourists who hope to get close up to the furry, white giants. http://www.france24.com/en/taxonomy/e…

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March Madness 2018 – ENCORE

Posted on March 13, 2018 in Industries, Locations, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Welcome to March. Welcome to Madness. But the focus here is on basketball, not Mental Health.

Wow, what a mania!

March is time for the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament. This is where 68 teams come together in a single-elimination tournament to determine who would be the National Champion. The number 68 is deceptive; it is really a tournament of 64, with 60 secured teams and 8 teams having to compete in “play-in” games to determine the last 4. Then it is …

64 => 32 => Sweet 16 => Elite 8 => Final 4 => 2 Finalists => 1 Champion

This is simple math! Basketball is a simple game – 5 players on each side with one ball and 2 baskets. Minimal expense for fielding a basketball team … and yet …

… there is NO eco-system for College Basketball in the Caribbean.

Ouch! That is madness!

Frequently, the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean repeats this urging – see the many related blog-commentaries:

There is an opportunity for the sports eco-system to thrive in the Caribbean region.

This was also the strong point of this previous blog from March 20, 2014. That submission is encored here below.

But first, enjoy the NCAA’s March Madness 2018. Submit your own bracket; mine is shown here.

Also view a VIDEO here of a “Break-down” analysis of this year’s tournament:

VIDEO – Breaking down the NCAA March Madness tournament matchups – https://youtu.be/DdGMLOd0-K0

Posted March 12, 2018 – The brackets are set for college basketball’s March Madness tournament where 68 teams will compete for the national championship. CBS Sports columnist Bill Reiter joins CBSN to break down the tournament matchups.

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CampionExcelsiorK20120911IA

ENCORE Title: Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean

Sports play a big role in Caribbean culture. Education plays a big role in the empowerment of communities. There is a junction between sports and academics; this is the sphere of college athletics.

Cuba has 37 universities…alone. In total, the Caribbean has 42 million people (2010 figures) in all 30 member-states. So surely there is enough of a student population to field sports teams.

More so, there is a fan base in the communities to complete the eco-system of sports spectators and community pride. Yet, there is very little college sports being facilitated in the region right now. Despite the breadth and talent base to form leagues and rivalries among the established universities within the Caribbean. Any system for college athletics is noticeably lacking.

This is the mission of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); to function as a Caribbean version of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US. We have much to learn from this organization’s history, successes & failures.

“The NCAA was founded in 1906 to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletics practices of the time,” so states the NCAA on its official website.[a]

According to Dan Treadway, Associate Blog Editor for the Huffington Post online news magazine[b]:

The NCAA often likes to harp on tradition and the sanctity of the term “student-athlete,” but it fails to recognize its true roots.

The association in fact got its start because, at the time of its creation, football was in danger of being abolished as a result of being deemed too dangerous a sport. During the 1905 season alone, 18 college and amateur players died during games. In response to public outcry, Theodore Roosevelt, an unabashed fan of the sport, gathered 13 football representatives at the White House for two meetings at which those in attendance agreed on reforms to improve safety. What would later become known as the NCAA was formed shortly after on the heels of this unifying safety agreement.

Collegiate Sports is now big money; an economic eco-system onto itself. How much money does the NCAA make?

For the 2010-11 fiscal year, the NCAA revenue was $845.9 million, (not including College Football). Total rights (broadcast & licensing) payment for 2010-11 was $687 million, of all NCAA revenue. The remaining revenues are mostly event ticket sales.

How did the NCAA go from being an agreement to promote safety standards so as to prevent death on the playing field, to a multi-million dollar enterprise? Chalk that up to 100 years of social evolution.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap to advance to the end of the evolutionary process and establish the economic engines to empower the Caribbean region, even in areas like sports and culture.

So how to build sports franchises anew? How will colleges & universities create success from collegiate athletics? It’s a complex “art and science”, but first, it starts with facilities – the CU’s Fairground administration will fund, build and manage sports venues. The CU will be the landlord; the academic institutions, the tenants.

The Go Lean roadmap navigates the changed landscape of globalization and pronounces that change has come to the Caribbean but the region is not prepared. Despite the great appreciation for sports, and the excellent talent of its athletes, there is no business model for the consumption of Caribbean collegiate athletics.

Now, for much of the Caribbean, the population tunes in and pays for cable/satellite TV service to consume American collegiate athletic programming. But how many people in the region are watching Caribbean college sporting activities? None. Though there is a demand, undoubtedly, there is no supply process in place.

In the adjoining table in the Appendix, 36 schools are identified that are capable of fielding credible sports teams, if the appropriate facilitations were in place.

There is the demand. What’s missing is the organized market for consumption. The implementation of this Go Lean roadmap fills this void. This completes the supply!

Applying the model of the NCAA, much can be learned. We can copy their success, and learn from their pitfalls. The NCAA credits tremendous revenues for itself, but not necessarily for all of their members. Under NCAA supervision, the majority of athletic programs, in fact, lose money and are subsidized by funds from their respective university. While the NCAA is needed for academic integrity in college sports, many times, it fails at this responsibility. They lack the CU’s lean execution ethos.

After 100 years later, does the world still need the NCAA? Absolutely! For more than the collective bargaining/negotiations role for the business side of college athletics. They are also the governing body for college athletics, ensuring fairness and good sportsmanship. For the Caribbean Union, this role is to be assumed by the CU Sports Administration, to provide technocratic efficiencies. The resultant eco-system facilitates the CU mandate, to make the region 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.

———————-

APPENDIX A – References:
a – http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/About+the+NCAA/History
b – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ daniel-treadway/johnny-manziel-ncaa-eligibility_b_3020985.html

———————-

APPENDIX B – Caribbean Regional Colleges & Universities

Member-state

Legacy

Name
Antigua and Barbuda

British

 Antigua State College
Aruba

Dutch

 University of Aruba
Bahamas

British

 College of the Bahamas
Barbados

British

 University of the West Indies – Cave Hill, American University
Belize

British

 University of Belize
Galen University
Bermuda

British

 Bermuda College (Community College)
Cuba

Spanish

 University of Havana Universidad de Oriente, Polytechnic University José Antonio Echeverría
Dominican Republic

Spanish

 Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) – (English: Autonomous University of Santo Domingo)
French Caribbean

French

 University of the French West Indies and Guiana Guadeloupe Campus, Martinique Campus, French Guiana Campus
Guyana

British

 University of Guyana
Haiti

French

 Caribbean University / Université Caraïbe, Université d’Haiti
Jamaica

British

 University of the West Indies – Mona, University of Technology (U-Tech), Mico University College, Northern Caribbean University (NCU), University College of the Caribbean (UCC), International University of the Caribbean (IUC)
Netherlands Antilles

Dutch

 University of Curaçao
Curaçao
Sint Maarten University of St. Martin
Puerto Rico

USA/

Spanish

 Caribbean University, Metropolitan University, University of Puerto Rico, University of Turabo
Suriname

Dutch

 University of Suriname Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago

British

 University of the West Indies – Saint Augustine University of Southern Caribbean (USC) University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT)
US Virgin Islands

USA

 University of the Virgin Islands

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Welcoming the Caribbean Intelligentsia

Posted on January 11, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Planning, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Who knew?

    … the Caribbean has an Intelligentsia?

Well blow me away with a whisper! This fact is surprising new information for this movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean …

    … and we should know as we “wrote the book” on the Caribbean.

So there are college degree programs at universities in North America that cover the subject matter of “Caribbean Studies”. This would normally include the sociology, anthropology and historicity of the region; its people, traditions, culture, institutions and industries.

    Big question mark on that last one!

It’s hard to think that there may be intelligent people studying the Caribbean industrial and economic eco-system and their credentials are not scorned in academic circles.

The truth is, the Caribbean is devoid of so much smart out-workings – there are many societal defects – that it’s hard to think there is an intelligentsia for this region:

in·tel·li·gent·si·a
noun

  1. Google: intellectuals or highly educated people as a group, especially when regarded as possessing culture and political influence.
  2. Merriam-Webster: intellectuals who form an artistic, social, or political vanguard or elite.

The opening assessment in the Go Lean book explained that there is undoubtedly a Caribbean geographical region; but there is no unified Caribbean society or culture. Rather there is crisis; there are 30 disjointed, unorganized member-states rimming the Caribbean Sea that has no universal leverage, comradery nor brotherhood. Even the Bible says:

9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. 11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? 12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. – Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12

So for any existing Caribbean intelligentsia in the status quo, it must be for English-speaking territories alone, or Dutch-speaking alone (minus Suriname), or French-speaking alone (minus Haiti), or Spanish-speaking (though there is no unity even among those 3 countries: Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).

It is time now for a change; for the emergence of a Caribbean intelligentsia for all of the Caribbean, for all 30 member-states.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of all Caribbean society – for all 30 member-states in all 4 language groups. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million 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 book stresses that Caribbean societal engines must be reformed and transformed at a regional level. This shows the need for an intelligentsia influence on Caribbean society. 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.

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

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

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

There is the need for a Caribbean Intelligentsia. This normally includes:

  • Think Tanks
  • Advisory Councils
  • Standards Organizations
  • Community Development Foundations
  • Organized Philanthropists
  • Non-Government social agencies

There have been so many expressions of intelligence-lacking practices (Stupidity, Orthodoxy and even Rent-Seeking) in Caribbean society that influence and guidance from well-educated, intelligent stakeholders need to be encouraged.

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: economics, security and governance. Intelligence-lacking practices can be found in all these three spheres of society.

So teach away, all you colleges and universities, identified here from the online resource website CollegeBoard.org; (and learn more about the College Board in the Appendix VIDEO below):

College Search: Caribbean Studies

11 results

City University of New York: Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, NY

City University of New York: City College

New York, NY

Columbia University: School of General Studies

New York, NY

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

College Application Fee Waiver Available

Hofstra University

Hempstead, NY

College Application Fee Waiver Available

McGill University

Montreal, CA

Pitzer College

Claremont, CA

College Application Fee Waiver Available

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey: New Brunswick/Piscataway Campus

Piscataway, NJ

College Application Fee Waiver Available

SUNY University at Albany

Albany, NY

College Application Fee Waiver Available

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

College Application Fee Waiver Available

University of Toronto

Toronto, CA

Source: Retrieved January 11, 2018 from: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search?major=145_Caribbean%20Studies

So we entreat you universities … to teach your ‘Caribbean Studies’; and then lets apply the teachings – the arts and the sciences – the scientific methods and technocratic best practices.

See how the Go Lean book considers specific plans, excerpts and headlines for the objective of Fostering a Technocracy; this is found in the book on Page 64:

Fostering a Technocracy

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market
This CU treaty calls for a technocratic confederation of the Caribbean region into a Single Market of 30 member-states and 42 million people. The term technocracy was originally used to designate the application of the scientific method to solving social & economic problems, in counter distinction to the traditional political or philosophic approaches. The CU must start as a technocratic confederation – a Trade Federation – rather than evolving to this eventuality due to some Failed-State status or insolvency.
2 Economists & Engineers – not Lawyers nor Politicians

The concept of a technocracy remains mostly hypothetical, though some nations have been considered as such in the sense of being governed primarily by technical experts in various fields of governmental decision-making. A technocrat has come to mean either ‘a member of a powerful technical elite’, or ‘someone who advocates the supremacy of technical experts’. Scientists, engineers, economists, and technologists, who have knowledge, expertise, or skills, would compose the governing body, instead of politicians and businesspeople. In a technocracy, decision makers would be selected based upon how knowledgeable and skillful they are in their fields. Even the leaders of the Communist Party of China are mostly professional engineers. The Five-Year plans of the People’s Republic of China have enabled them to plan ahead in a technocratic fashion to build projects such as the National Trunk Highway System, the High-speed rail system, and the Three Gorges Dam.
3 Professional Emergency Managers

The CU treaty calls for a collective security agreement for the Caribbean member-states to prepare-respond to natural disasters, emergency incidents and assuage against systemic threats against the homeland. The CU employs the professional arts and sciences of Emergency Management to spread the costs and risks across the entire region. Outside of hurricanes or earthquakes, the emergency scope includes medical trauma, pandemic incidents and   industrial accidents (i.e. oil or chemical spills) – any scenario that can impact the continuity of the economic engines and/or community.
4 Apolitical – Loved by All
5 Model of Constitutional Monarchy
6 Constitutional Mandates – Supporting Democracy

The Nobel Prize winning Public Choice Theory posits that public stakeholders (politicians & bureaucrats), tend to act in their own self-interest. The CU, in true technocratic fashion, will codify constitutional mandates (ie. lottery/school funding).
7 Balance Budget Constraints
8 Federal Civil Service – Guarantee Fair Treatment
9 Service Level Agreements

The CU is a proxy organization, chartered to execute deputized functions on behalf of member-states; this means a task-oriented philosophy with “Service Level Agreements” in place; i.e. 80% of all phone calls answered within 20 seconds.
10 ITIL – Systematic Assurances

The formal ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) discipline is the art/science that describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists for managing risks associated with information technology deployments, to ensure the optimal uptime. This includes the CU’s Continuity & Availability Management, Change Control & Release Management.

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to assuage the societal defects in the Caribbean region. This means identifying, qualifying and engaging curative strategies and tactics. This is a familiar theme for this Go Lean movement; the charter of the organization is to function as an Intelligentsia Group unto itself. Consider here, some previous blog-commentaries that have highlighted organizations, best-practices and new community attitudes, all under a consistent theme of the “Role of the Intelligentsia“. See the sample of prior submissions here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13890 Role of Intelligentsia: We Need to Talk and Collaborate on Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524 Role of Intelligentsia: Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321 Role of Intelligentsia: Making a Pluralistic Multilingual Democracy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12949 Role of Intelligentsia: Grow Up Already for Charity Management:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12621 Role of Intelligentsia: ‘If it is going to be, it starts with me’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11812 Role of Intelligentsia: Planning for Hope and Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11759 Role of Intelligentsia: Understand the Market, Plan the …
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11598 Role of Intelligentsia: Give us your Time, Talent and Treasuries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11358 Role of Intelligentsia: Preparing for the Inevitable Retail Apocalypse
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10351 Role of Intelligentsia: ‘Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10166 Role of Intelligentsia: Looking Back at the Obama Years
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9428 Role of Intelligentsia: Forging Change with a Herd Mentality
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7769 Role of Intelligentsia: Being Lean – Asking the Question ‘Why’ 5 Times
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7646 Role of Intelligentsia: Going from ‘Good to Great’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341 Role of Intelligentsia: Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2709 Role of Intelligentsia: Caribbean Academic Study: Boy-Girl ‘Discipline’

Having educated individuals in society is good for society … and good for the individuals – see Appendix VIDEO below. These ones eventually make up the intelligentsia. If put to use this intelligentsia can be a source for good.

It was shocking and unbelievable that there is supposed to be a Caribbean Intelligentsia, individuals or groups studying the Caribbean’s past and planning the future. This can easily become the role-responsibilities of today’s students matriculating in the field of ‘Caribbean Studies’. They are out there! So let’s be shocked no more. The message to the people of the Caribbean region henceforth is that the Caribbean’s past is not necessarily condemned to be the Caribbean’s future.

Change has come! The CU will do the “heavy-lifting” to effect change, to implement agile/lean methodologies in the region, in the member-states and in the new federal agencies. Welcome to a  technocracy!

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders – residents, Diaspora, businesses and institutions – to lean-in for the optimizations and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. Yes, we can make the region a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Five Ways Education Pays: Having a college degree means a richer life in every way! – https://youtu.be/spNDLD2KRuA

The College Board
Published on Nov 28, 2011 – For most students who go to college, the increase in their lifetime earnings far outweighs the costs of their education. That’s a powerful argument for college. But more income is by no means the only positive outcome students can expect. Learn about all the ways that a college degree can transform your life and lifestyle for the better!

  • Category: Education 
  • License: Standard YouTube License

 

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Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style

Posted on November 10, 2017 in Economics, Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

College is good!

College is bad!

This has been the conclusion of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – from the beginning of our campaign to elevate Caribbean society. According to the book (Page 258), this bitter-sweet assessment is due to the fact that tertiary education in the Caribbean is:

  • Good for the individual (micro) – every additional year of schooling they increase their earnings by about 10%.
  • Good for the community (macro) – evidence of higher GDP growth in countries where the population has completed more years of schooling.
  • Bad for Brain Drain – if a person emigrates, all the micro and macro benefits transfer to the new country.

In the Caribbean status quo, our people do emigrate …

… far too often. Of the 30 member-states that constitute the Caribbean region, some lands are suffering from an abandonment rate where the population is approaching a distribution where half of the citizens live in the homeland while the others live abroad – in the Diaspora. For some other countries, according to a World Bank report, the vast majority of the college-educated population – 70 to 81 percent – have fled.

This is the present; surely the future must be different, better. Surely “the pupil can become the master”.

The Go Lean book provides a 370-page turn-by-turn guide for forging a new future; it details “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies so as to formulate change, to deviate from the current path and foster a new future. This would mean reforming and transforming the societal engines (education = economics) of Caribbean society. This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) for the elevation of Caribbean economic engines. This is a Future Focused roadmap.

This commentary continues this series on the Caribbean Future; this is Part 2 of 5 on this subject. The full series flows as:

  1. Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet
  2. Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style
  3. Future Focused – Radio is Dead
  4. Future Focused – Policing the Police
  5. Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101

As initiated in the previous commentary, a focus on the future mandates that we focus on young people and their educational and developmental needs. That consideration asserted that a new era of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICT) has transformed the delivery of Kindergarten to 12th Grade (K-to-12) offerings – Primary and Secondary. There are simple solutions in this sphere. But now we focus on the tertiary-level: College.

All of a sudden, it is not so simple anymore. This is because …

  • Primary-Secondary education is compulsory and mandated to be delivered by the government; college education is a privilege … and expensive.
  • State governments may fund an Education budget – for Primary-Secondary – with averages in the $4,000 range per student per year, while college tuition may average $4,000 per class per semester.
  • Student loans may be necessary and could burden students (and their families) for decades afterwards.
  • Peripheral activities forge their own industrial landscape, think textbooks and college athletics.
  • K-12 education caters to children, while college education caters to adults, therefore romantic entanglements can arise.
  • K-12 facilities may be around the corner, while college campuses may be around the world, thusly requiring visas, other travel authorization/documentation and relocations.

Can tertiary education be delivered better for the Caribbean without the travel/relocation?

Absolutely! We can study in the region, lowering the risks of abandoning the homeland.

This is not our opinion alone; see the recent news article/Press Relese here relating the new emphasis for regional college matriculation, by the facilitation of Intra-Caribbean College Fairs:

Title: St. Lucia College Fair 2017

PRESS RELEASE: The Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations will be staging the annual Saint Lucia College Fair at The Finance Administrative Centre, Pointe Seraphine, Castries on Wednesday 1st November from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Thursday 2nd November from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Participating in this year’s College Fair will be representatives from local educational institutions and institutions from the Caribbean Region.  The theme of this year’s College Fair is: “Empowering a Nation Through Education”.

The objectives of the Fair are to:

  • help prospective students and their parents make informed decisions about further education;
  • provide interested Saint Lucians with an opportunity to discover the diversity of higher education in the Caribbean;
  • provide interested participants with career guidance counseling which will be conducted through structured interviews that assesses the participants’ interests, skills, values, career decisions and lifestyle preferences;
  • limit the amount of time and money spent when applying to tertiary institutions; and
  • provide regional institutions with a unique opportunity to diversify their student population by recruiting a high calibre of students from St. [Lucia].

The public is was invited to attend the fair on the date and time specified to meet with the recruiters and advisors from the participating institutions. 

For further information please contact the Human Resource Development Unit of the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations, 4th Floor, Francis Compton Building, Waterfront, Castries or at Telephone Numbers 468-5229/5434/5430/5431/.
Source: Posted October 20, 2017; retrieved November 9 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/10/20/st-lucia-college-fair-2017

The Go Lean book – published in November 2013 – also detailed the strategy of College Fairs, to showcase the local/ region offerings and also to introduce/highlight electronic learning (e-Learning) options. The book states (Page 85) this excerpt:

This Department in the Executive Branch [of the CU] coordinates the region’s educational initiatives across the member states. Education has been a losing proposition for the region in the past – many students studied abroad and never returned. Now, the CU posits that e-Learning initiatives are primed for ubiquitous deployment in the region. The CU will sponsor College Fairs for domestic and foreign colleges that deliver online education options. The CU’s focus will be to facilitate learning – without leaving.

In 2017, a focus on the future for college education must also consider “cyber reality” and/or the Internet. This consideration is embedded in the Go Lean roadmap. In fact, the book presents the good stewardship so that Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) can be a great equalizing element for leveling the playing field in competition with the rest of the world.

Can tertiary education be delivered over the internet?

Absolutely! We can study here, without leaving; the future is now!

There are many offerings and options. See here, for an encyclopedic reference for “College Fairs”-like for Online Schools:

Quick Guide

Bottom of Form

Online colleges and online education are really just “distance learning” with a computer and wifi. And distance learning is now nearly 300 years old. The simple fact is that people have, for a very long time, needed to learn without being able to “go to school.”

Students needing to learn “offsite” and go “online” have included pioneers in far flung lands, persecuted minorities barred from conventional instruction for religious and other reasons, and ordinary folks like us with full-time responsibilities such as a day job and family.

Online colleges and universities make learning possible where otherwise it would be impossible: from the skills people need to advance in a job, to the subjects required for a college degree, to ideas that enrich their understanding of the world.

…

Using three different technologies—mail, TV, and telephone—allowed distance learning courses to meet all kinds of learning needs, but the hope existed that some newer technology would come along that could recreate the classroom experience.

A huge step in making that happen occurred with the development of the personal computer and the Internet. It took a while for modem technology to gain use in distance learning, but once it did, online educational platforms started popping up all over the place, first by connecting private computers directly, but later on the Internet. Add in the benefits of updated teleconferencing technologies, and it’s no wonder that six million postsecondary students take at least one fully online class every year.

Related:

Source: Retrieved November 9, 2017 from: https://thebestschools.org/online-colleges/guide-online-colleges/

This CU/Go Lean roadmap details many aspects of the economic eco-system, not just education alone. In fact, the roadmap features these 3 prime directives – all Future Focused:

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

The Go Lean book stresses that transforming Caribbean education “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.

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 presents a detail plan for elevating existing tertiary education options and adding new ones. This federal government – CU Trade Federation – will NOT be academicians, but it will facilitate new and better education options. The motivation of this charter is the recognition that college education has failed the Caribbean region. We need to double-down on the intra-Caribbean strategy – promoting the many universities among the 30 member-states – and e-Learning options.

This Caribbean-style is Future Focused.

See the many considerations of this strategy in these previous blog-commentaries from the Go Lean movement:

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 Ed.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10845 Need Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean: Model of March Madness
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9724 Bahamas Welcomes the New University; Hoping to Meet Local Needs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373 A Lesson in Economic Fallacies – Student Loans As Investments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4487 FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256 Is Traditional 4-year Degrees Terrible Investments for the Caribbean?

This effort, as detailed in this commentary, is not the first time Caribbean-style college education has been presented to the world. No, there are a number of Medical Schools in the Caribbean that invite foreign students from around the world to come and study – matriculate here; see VIDEO in the Appendix below. The “pupil has become the master”. We are saying:

Be our guest!

Now we want to expand that invitation to the Caribbean world.

We will open our arms … and our offering … and our quality … and our delivery (e-Learning).

Can we improve college education in the Caribbean? Yes, we can! This is not easy; it is heavy-lifting; but it is conceivable, believable and achievable.

We can also be the guests of colleges and universities abroad, with e-Learning! This is the kind of Future Focused efforts that are needed to reform and transform Caribbean society, to make our homelands better places to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – Which Caribbean Med School Should You Go To? – https://youtu.be/1cza2RUkrmg

Buck Parker, M.D.

Published on Jul 25, 2017 – Which Caribbean Med School Should You Go To? What are the best med schools in the Caribbean that will help you get residency in the United States as an international medical graduate? SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/JHSurgery

Dr. Buck tells his experience as an IMG and gives you advice on what medical schools in the Caribbean are the best for gaining a residency in the United States as a doctor, surgeon, nurse, etc. Where should you go to become and international medical graduate that plans on working in America? Dr. Buck Parker, MD is a Board Certified General Surgeon …

  • Category: Education 
  • License: Standard YouTube License
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Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet

Posted on November 8, 2017 in Economics, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

A true fact of the past is that “we cannot change it”.

All we can do is learn from the past and change the future.

This quest has propelled the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book provides a 370-page turn-by-turn guide on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies so as to learn from Lessons in History then reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society for the future. In addition, there have been 31 previous blog-commentaries with the specific theme: Lessons in History; see the full list – to date – in the Appendix below.

The Go Lean book opened with this charter, to focus on the future (Page 3):

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.

…

We cannot ignore the past, as it defines who we are, but we do not wish to be shackled to the past either, for then, we miss the future. So we must learn from the past, our experiences and that of other states in similar situations, mount our feet solidly to the ground and then lean-in in, to reach for new heights; forward, upward and onward. This is what is advocated in this book: to Go Lean … Caribbean!

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

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

This commentary introduces a series on the Caribbean Future; this is Part 1 of 5 on this subject. The full series is as follows:

  1. Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet
  2. Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style 
  3. Future Focused – Radio is Dead
  4. Future Focused – Policing the Police
  5. Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101 – Available 11/15/2017

‘Focusing on the future’ mandates that the stewards of the Caribbean focus on our young people:

“I believe that children are the future; teach them well and let them lead the way” – See VIDEO in the Appendix below.

That is just a song; but this is life.

  • What is the hope for the Caribbean youth to be transformed in their development compared to past generations?
  • What transformations are transpiring in the region that shows willingness for the people and institutions to embrace the needed change?

In 2017, a focus on the future for young people must also consider “cyber reality” and/or the Internet. This consideration is embedded in the Go Lean roadmap. In fact, the book presents the good stewardship so that Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) can be a great equalizing element for leveling the playing field in competition with the rest of the world.

See how these news articles (2) here have described certain ICT trends in the region, related to education and personal development:

Title #1: Flow and Ave Maria Mark World Internet Day
PRESS RELEASE: Castries, Saint Lucia, November 3rd, 2017 – On Wednesday November 1st 2017, the leading girls primary school in Saint Lucia celebrated International Internet Day with the nation’s and the Caribbean’s number one telecommunications service provider, Flow. Ave Maria Primary School hosted a number of activities for students, including encouraging them to come to school with internet-capable devices, which were powered with a free 100mMBps wireless internet connection.

The young ladies, guided by their teachers, were delighted to be able to do research online, including learning more about internet etiquette, online safety, the history, positives and negatives of the internet. Adriana Mitchel-Gideon, Flow’s product manager for broadband and TV, also met with Grade Six students to have an open and frank discussion about the internet, and to field their many questions.

The day has been celebrated worldwide on October 29th since 2005, to commemorate the first electronic message ever transferred from one computer to another, way back in 1969, in California, in the USA. International Internet Day is a reminder to all of us that this amazing invention started out with just two machines, long before we ever were able to login to trillions of websites put up by billions of users.

As part of its 2017 Christmas promotion, Flow is offering excellent kid-friendly deals on smartphones, TV and internet packages to delight any family.

Source: Posted November 3, 2017; retrieved November 8, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/11/03/flow-ave-maria-mark-world-internet-day 

———–

Title #2: Internet Week Guyana Advances Caribbean Technology Development Agenda
PRESS RELEASE: Around the world, the operations of cyber criminals far outstrip the sophistication of national legislative frameworks. Governments are facing constant pressure to assess global cyber threats and formulate appropriate local cyber security strategies.

Across the Caribbean, governments are building strategic partnerships with regional actors like the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). CaribNOG is the region’s largest volunteer-based community of network engineers, computer security experts and tech aficionados.

Recently, CaribNOG and the CTU were among the organisers of Internet Week Guyana, a five-day tech conference hosted by Guyana’s Ministry of Public Telecommunications, in collaboration with international bodies such as the Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC).

Catherine Hughes, Guyana’s first Minister of Public Telecommunications, said that the five-day event was part of the national agenda to build the country’s technology capacity in cybersecurity and other key areas.

“We encourage Caribbean governments to develop legislative agendas and increase intra-regional cooperation, in order to strengthen the region’s overall cyber security capability,” said Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC.

“As law makers, governments play an important role in the regional response to cyber security challenges. But they cannot do their work alone,” said Bevil Wooding, Caribbean Outreach Manager at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and one of the founders of CaribNOG.

“The private sector, law enforcement, judiciary and civil society also have a responsibility to ensure that the region’s citizens and businesses are safer and more secure.”

Throughout the week, representatives from participating organisations also demonstrated practical ways in which stakeholders could work together to strengthen and secure Caribbean networks.

Stephen Lee, another CaribNOG founder, translated global cybersecurity issues into Caribbean priorities, outlining some of the challenges and opportunities of special relevance to the region.

Albert Daniels, Senior Manager for Stakeholder Engagement in the Caribbean at ICANN, outlined that organisation’s work in supporting secure network deployments around the world.

Shernon Osepa, Manager, Regional Affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, was on hand to formally launch the Internet Society Guyana Chapter, with Nancy Quiros, Manager of Chapter Development in Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, and Lance Hinds, Special Advisor to the Minister, who served as the chapter’s Interim President.

But it was a gathering of young people, hosted by the CTU on the conference’s closing day, that put the virtual exclamation mark on a highly impactful week. About 400 students from several secondary schools took part in the all-day agenda, which was packed with videos, interactive presentations and Q&A sessions, all designed to highlight the tangible dangers of unsafe online behaviour.

“The CTU continues to support the development of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the region including an emphasis on harnessing the potential of the youth. There’s a concerted effort to get the youth more involved in and make them aware of ICT issues which affect them, to cultivate a mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship, and to educate them on how to effectively use the power of technology that lies in their hands,” said Michelle Garcia, Communications Specialist at the CTU.

The day’s success was most evident in its aftermath. Even after the formal close, a tangible buzz lingered in the meeting room, with dozens of students staying back to introduce themselves to the expert panelists, many taking the opportunity to accost them with follow-up inquiries on the sidelines.

By all reports, this Internet Week will boost Guyana’s efforts to deliver on the promise locked up in that generation of future regional leaders. Now the real work must continue, in order to convert Caribbean potential into Caribbean reality.

Source: Posted October 17, 2017; retrieved November 8, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/10/17/internet-week-guyana-advances-caribbean-technology-development-agenda

The Go Lean book stresses that transforming Caribbean educational “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.

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

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

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries … [and] invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … impacting the region with more jobs.

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 presents the plan to deploy many e-Learning provisions so as to deliver on the ICT promise in educating our Caribbean youth. The book references the roles and responsibilities of e-Learning in many iterations; this shows the Future Focus of the Go Lean roadmap; see sample here:

  • 10 Ways to Foster Genius (Page 27)
    #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), identified eight types of intelligence or abilities: musical – rhythmic, visual – spatial, verbal – linguistic, logical – mathematical, bodily – kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. … 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.
  • 10 Ways to Help Entrepreneurship (Page 28)
    #10 – e-Learning & Coaching – S.C.O.R.E.
    The CU advocates e-Learning schemes for tertiary (college), professional development and continuing education solutions. The CU will license/regulate these online programs at the regional level so as to certify and audit the practice. …
  • 10 Ways to Impact Research and Development (Page 30)
    #4 – STEM Education Facilitation
    The quest to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics will start at K-12 Magnate & charter schools. At the tertiary level, the CU will give grants, scholarships & loans (forgive-able), especially focusing on e-learning schemes.
  • 10 Ways to Close the Digital Divide (Page 31)
    #2 –     Libraries & e-Learning
    The CU will facilitate the construction and refurbishing of community libraries, with the emphasis on delivering computer access. The CU’s Millennium Library (see Appendix OA on Page 293) design features a good quantity of computer workstations, conference rooms, video conferencing, and e-Whiteboards. These tools are required for e-Learning facilitations. So citizens can enroll in online classes even if they do not have computer access, as the libraries will fill the void.
  • 10 Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy (Page 70)
    #10 – Education
    Basic economic principles, identified as early as with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nation landmark literary publication [in 1776], dictate that every year of education raises a country’s GDP by a measurable amount. For the Caribbean, the benefits have been elusive in the past because of the unfortunate pattern of a brain drain, with students matriculating abroad and never returning – all of the investment but none of the return. – See Appendix C2 on Page 258.
    The CU’s new leanings of e-Learning will fulfill the education investment objectives without the risk of a brain drain. The end result: the educated work place will impact near-mid-long term benefits for the CU region, estimated in the 3% range for annual growth.
  • 10 Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean (Page 118)
    #9 – Educational Inducements in the Region
    The CU will facilitate e-Learning schemes for institutions in the US, Canada and the EU. The repatriates will have an array of educational choices for themselves and their offspring (legacies). This will counter the previous bad experience of students emigrating for advanced educational opportunities and then never returning, resulting in a brain drain.
  • 10 Ways to Create Jobs (Page 152)
    #6 – Steer More People to S.T.E.M. Education and Careers
    Education does not have to be matriculated abroad, as e-learning industries abound, lessening brain drain, online classes emerge for even the highest degrees. Standards, certifications & accreditations would dictate public-private investment in start-up ventures for educating science (including health & medical), technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
  • 10 Ways to Improve Education (Page 159)
    #2 – Promote Industries for e-Learning
    For 50 years the Caribbean has tolerated studying abroad; unfortunately many students never returned home. The CU’s focus will now be on facilitating learning without leaving. There have emerged many successful models for remote learning use electronic delivery or ICT. The CU will foster online/home school programs, for secondary education, to be licensed at the CU level so as to sanction, certify, and oversee the practice, especially for rural areas/islands. At the tertiary level, the CU will sponsor College Fairs for domestic and foreign colleges that deliver online education options.

The future – of electronic learning systems – is now! The technology is ready and the Caribbean youth is ready. We only need to deploy the delivery models to allow our students to matriculate online. See the profile of this American company that is currently available in many communities in the US:

http://www.k12.com/

We can do this ourselves … here and now.  We can use the internet to foster personal development for students, young and old. The foregoing news article related this quotation from the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU):

“The CTU continues to support the development of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the region including an emphasis on harnessing the potential of the youth. There’s a concerted effort to get the youth more involved in and make them aware of ICT issues which affect them, to cultivate a mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship, and to educate them on how to effectively use the power of technology that lies in their hands,” said Michelle Garcia, Communications Specialist at the CTU.

This is the kind of Future Focused  effort that is needed to reform and transform Caribbean society. This is not easy – heavy-lifting – but it is necessary to make our homelands better places to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

———–

Appendix 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.

———–

Appendix – Lessons from History / Previous Blog-Commentaries

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13420 A Lesson in History – Whaling Expeditions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12726 A Lesson in History – Colorado Black Ghost Towns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12722 A Lesson in History – ‘How the West Was Won’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12380 A Lesson in History – ‘4th of July’ and Slavery
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10494 A Lesson in History – Ending the Military Draft
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10336 A Lesson in History – Haiti’s Reasonable Doubt
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9974 A Lesson in History – Pearl Harbor Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8767 A Lesson in History – Haiti 1804
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7738 A Lesson in History – Buffalo Soldiers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7490 A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Domestic
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485 A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Street Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7462 A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Duels
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6722 A Lesson in History – After the Civil War
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720 A Lesson in History – During the Civil War
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6718 A Lesson in History – Before the Civil War
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6531 A Lesson in History – Book Review of the ‘Exigency of 2008’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6189 A Lesson in History – ‘Katrina’ is Helping Today’s Crises
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5183 A Lesson in History – Cinco De Mayo
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5123 A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Zimbabwe –vs- South Africa
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5055 A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Empowering Families
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971 A Lesson in History – Royal Charter: Truth & Consequence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4935 A Lesson in History – The ‘Grand Old Party’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4720 A Lesson in History – SARS in Hong Kong
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4166 A Lesson in History – Panamanian Balboa
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2809 A Lesson in History – Economics of East Berlin
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2670 A Lesson in History – Rockefeller’s Pipeline
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2585 A Lesson in History – Concorde SST
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480 A Lesson in History – Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2297 A Lesson in History – Booker T –vs- Du Bois
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531 A Lesson in History – 100 Years Ago Today: World War I
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789 A Lesson in History – America’s War on the Caribbean
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ENCORE: It’s a FAMUly Affair

Posted on October 15, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Social

It’s Homecoming 2017 at Florida Agriculture & Mechanical University (FAMU). Time to reflect …

CU Blog - It's a FAMUly Affair - Photo 1

There have been many considerations of the FAMU eco-system, the FAMU Family or FAMUly. The university is a fine model for what the Caribbean needs to do to elevate our society, to facilitate social mobility. This is an ENCORE of a previous blog-commentary from March 6, 2015 highlighting the school’s contribution to American society.

FAMU was established as an educational institution in 1887, so this Homecoming is the 130th anniversary for the school. Over the years, there have been some excellent individual contributors; consider the following 2 obituaries of impactful influencers:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12542 Dr. Thomas W. Mason – FAMU Professor & STEM Influencer – RIPA computer scientist, who happened to be Black, he worked on the networking efforts that became today’s Internet. He passed on this vision and his passion to his students and the whole FAMUly.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6593 Dr. Sybil Mobley – FAMU’s Business School Dean – RIPThis Dean’s impact was that societal elevation with her mission to embed Black Americans in the conference rooms and board rooms of major corporations. She molded, prepared, energized and guided the best-of-the-best of Black America (many of Caribbean heritage as well; this writer included) and sent them off to impact the corporate world.

CU Blog - Its a FAMUly Affair - Photo 2

With the participation of these FAMU advocates – and others – the university has assumed it position at the pinnacle of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU). But the university  considers itself more than just an educational institution, but rather a family, the FAMUly. Keep in mind that the FAMU life is not only hard work, it is fun too. See the VIDEO here depicting the commitment, dedication, love and joyality of the FAMUly:

VIDEO – A FAMUly Reunion – Homecoming 2017 – https://youtu.be/J32plKqmqK8

Published on October 3, 2017

 

The FAMU experience is demonstrative to the Caribbean on how to optimize the effort to live, work, learn and play. Our Caribbean needs this role model example. See this portrayed in the ENCORE of the original blog-commentary here:

———–

Go Lean Commentary – FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity

This commentary is a big proponent of a college education for Caribbean citizens.

This commentary is a big opponent of a college education for Caribbean citizens in American colleges and universities. The reason for the ambivalence on college education is consistent: the benefit of social mobility; facilitating new economic opportunities. We need this upward mobility for Caribbean citizens but in the Caribbean.

CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 1Some institutions are better at facilitating social mobility than others. On the National List of institutions, Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU) stands out. It is #3 on the list.

In the interest of full disclosure, this writer is a Rattler, an alumnus of FAMU. (The mascot for FAMU athletics is ‘Rattlers’).

The chief goal of the Social Mobility Index (SMI), according to their website, is to stimulate policy changes within US higher education to help arrest the dangerous and growing economic divergence between rich and poor in the country. The gap in the US between rich and poor grew since the Great Recession, reaching proportions not seen since the period leading to and contributing to the onset of the Great Depression and two world wars. The common attributes include crumbling infrastructure, destroying asset values, and forcing high taxation to pay for war efforts.

If we learned anything from the global fallout of the Great Recession (in 2008 and beyond), it was that getting economic policy right in the US may be necessary for long-term world stability. So while the much publicized student debt overhang, now in excess of $1 trillion, imposes distress and financial burden on millions of students and families, it is a symptom of the much greater problem of economic and social divergence in the country. The good news is that colleges and universities carry great potential to powerfully address this problem.

Economist Thomas Piketty stated: “the principal force for convergence [reduction of inequality] – the diffusion of knowledge – …depends in large part on educational policies, access to training and to the acquisition of appropriate skills, and associated institutions.” – Capital in the 21st Century, pp. 21-2. The SMI asserts that if colleges can begin aggressively shifting policy towards increasing access to higher education, particularly for economically disadvantaged students and families, they will establish themselves as a key force for economic and social convergence.

FAMU has accomplished this feat; placing #3 on a ranking of universities pursuing this endeavor.

The full article of the recognition of FAMU’s SMI  is provided here:

Title: Social Mobility Index Ranks FAMU as No. 3 Institution in the Nation for Facilitating Economic Opportunity for Underserved Students
(Source: FAMU News and Events Site – Official Communications – Posted 11-01-2014; retrieved 03-05-2015 from http://www.famunews.com/?p=2153)
CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 3TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Social Mobility Index (SMI) has ranked Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) the No. 3 institution in the nation for facilitating economic opportunity for underserved students. The University outpaced the nation’s leading Ivy League institutions such as Princeton, Harvard and Yale, which placed 360th, 438th and 440th, respectively, on the rankings list.

The SMI is a new, data-driven ranking system, focused on the problem of economic mobility in the United   States. Rankings are based upon an institution’s tuition rate, student economic profile, graduation rate, average early career salary, and endowment.

According to SMI data analyses, FAMU ranks high in its contributions toward narrowing  socio-economic gaps by admitting and graduating more low-income students at lower tuition rates, yet with better economic outcomes following graduation. The University is noted on the SMI as having one of the lowest annual tuition rates in the nation.

“We are excited about the SMI recognition,” said President Elmira Mangum, Ph.D. “This new ranking speaks to FAMU’s 127-year legacy of providing access and opportunity to low-wealth citizens across the nation.”

“This ranking also speaks to our strong and unwavering commitment to economic empowerment. Many of our students come to FAMU with the odds stacked against them; however, they leave our institution with a high-quality education, a promising future, and the ability to be effective contributors to society, and, more specifically, to their families,” Dr. Mangum added.

Nearly 92 percent of FAMU students are considered low-income, according to SMI data. However, graduates are leaving the University earning an average salary of nearly $45,000 a year.

CU Blog - FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity - Photo 2

For more information on the SMI ranking, visit: www.socialmobilityindex.org.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits, along with most economists, that education elevates individuals and entire communities. The book quotes that every year of additional community education raises GDP by 1 percent. Go Lean stakes the claim further that traditional college educated career paths have been disastrous policies for the Caribbean in whole, and for each specific country in particular, for the primary reason that so many students do not return home; or expatriate after returning for a short period. In fact, the World Bank has reported that the Caribbean has a 70% abandonment rate.

In line with the SMI ranking, the Go Lean book promotes education among the strategies to elevate Caribbean society. But this commentary previously asserted that college education has been a bad investment for the Caribbean.

From a strictly micro perspective, college education is great for the individual. The Go Lean book quotes proven economic studies showing the impact that every year of college education improves an individual’s earning power (Page 258). But from the macro perspective – the community – is different for the Caribbean; the region loses out because of an incontrovertible brain drain. Previously, the proverb was introduced of “fattening frogs for snake” referring to the preponderance for Caribbean college educated citizens to abandon their tropical homelands for foreign shores in the US, Canada and Europe, and take their Caribbean-funded education and skill-sets with them.

Change has now come. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. Under the tenants of globalization, institutions like FAMU are competing globally, and can rightly provide e-Learning and Distant Learning schemes. This ties to the other agent of change of technology. The internet allows for deliveries of education services anywhere around the world. The Go Lean book posits that small institutions and big institutions can complete equally on a global basis. If the regional education administrations could invest in more technological deliveries, it would be a win-win for all stakeholders. This type of impact would be more for the Greater Good.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 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.

This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This represents change for the region. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book details how education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment, but with lessons-learned from all the flawed decision-making in the past, both individually and community-wise. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. No more government scholarships; forgive-able loans only from now on. The book details the policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deploy online education in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Strategy – Mission –   Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job   Training Page 89
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
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 Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education Page 266
Appendix – Student Loan Crisis – Ripping Off America Page 286

FAMU is a model for the Caribbean tertiary educational endeavors.

FAMU has quite a reputation for other accomplishments as well – they are a great destination to live, work, learn and play. Their world famous band, the Marching 100 has been recognized as the “playingest band in the land”. They even shared the field with Prince as the Halftime performance for Super Bowl XLI in 2007 in Miami, Florida. See News–VIDEO of their renown here; and also their 2011 Florida Classic Football Game Halftime Show in Orlando, Florida in the Appendix below.

VIDEO – FAMU 2008 Segment on “CBS Evening News” – https://youtu.be/XqGvUg_rLNs


Posted November 27, 2008 – 2008 edition of the Marching 100… interview on Thanksgiving Night 2008 on CBS News… 11/27/08

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We welcome universities like FAMU in their desire to empower minorities in society; we only want that to be done in the Caribbean so as to mitigate societal abandonment. Suggestion: FAMU should develop a global campus presence, with satellite campuses and online matriculations.

Go Rattlers!!!

With the tune set by the Marching 100 band: “I’m so glad, I’m from FAMU”.

This is the win-win the Go Lean roadmap campaigns for. But it’s more than just talk; this is action too. The body part to focus on is not just the mouth; it is the heart – the seat of motivation. Without a doubt, the complete delivery for the Caribbean educational options would help to make the homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Appendix VIDEO – FAMU Marching 100 Halftime Show @ Florida Classic 2011 – http://youtu.be/FrviGJ1Dvvk

Uploaded on Nov 21, 2011 – The FAMU Marching 100 Halftime Performance at The 2011 Florida Classic. Definitely the best band in the land.

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Back to the Future: Textbooks or Tablets in School?

Posted on August 15, 2017 in Economics, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Textbooks or Tablets in School - Photo 1Its back-to-school time … again.

That there – what you just did: reminiscing about your own back-to-school experiences – that is the problem. You see, we cannot project “our” back-to-school visuals on today’s students.

  • The world has changed;
  • Schools have to change;
  • Students have to change; and yes …
  • We – parents – must change too.

We have said it repeatedly in these commentaries: the Caribbean is “partying like it’s 1999” when in truth the world’s academic competition is clocking in at 2017.

Don’t believe it?

Look at all those high school students that graduated from their Caribbean high schools in 2017, 2016, 2015, etc.. Where are they now? For far too many Caribbean communities, a majority of those graduates have abandoned their Caribbean homes. Why? Our inability to compete.

So it should not be “Back to school” or “back to the status quo”, rather it should be …

“Back to the Future”.

The Caribbean must now transform to become a community that they have never been before; a community only envisioned for the future.

The future is now! Even textbooks are so “Old School”, while e-Textbooks are so new …

CU Blog - Textbooks or Tablets in School - Photo 2

This is the debate right now: Should schools continue to distribute textbooks or deploy tablets or PC’s (personal computers) for students’ course work?

This is a debate … everywhere – even here in the Caribbean – see this news article here from the local St Lucia Times Daily Newspaper:

News Article: Textbooks or Tablets in School?

(By Marie Miguel) There is a huge debate going on in schools all across the country. It is not about violence, bullying, drugs, or similar issues. The debate is whether schools should continue using text books or switch to using computer tablets. There are many good arguments on both sides, but the fact is, schools are doing it anyway, regardless of what the parents want. Of course, you have the choice whether to sign the paper saying it is alright for your child to use a tablet and be on the internet. However, if you do not sign that paper, your child will not get the same education as the rest of the class. The world has gone digital and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.

The Pros and Cons of Tablets in School
Here are some of the pros and cons of tablets in the classroom:

Pros

  • According to the United States Department of Education, students learn 30-80% faster with tablets.
  • A tablet can hold hundreds of books on one device as well as homework, files, and communication with the teachers. This means no more heavy backpacks or lost books.
  • E-books are up to 60% cheaper than printed books.
  • Children scored 30% higher on tests using a tablet rather than a textbook.
  • Tablets have interactive features that textbooks do not have such as a search function, highlighters, and a built-in dictionary and thesaurus.
  • Learning technology skills are important for their future.
  • Tablets can be automatically updated.
  • Students and schools save money on paper, pencils, and other items that tablets do not need.
  • Files on the tablet can be transferred to other electronic devices and portable data recorders. That means no more lost homework.
  • Students enjoy learning on tablets more than with textbooks so they learn more.

Cons

  • There are medical consequences with using tablets such as neck pain, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches, and eye strain.
  • Textbooks are five times cheaper than tablets, including training teachers and buying software.
  • Tablets have a lot of distractions such as games, email, apps, and other websites the children can get onto instead of doing their work or listening to the teacher.
  • The brain is able to comprehend more when reading printed text rather than digital text. In fact, on average, people read digital text up to 30% slower than printed text.
  • Many students do not have (or cannot afford) sufficient internet service to use their tablets at home. That means homework is not going to get done.
  • Repairing a tablet costs a great deal more than fixing a book.
  • Textbooks do not get malware, spyware, freeze, crash, and cannot get hacked.
  • Tablets need to be charged and cannot last a whole school day.
  • Students are able to cheat or use shortcuts to do their schoolwork.
  • Some textbooks are still not available in digital format.

Time for a Solution
Many parents just do not want their children to use the internet. Some have never had the opportunity to experience the technological advances that are available to their children or they just do not understand. These feelings of inadequacy can make parents angry and ill-equipped to make a good decision for their children. Other parents are computer savvy but do not think their child is ready for the internet. It is important for these parents to have someone to talk to that understands these issues and can help them realize the benefits of letting their children learn computer skills. There are licensed professionals that parents and their children can talk to or chat with online or over the phone. Together they may be able to come to some kind of compromise that works out well for everyone.

Source: St Lucia Times – Daily Newspaper (Posted 08-03-2014) from:  https://stluciatimes.com/2017/08/03/textbooks-tablets-school

In a previous Go Lean commentary, it was detailed how a related issue, textbooks pricing, reflects American Capitalism – not free market economics – whereby the College Textbook industry is known for their abuses and classic Crony-Capitalism, (where public policy is set to benefit private parties). That commentary explained that since many college expenses are subsidized by governments (federal and state) by means of grants or low-interest, deferred student loans, the marketplace knows that governmental entities will pay…unconditionally, so textbook prices go up … and up.

So how do we move the community forward into the future while also being “on guard” for Crony-Capitalistic abuses?

As related in that commentary from August 25, 2014, the book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean region must not allow the US to take the lead for our own nation-building, that American capitalistic interest tends to hijack policies intended for the Greater Good. The recommended strategy is to leverage the needs of all 30 countries (42 million people & 4 languages) with Group Purchasing and fully embrace e-Learning (e-Books and tablets).

This book, Go Lean… Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), which represents change for the region. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 future-focused prime directives:

  • Optimization of the economic engines – and the educational apparatus – in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance – including primary, secondary and tertiary school administrations plus Group Purchasing Organizations – to support these engines.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to leverage Group Purchasing and to elevate the Caribbean’s tertiary education systems as a whole. This roadmap is presented as a planning tool, pronouncing the collaborative benefits of a unified educational agenda with these early statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):

viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

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.

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 posits that even though education is a vital ingredient for Caribbean economic empowerment, there has been a lot of flawed decision-making in the past, both individually and community-wise. The vision in the Go Lean/CU roadmap is that of a confederation of the 30 Caribbean member-states doing the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic and education policies. The Go Lean book details those future-focused policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the tertiary education in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations – Group Purchase Organizations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Purchasing Cooperatives Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – On Job Training Page 89
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization Page 119
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 Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education Page 266
Appendix – New Student Loan Scandal – Bad American Example Page 286
Appendix – India’s $35 Tablet– Good Model-Example Page 296

This is the assertion of the Go Lean book (Page 31): if there is a choice or debate between Textbooks versus Tablets, choose Tablets. This quest should be pursued aggressively by Caribbean stakeholders, welcoming any help from global foundations:

The Bottom Line on One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
OLPC is a project supported by the Miami-based “One Laptop per Child Association” (OLPCA) and the Cambridge, MA-based OLPC Foundation (OLPCF), two U.S. non-profit organizations set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational devices for use in the developing world. The project was originally founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte and funded by member organizations like AMD, Chi Mei, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, Nortel, RedHat, & Quanta. In the first years of the project, the Association managed development and logistics, and the Foundation managed fundraising such as the Give One Get One campaign. In 2010 the Association set up a new office in Miami under Rodrigo Halaby, and currently oversees deployment and support for their XO-1.5 laptop and its successors, and country partnerships. The foundation, led by now Chairman Nicholas Negroponte, currently oversees development of future software and hardware, including the ARM based OLPC XO-1.75 laptop ($180) and the OLPC XO-3 tablet ($100).

Information on the official site of OLPC indicates that as of 2011 there were about over 2.4 million XO laptops delivered.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for bridging the Digital Divide and aligning with many not-for-profit foundations, of domestic and foreign sources. For example, the One Laptop Per Child movement – identified above – offers $200 laptops (or cheaper) for Third World countries. In addition, there are now $35 tablets emerging from India (Page 296 – Appendix OC). The plan is for the CU to steer foundations and philanthropic causes to impact this mission, to equip/train low-income Caribbean residents for computerized terminals and access.

CU Blog - Textbooks or Tablets in School - Photo 3

Tablets and e-Books should be all the rage. See here for the 8 Best Tablets for Students for 2017:

VIDEO – 8 Best Tablets For Students 2017 – https://youtu.be/7XqZIeDC-lU

Published on May 17, 2017
CLICK FOR WIKI ►► https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-tablets-f…
Please Note: Our choices for this wiki may have changed since we published this review video. Our most recent set of reviews in this category, including our selection for the year’s best tablet for students, is exclusively available on Ezvid Wiki.
Tablets for students included in this wiki include the dell venue 8 7000, amazon fire hd 8, lenovo tab 10, lg electronics g pad ii, microsoft surface pro 4, apple ipad pro, samsung galaxy tab s3, and asus zenpad z580c.
Most Recent Picks: https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-tablets-f…

The foregoing news article and VIDEO relate to topics that should be of serious concern for Caribbean planners. We want to foster an education agenda that propels the Caribbean’s best interest. We do not want to be parasites of the American hegemony; we want to be better. While the US is the world’s largest Single Market economy, we only want to model some of their examples.

Most importantly, we want our students to study at home, primarily, or at worst, remain in the region. This minimizes the risks of matriculating abroad and never returning – a frequent Caribbean dilemma.

All of these educational issues have been addressed in previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054 American Bad Model: Lower Ed!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10845 American Good Example: College Sports
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10733 American Experiences: 150 Years of HBCU’s
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9751 Where the Jobs Are – Animation and Game Design
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8669 Detroit makes Community College free
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126 Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9724 Bahamas Welcomes the New University
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698 STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1470 College of the Bahamas Master Plan 2025 – Reach for the Lamp-Post
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433 Caribbean loses more than 70 percent of tertiary educated to brain drain
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=459 CXC and UK textbook publisher hosting CCSLC workshops in Barbados

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that many problems of the region – education, a most prominent issue – are too big for any one member-state to solve alone, that there is the need for the leverage of a wider Caribbean confederacy. The purpose of this Go Lean/CU roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work, learn and play. This effort is more than academic, more than just future scheming; no, this must be a plan for today.

We first employ e-Learning … and all of its related arts and sciences. And do it now!

We need to better compete with the world; education and e-learning could be the great equalizer. The book projects a Cyber Caribbean (Page 127):

Forge electronic commerce industries so that the internet communications technology (ICT) can be a great equalizer in economic battles of global trade. This includes e-Government (outsourcing and in-sourcing for member-states systems) and e-Delivery, Postal Electronic Last Leg mail, e-Learning and wireline/wireless/satellite initiatives.

Strategically, the Go Lean roadmap posits that to succeed in the global marketplace, the Caribbean region must not only consume but rather also create, produce, and distribute intellectual property. So subjects like tablets and e-books are germane for our considerations. Tactics like Group Purchasing (GPO) makes it efficient and effective to minimize the associated costs of educating the general population, and specific learning needs.

These are hallmarks of the CU technocracy: policies that reflect a future-focus.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and school administrations, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. 🙂

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

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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