Tag: EU

European Reckoning – Settlers -vs- Immigrants

Posted on January 19, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

I have an older brother …

… he was born in 1962 while I was born in 1963. He is actually 18 months ahead of me. But for much of my youth, those 6 months every year after my birthday and before his, I felt as if I was catching up with him – being only 1 year behind. Then his birthday comes, and I was reminded that I can never really catch him. (This was the mind of a 4-year old boy).

There are a lot of things in life that are like this: We can get close but never quite catch up. One realizes that this is the same with immigrating to the United States. Despite being a Nation of Immigrants (NOI), new ones can never catch up with the Settlers. Consider the historicity of this distinction in the Appendix article below; composed by a “conservative” lawyer and published by the American Conservative Organization. (Conservatives are in contrast to liberals; while all conservatives are not racists, all racists are conservatives).

Yes, under the law (de jure), there is no difference between a First Generation American citizen and a Third Generation (or more) American citizen, but in reality (de facto) American society never really considers “you” as an Immigrant to be a full American.

Listen up you Black-and-Brown people of the Caribbean, yearning to emigrate to the US. You will never be a settler. Accepting this reality may dampen the “Welcome Sign” to those who aspire for an American life.

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean highlights the “Push and Pull” reasons why Caribbean people leave their homeland:

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

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating for economics solely.

This is a Hot Topic today as Immigration Policy is all the rage. The current President of the US, Donald Trump, wants to curtail immigration into his country for the Black-and-Brown from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In fact, as of this date, there is a Federal Government Shutdown as Mr. Trump would not approve an appropriations bill (budget) unless there is funding for his “Wall” along the 2,000-mile southern border with Mexico. He has even vocally advocated for a different immigration policy that invites people from North-West Europe while discouraging African and LAC people, derisively calling these ones as coming from “shit-hole” countries.

In addition, consider this AUDIO-Podcast here, which details the complexities of this issue: Settlers or Immigrants – The Historicity of Immigration in the United States. Listen here:

AUDIO-Podcast – How The 1965 Immigration Act Made America A Nation Of Immigrants – https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/685819397/how-the-1965-immigration-act-made-america-a-nation-of-immigrants

Heard on Fresh Air

Published on January 16, 2019 – For many years, U.S. immigration favored immigrants from northern Europe. NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten explains how a 1965 law changed things — and led to the current debate about border security.

This foregoing AUDIO-Podcast conveys a consistent point: America was settled by Europeans (British, Dutch, French and German) founders; everyone else are immigrants. The immigrant legacy will NEVER catch up to the settler legacy. (The same as catching up to an older brother’s age). America is an European enclave. The rest of the world must reckon with this.

This commentary continues a 5-part series on European Reckoning. This entry is 3 of 5 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the past, present and future of European interactions. While this series is on reconciling the European experience, this submission is on the White European history of the US. Even though the Caribbean was settled and organized by European powers, the same as the US, the lack of organizational efficiency in the Caribbean is a glaring concern. We have 30 member-states in the Caribbean region and yet, there is no coordinated regional stewardship of the economic, security and governing concerns of our communities. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. European Reckoning: IMF Apologies
  2. European Reckoning: China seeks to de-Americanize the world’s economy
  3. European Reckoning: Settlers -vs- Immigrants
  4. European Reckoning: Christianity’s Indictment
  5. European Reckoning: Black “Greco-Roman” Wrestler victimized for his hair

In the first two submissions in this series, the European Great Powers were also identified as the Western Alliance. The world economic eco-system is based on this White/Christian European and North American (US & Canada) legacy. Despite the larger population in the world, the goal of so many Asian, African or Latin American people is to get to these nations – sometimes at the risk of death – and to engage the societal engines there. Despite any success in places like Europe and the US, the reality is the same: Immigrants are not settlers; only a second-class citizenship status will ever be accorded to them.

For the Caribbean, the Go Lean book distinguishes that America or Western Europe is not home for them. If we must seek refuge there, go … but remember to return home at some point; the sooner the better. These foreign shores will welcome your labor, but may never consider you as equal brothers-sisters. In their minds and hearts you are “Less Than“.

Considering the “Push and Pull” factors above, the purpose of this commentary is to lower the “Pull” reasons. While we must work on the “Push” factors ourselves, it does improve our prospects if our citizenry do not feel like “the grass is greener on the other side”. If they know that if they emigrate they can never catch up with the settlers, they may not welcome the  immigrant status. They may be more inclined to try to prosper where planted in the Caribbean homeland.

The reality of our Caribbean Diaspora in these foreign lands – the US in particular – have been elaborated upon in many previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16395 The Caribbean – A People or A Place?
It is limited how much Caribbean culture can be exported away from the homeland.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15121 ‘Time to Go’ – America’s Racist History of Loitering
The blatant racists were defeated militarily (Civil War) so their spirit of racial superiority simply rose again. They took out their angst on the Black community, exploiting every appearance of loitering in Southern communities. Even today, the Cop-on-Black shootings are indicative of this bad community ethos.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14746 Calls for Repatriation Strategy
The Caribbean region has suffered from acute societal abandonment to the point that there is the need to reverse the trend and urge people to return, to repatriate.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14413 Repairing the Breach: ‘Hurt People Hurt People’

When the Black-and-Brown populations of the Caribbean emigrate to the foreign lands, they live among the Black-and-Brown native populations. After long periods of oppression and repression, these communities have higher crime rates, drug usage and other abusive behaviors.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14087 Opioids and the FDA – ‘Fox guarding the Henhouse’
Due to lax FDA’s oversight, pharmaceutical companies seem to have free reign with dispensing addictive drugs on their populations. Even Caribbean Diaspora members have been victimized.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11420 ‘Black British’ and ‘Less Than’
A Black person speaking with a British accent gets more respect than a Black person speaking with a Caribbean slang or a ‘Hip-hop’ /‘Jive’ dialect. But even in Great Britain, accent or none, Blacks are still treated as “Less Than“.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13213 ‘Pulled’ – Despite American Guns
The US is the richest, most powerful democracy in the history of the world, but this country has some societal defects: guns, in addition to “Institutional Racism” and Crony-Capitalism. Yet still, Caribbean people flee there.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10654 Stay Home! Immigration Realities in the US
There are many people in the US that are not so welcoming to new immigrants. They protest in words and deeds to sour the experience for our Diaspora living there.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10494 A Lesson In History – Ending the Military Draft
The end of the draft in the US started the bad trend for Caribbean emigration to America – no need to sacrifice sons to the “Altar of War”.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1773 Miami’s Caribbean Marketplace Re-opens
The American immigrant experience is one of eventual celebration, but only after a “long train of abuses”: rejection, anger, protest, bargaining, toleration and eventual acceptance. While the experience in Miami today is one of celebration, and Miami does profit from this Caribbean Diaspora, their social disposition will never exceed the immigrant status – never a “settler”.

Caribbean people have fled their homeland. Our abandonment rate is atrocious, with one report estimating that 70 percent of our professional classes have emigrated and now live abroad. It is time now to conduct a reckoning with our European (and American) destinations – they are not home. Quite simply, the reference to “European” is a de facto reference to White-Christian. So we can never be settlers; we can never catch up in Americanism, since it is based not just on timeline, but also race.

So the solution for Caribbean people to elevate their lives and societal disposition is to double-down in reforming and transforming our Caribbean homeland. Now is the time for the Caribbean region to lean-in to this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation, as described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The roadmap includes the empowerments, strategies and tactics to elevate the societal engines of the Caribbean homeland.

Yes, we can … make the Caribbean, our homeland, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

  • Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion 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 provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Appendix – Title: The Nation of Immigrants Myth
By: Howard Sutherland

“We are a nation of immigrants.”

It is every American politician’s incantation, usually prefatory to some shibboleth lauding “strength in our diversity.” The creed of America as nation-of-immigrants (hereafter the “NOI creed”) is now unquestioned by Americans and foreigners alike.

The NOI creed’s assertion of national rootlessness justifies official multiculturalism and mass immigration. American schoolchildren are taught that the Statue of Liberty is a monument to immigration and that e pluribus unum on our currency celebrates the melting pot. Deutsche Bank recently published an analyst’s report, by a Polish immigrant in New York, lamenting a perceived rise in anti-immigration sentiments in the United States and instructing us that here “actually everybody is an immigrant,” so restricting immigration “would be devastating and virtually unthinkable.”

The creed is a half-truth but useful to social engineers transforming this country in ways alien to our history and heritage. Immigrants in the millions have come to the United States, most in waves beginning in the 1840s. Many immigrants and their descendants have contributed mightily to America. Others have contributed to the crime statistics. Some tried America, then went home. Nevertheless, the NOI creed is literally false: Despite thirty-plus years of mass immigration set off by the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, the vast majority of Americans are still American-born children of American-born parents. It is also historically false: Scores of millions of Americans are neither immigrants nor descendants of immigrants.

As for the Statue of Liberty, it is a gift from France to honor the centennial of American independence. Emma Lazarus’ “Give me your tired…”—a cri-de-coeur against Russian pogroms—is a later add-on. E pluribus unum explicitly commemorates the union of thirteen British colonies into one nation. The statue and the motto do not celebrate immigration; they salute the achievement of the settlers who founded those colonies and, in time, won independence from their Mother Country. It was the settlers’ nation, not empty wilderness, that later gave immigrants a new home.

To test the truth of the NOI creed, ask what a true nation of immigrants would be. Absent a founding group or majority, it would be no nation at all, but a random gathering of people of assorted races, religions, and nationalities, united only by their presence in the same land. With no native culture to provide national unity, the population would tend to fragment on racial and ethnic lines, ensuring division and strife as groups pursue their interests at each other’s expense. That may be our multicultural future. It is not the American past.

American history is the story of a varied nation with a distinct founding culture, one that remained dominant while assimilating—and being subtly changed by—later arrivals. That American culture is British, largely English, in origin, traditions, and religion. This article’s language is one small example.

By 1776, British colonists—mostly English, but with strong Scottish, Welsh, and Irish contingents, along with New York’s Dutch colonials and later German arrivals—had created an American branch of British civilization. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, they were long-settled: almost 170 years in Virginia, over 150 in Massachusetts. At great effort—and at the expense of the Indians they uprooted and the African slaves they imported—colonial Americans formed a nation in their own image. The diversity of their settlements reflected the variety of their British origins. David Hackett Fischer’s magisterial Albion’s Seed traces four great British colonial migrations that leave their mark still: Puritans from East Anglia to New England, Cavaliers from the West Country to Virginia, Quakers from the Midlands to the Delaware, and northern Britons, including the Scots-Irish, to the American backcountry.

Revolutionary Americans, the United States’ founders, were fairly homogeneous: 80 percent of British origin (60 percent English, 20 percent Scottish and Scots-Irish), most of the rest Dutch and German—the great majority American-born. Overwhelmingly Christian, 98 percent were Protestants. (Not included in these percentages are American Indians, who had no part in the political life of the colonies, and African slaves and freemen, who were largely excluded from political and social life.) These descendants of colonial settlers were American natives, if by America we mean the United States.

Samuel Huntington makes a useful distinction between the settlers of a country and immigrants to it. It helps answer whether the United States is truly a nation of immigrants or an organic nation with an ethnic and cultural core: a nation of the settlers’ posterity augmented by immigrants and their posterity. In Huntington’s words:

Immigrants are people who leave one country, one society, and move to another society. But there has to be a recipient society to which the immigrants move. In our case, the recipient society was created by the settlers who came here in the 17th and 18th centuries. … They came in groups to create new societies up and down the Atlantic seaboard. They weren’t immigrating to some existing society; indeed, they often did whatever they could to destroy whatever existed here in the way of Indian society. … It was [the settlers’ Anglo-Protestant] society and culture that…attracted subsequent generations of immigrants to this country.

One demographic study concluded that, had there been no immigration after 1790, the settlers’ posterity alone—including African slaves’ and freemen’s descendants—would have grown by 1990 to approximately half the size of the actual population, which implies roughly half of Americans still have roots in the founding stock whose existence the NOI creed denies.

The federal structure the Founding Fathers erected for the United States is firmly grounded in their British heritage and American experience. No surprise: they were overwhelmingly of British descent, mostly English. Those who signed the Declaration and the Constitution knew of Locke and Enlightenment philosophes but knew their native law best: the English Common Law. Common Law remains the bedrock of every state’s law, with the unique exception of Louisiana. The rights of Englishmen were the animating spirit of the Bill of Rights, meant to secure them more effectively in America than they often were in England.

Despite the evidence of American history, the NOI creed is entrenched, as is its corollary: the idea that the United States is a “propositional nation” with no ethnic basis, defined entirely by allegiance to the Declaration’s propositions. It is worth asking why. Acknowledging that America is a nation like others, with a native stock and traditions, does not deny the contributions of millions of immigrants and their descendants. Nor does it imply that Americans of immigrant descent are somehow lesser citizens. American success is the work of settler and immigrant alike. The propositional nation idea, that America’s British origins are immaterial to our national character, is also a half-truth. One has only to look at Mexico or Brazil to see how differently Spanish and Portuguese settler nations developed. An America that abandons its heritage and founding culture will be a different, and poorer, place. As Russell Kirk put it: “So dominant has British culture been in America, north of the Rio Grande, from the seventeenth century to the present (1993), that if somehow the British elements could be eliminated from all the cultural patterns of the United States—why Americans would be left with no coherent culture in public or in private life.”

Why, then, such pressure to pretend that the United States is not really a country but an inhabited idea? One reason may be the attractiveness of the propositional nation idea to immigrant groups that do not want to feel second-class next to the natives. A benign motive but unnecessary: the United States accords no preference to settlers’ descendants. Another is that the NOI, dedicated to a democratic proposition, provides a pretext for foreign interventionism: is it not the highest calling of such a state to democratize, through conquest and occupation if necessary, the less-fortunate rest of the world whence its immigrant-citizens came?

America’s integrity is strained by multiculturalism, affirmative action, and mass immigration. The NOI creed is most convenient for those in government, ethnic pressure groups, and academia who want to cut America loose from her history and traditions to recast her as a multicultural mélange they can rule by distributing spoils to contending groups. In short, the creed has become a weapon for those who would dissolve America as it has evolved and replace it with something else. Those who would conserve this country need to know enough history to refute it.
__________________________________________

Howard Sutherland is an attorney in New York.

Source: The American Conservative – Posted November 18, 2002; retrieved January 18, 2019 from: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-nation-of-immigrants-myth/

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About Us

The American Conservative exists to promote a “Main Street” conservatism that opposes unchecked power in government and business; promotes the flourishing of families and communities through vibrant markets and free people; and embraces realism and restraint in foreign affairs based on America’s vital national interests.
…
The American Conservative is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization that presents a measured, pertinent, principled conservatism for our time. We believe in constitutional government, fiscal prudence, sound monetary policy, clearly delineated borders, protection of civil liberties, authentically free markets, and restraint in foreign policy mixed with diplomatic acuity. We adhere closely to our institutional maxim: ideas over ideology; principles over party.

Source: Retrieved January 19, 2019 from: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/about-us/

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European Reckoning – Reconciling the IMF’s Past, Present and Future

Posted on January 17, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

If you had a benefactor – think scholarship for your college education – and your benefactor files for bankruptcy, should you be concerned, weary and/or pessimistic that future monies will continue to flow?

That would be stupid!

It is only logical that you would be expected to find another benefactor. (This is not just academic – in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved, the Caribbean country of Cuba was left out in the cold).

Europe, the continent, the countries and the people have been the Caribbean’s benefactor for many years in our history. It is time now to reckon with that! We must review, reflect and reconcile this past, present and our future interactions, especially when it comes to economic crises, escalations and bailouts.

When we refer to reconciling Europe’s past, we refer to the Imperial Conquests, Slave Trade, Slavery, Colonialism and Post-Colonialism.

When we refer to Europe’s present, we refer to all the recent developments in modern day Europe, as in the events of the recent economic crises; think Sovereign Debt Crisis with Greece and others.

When we refer to Europe’s future, we are referring to the tenuous status in their integration movements – think European Union (EU), IMF, and the resultant unrest on the European mainland.

This commentary opens a 5-part series on European Reckoning. This entry is 1 of 5 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of root history of Caribbean colonialism and how modern reconciliation developments are exacerbating our communities. We are all mostly independent and sovereign countries in the Caribbean, so it is expected that we would now be mature and responsible; we must now be protégés not parasites of the European world. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. European Reckoning: IMF Apologies
  2. European Reckoning: China seeks to de-Americanize the world’s economy
  3. European Reckoning: Settlers -vs- Immigrants
  4. European Reckoning: Christianity’s Indictment
  5. European Reckoning: Black “Greco-Roman” Wrestler victimized for his hair

In this series, reference is made to the Great Powers of the Western Hemisphere, sometimes called the Western Alliance. This refers to the White/Christian European nations and North America (US & Canada). In fact, sometimes the Western Alliance is cross-labeled with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also called the North Atlantic Alliance; this is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.

While none of the 29 NATO members include any Caribbean independent states, 16 Caribbean Overseas Territories are thusly aligned as dependents of the American (2), British (6), Dutch (6) and French (4) imperial powers. Plus with the Caribbean Basin Security Pact, the full Caribbean – except Cuba – is aligned with NATO members: United States and Canada.

The reference to Europe in this series of commentaries is to “White Westerners”. This special sub-group had wielded absolute power on the planet. It is time now to look back at that history and “call a spade a spade”!

In this first submission of this series, the overt favoritism of economic bailouts toward White Westerners was exposed and commiserated. This reflects the need for reconciliation. For the Caribbean, considering our European history, presence and future, we need to participate in this reconciliation. See this article here addressing the flawed favoritism of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), (the intergovernmental financial institution composed of 189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world”[1]). It appears that the ‘International’ in the brand IMF has not been as global as they claimed. The full article is presented here:

Title: IMF admits disastrous love affair with the euro and apologises for the immolation of Greece
By: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The International Monetary Fund’s top staff misled their own board, made a series of calamitous misjudgments in Greece, became euphoric cheerleaders for the euro project, ignored warning signs of impending crisis, and collectively failed to grasp an elemental concept of currency theory.

This is the lacerating verdict of the IMF’s top watchdog on the fund’s tangled political role in the eurozone debt crisis, the most damaging episode in the history of the Bretton Woods institutions.

It describes a “culture of complacency”, prone to “superficial and mechanistic” analysis, and traces a shocking breakdown in the governance of the IMF, leaving it unclear who is ultimately in charge of this extremely powerful organisation.

The report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) goes above the head of the managing director, Christine Lagarde. It answers solely to the board of executive directors, and those from Asia and Latin America are clearly incensed at the way European Union insiders used the fund to rescue their own rich currency union and banking system.

The three main bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland were unprecedented in scale and character. The trio were each allowed to borrow over 2,000pc of their allocated quota – more than three times the normal limit – and accounted for 80pc of all lending by the fund between 2011 and 2014.

In an astonishing admission, the report said its own investigators were unable to obtain key records or penetrate the activities of secretive “ad-hoc task forces”. Mrs Lagarde herself is not accused of obstruction.

“Many documents were prepared outside the regular established channels; written documentation on some sensitive matters could not be located. The IEO in some instances has not been able to determine who made certain decisions or what information was available, nor has it been able to assess the relative roles of management and staff,” it said.

The report said the whole approach to the eurozone was characterised by “groupthink” and intellectual capture. They had no fall-back plans on how to tackle a systemic crisis in the eurozone – or how to deal with the politics of a multinational currency union – because they had ruled out any possibility that it could happen.

“Before the launch of the euro, the IMF’s public statements tended to emphasise the advantages of the common currency,” it said. Some staff members warned that the design of the euro was fundamentally flawed but they were overruled.

“After a heated internal debate, the view supportive of what was perceived to be Europe’s political project ultimately prevailed,” it said.

This pro-EMU bias continued to corrupt their thinking for years. “The IMF remained upbeat about the soundness of the European banking system and the quality of banking supervision in euro-area countries until after the start of the global financial crisis in mid-2007. This lapse was largely due to the IMF’s readiness to take the reassurances of national and euro area authorities at face value,” it said.

The IMF persistently played down the risks posed by ballooning current account deficits and the flood of capital pouring into the eurozone periphery, and neglected the danger of a “sudden stop” in capital flows.

“The possibility of a balance of payments crisis in a monetary union was thought to be all but non-existent,” it said. As late as mid-2007, the IMF still thought that “in view of Greece’s EMU membership, the availability of external financing is not a concern”.

At root was a failure to grasp the elemental point that currency unions with no treasury or political union to back them up are inherently vulnerable to debt crises. States facing a shock no longer have sovereign tools to defend themselves. Devaluation risk is switched into bankruptcy risk.

“In a monetary union, the basics of debt dynamics change as countries forgo monetary policy and exchange rate adjustment tools,” said the report. This would be amplified by a “vicious feedback between banks and sovereigns”, each taking the other down. That the IMF failed to anticipate any of this was a serious scientific and professional failure.

In Greece, the IMF violated its own cardinal rule by signing off on a bailout in 2010 even though it could offer no assurance that the package would bring the country’s debts under control or clear the way for recovery, and many suspected from the start that it was doomed.

The organisation got around this by slipping through a radical change in IMF rescue policy, allowing an exemption (since abolished) if there was a risk of systemic contagion. “The board was not consulted or informed,” it said. The directors discovered the bombshell “tucked into the text” of the Greek package, but by then it was a fait accompli.

The IMF was in an invidious position when it was first drawn into the Greek crisis.  The Lehman crisis was still fresh. “There were concerns that such a credit event could spread to other members of the euro area, and more widely to a fragile global economy,” said the report.

The eurozone had no firewall against contagion, and its banks were tottering. The European Central Bank had not yet stepped up to the plate as lender of last resort. It was deemed too dangerous to push for a debt restructuring in Greece.

While the fund’s actions were understandable in the white heat of the crisis, the harsh truth is that the bailout sacrificed Greece in a “holding action” to save the euro and north European banks. Greece endured the traditional IMF shock of austerity, without the offsetting IMF cure of debt relief and devaluation to restore viability.

A sub-report on the Greek saga said the country was forced to go through a staggering squeeze, equal to 11pc of GDP over the first three years. This set off a self-feeding downward spiral. The worse it became, the more Greece was forced to cut – what ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis called “fiscal water-boarding”.

“The automatic stabilisers were not allowed to operate, thus aggravating the pro-cyclicality of the fiscal policy, which exacerbated the contraction,” said the report.

The attempt to force through an “internal devaluation” of 20pc to 30pc by means of deflationary wage cuts was self-defeating since it necessarily shrank the economic base and sent the debt trajectory spiralling upwards. “A fundamental problem was the inconsistency between attempting to regain price competitiveness and simultaneously trying to reduce the debt to nominal GDP ratio,” it said.

The IMF thought the fiscal multiplier was 0.5 when it may in reality have been five times as high, given the fragility of the Greek system. The result is that nominal GDP ended 25pc lower than the IMF’s projections, and unemployment soared to 25pc instead of 15pc as expected. “The magnitude of Greece’s growth forecast errors looks extraordinary,” it said.

The strategy relied on forlorn hopes that the “confidence fairy” would lift Greece out of this policy-induced nose-dive. “Highly optimistic” plans to raise $50bn from privatisation sales came to little. Some assets did not even have clear legal ownership. The chronic “lack of realism” lasted until late 2011. By then the damage was done.

The injustice is that the cost of the bailouts was switched to ordinary Greek citizens  – the least able to support the burden  – and it was never acknowledged that the true motive of EU-IMF Troika policy was to protect monetary union. Indeed, the Greeks were repeatedly blamed for failures that stemmed from the policy itself. This unfairness – the root of so much bitterness in Greece – is finally recognised in the report.

“If preventing international contagion was an essential concern, the cost of its prevention should have been borne – at least in part – by the international community as the prime beneficiary,” it said.

Better late than never.

Source: Posted July, 29 2016 ; retrieved January 10, 2019 from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/28/imf-admits-disastrous-love-affair-with-euro-apologises-for-the-i/

The foregoing article highlights: “Asian and Latin American stakeholders are clearly incensed at the way European Union insiders used the [IMF] fund to rescue their own rich currency union and banking system”. Maybe just maybe, Europeans are not as egalitarian and pluralistic as they claim. Maybe just maybe, when push comes to shove they first look after their own before supporting others, even though they are contractually obligated to do so.

This is Tribalism 101…

Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small groups, as opposed to mass societies, and humans naturally maintain a social network.
In popular culture, tribalism may also refer to a way of thinking or behaving in which people are loyal to their social group above all else,[1] or, derogatorily, a type of discrimination or animosity based upon group differences.[2]

This ‘Tribalism’ is the reckoning that Europe is doing right now regarding the IMF. They are reconciling their past, present and future and recognizing that they now have to build trust, anew – see the Appendix VIDEO below.

This is also the reckoning that we, in the Caribbean, must do. How should we deal with fiscal/monetary escalations – rescues of our currency and banking systems? The conclusion from this commentary is that we need to do the heavy-lifting ourselves and facilitate our own solutions for economic and fiscal management. The proposed solution: the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) as a formal “cooperative” among the region’s Central Banks. The CCB will be the sole controlling agent of the monetary policies of a regional currency union: Caribbean Dollar. When there is economic dysfunction and a need for “receivership”. That role would be assumed by the CCB, not the IMF.

This theme of technocratic monetary stewardship aligns with previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16210 In Defense of Trade – Currency Assassins: Real Threat
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15796 Lessons Learned from 2008: Righting The Wrong
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15787 Lessons Learned from 2008: Too Big to Fail –vs- Too Small to Thrive
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14248 Leading with Money Matters – Almighty Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744 Failure to Launch – Economics: The Quest for a ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6563 Lessons from Iceland – Model of Banking Recovery
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3858 European Central Bank unveils 1 trillion Euro stimulus program
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3814 Lesson Learned from the Swiss unpegging their currency: Franc
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582 For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833 One currency, divergent economies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=467 Barbados Central Bank records $3.7m loss in 2013

Now is the time for the Caribbean region to lean-in for this roadmap described here-in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits of this roadmap are too alluring to ignore: emergence of an $800 Billion economy, with solid technocratic management of a regional currency union. Finally, we will have the opportunity to stand-up as a protégé to our North American and European counterparts. We will not be looking to them to bail-us-out; we will forge our own growth and clean-up and own mess. We will be mature … finally.

Yes, we can … make the Caribbean, our homeland, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the aligning Caribbean Central Bank (CCB), 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.
  • Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

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

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 … 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 … member states and the Federation as a whole.

xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent Overseas Territory of imperial powers, the systems of governance can be instituted on a regional and local basis, rather than requiring oversight or accountability from distant masters far removed from their subjects of administration. The Federation must facilitate success in autonomous rule …

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.

xxv.   Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and member-states.

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

—————–

Appendix VIDEO – IMF’s Christine Lagarde: Truth and transparency are key to rebuilding trust – https://youtu.be/0Iia6FUzVc4


CNBC International TV
Published on Apr 22, 2018 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed calls from the U.S. that it should push for more transparency in global trade and lending, the Fund’s boss said Sunday.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she’s “delighted” U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin wants the Fund to increase transparency on trade imbalances and debt sustainability in countries like China, an effort she said is already underway. “It’s clearly a project that we have been working on, that we will continue to work on, and I’m delighted that he’s supporting us,” Lagarde said in an interview with CNBC’s Elizabeth Schulze at the IMF Spring Meetings [2018] in Washington.

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Caribbean Unity? Need French Antilles

Posted on August 29, 2018 in Government, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Bedrock, Baby!

This is the lesson being learned in San Francisco for the new Salesforce Tower: If you’re going to build a skyscraper, make sure it has a good foundation. While a building can go up with a weak foundation, there will be structural problems along the way. See Appendix VIDEO for the story of the Millennium Tower sinking, and leaning.

This is an important lesson for the Caribbean; there is a need for integration, consolidation and collaboration among the Caribbean member-states. But, we need a good foundation; we need full participation from all the neighbors (Dutch, English, French and Spanish speaking islands). Just look at this photo here, depicting that the French Antilles territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique are “next door” to English-speaking Caribbean island nation-states:

(The island of Saint Martin is shared as a French territory and Dutch territory – this is considered a legal condominium; St Bartholomew is also on the list of current French Caribbean islands; but French Guiana – on the South American mainland next to Suriname completes the list of French territories; Haiti gained independence from France in 1804).

This is the assertion of the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This book declares that Caribbean regional governance is deficient and inadequate; there must be a regional integration that integrates the entire region. Yes, the existing Caribbean Community (CariCom) integration effort without the French territories is like building a skyscraper on a shaky foundation. What a skyscraper really needs is: Bedrock, Baby!

What Caribbean integration really needs is: Complete participation of all the neighbors in the neighborhood.

This is the purpose of this commentary, to lament the inadequacies because of Caribbean disunity. This is the continued focus of this series of commentaries on the joke (absurdity) of the premise that there is some Caribbean unity; this is a mirage. This submission is 3 of 4 from the Go Lean movement. The urging is that the full Caribbean – all 30 member-states – must confederate and consolidate; otherwise our communities will not thrive, maybe, not even survive. The assessment is that the prior attempts of nation-building – without some sort of alliance – is just 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 finally foster unity in this region. The previous formal exercises in regional integration were flawed at the foundation; this includes the current Caribbean Community or CariCom plus the previous attempt among the English-speaking islands: the disastrous West Indies Federation, and the attempt in the Dutch-speaking islands, the now-defunct Netherlands Antilles. These many iterations ignored the bedrock foundational principle of: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Those 3 principles sound familiar …

Yes, they are the values of the French Revolutionary movement. This is relevant because the French are also among the World Powers that discovered, exploited and colonized the Caribbean. To this day, they claim the afore-mentioned 4 territories in the region.

This commentary is not a criticism of the French eco-system or history, except for calling out their failure to integrate with their Caribbean neighbors. The country of France was always front-and-center in the enlightenment movement as their Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen of 1789, together with Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the United States Bill of Rights, inspired in large part the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[4]

Human rights – or Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – does not fit the description of colonies in these French Antilles. They are being administered remotely from Metropolitan France (Paris) rather than exercising autonomy to partner with their next door neighbors. As a result of this failing, we have no Freedom of Movement between the French Antilles and their neighbors – but there is Freedom of Movement in the European Union (and the Schengen Area). See the plight highlighted in this news story:

Title # 1: Dominican family facing expulsion from Martinique
A Dominican family of nine have been threatened with expulsion from Martinique, one year after fleeing there in the aftermath of hurricane Maria, local news reports have said.

The family, seven children and their parents, have been asked to leave Martinique this Thursday, August 16, 2018, according to Martinique 1Ere.

The online publication said the Dominican immigrants have all been living at the home of the children’s grandmother in the community of Prêcheur.

However,  since arriving in Martinique the visitors could not obtain a residence permit and must leave Martinique for their native Dominica, Martinique 1Ere reported.

The Mayor of the area,  Marcellin Nadeau, is reportedly opposed to the expulsion and has cited the historical links of the community with Dominicans.

Hurricane Maria blasted across Dominica on the night of September 18, 2017, with torrential rain and gusts of some 160 mph.

Damage to the Island was estimated at over $EC 2 billion and some one fifth of the population is said to have sought refuge in other countries in the aftermath of the storm.
Source: St. Lucia Times – posted August 15, 2018; retrieved August 29, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/08/15/dominican-family-facing-expulsion-from-martinique/

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Title # 2: Martinique: Supporters mobilise against expulsion of Dominican family
Residents of the community of Prêcheur in Martinique Friday morning began mobilising to prevent the expulsion of a Dominican family, local news reports say.

The nine Dominicans had sought refuge in the French overseas territory following the passage of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Dominica last year.

According to Martinique 1 Ere, since 6:30 Friday morning, several inhabitants of Prêcheur, began mobilising to prevent the departure of Durand family.

The family, seven children and their parents, had been living with the children’s grandmother in Martinique for the past year.

They were due to leave Martinique Friday because they do not have a residence permit.

Local news reports said the family made several attempts to obtain the permit but failed to do so.

They were originally due to leave on Thursday, August 16, but the authorities gave them a few more hours to prepare for their departure, it was reported.

Residents of the community where the visitors have been staying have stated their intention to block access to the port at Fort de France to prevent the Dominicans from leaving, Martinique 1 Ere has reported.

The online publication quoted lawyer, Camille Célénice, as saying that a request for a residence permit must be filed Friday morning in the presence of the Mayor of  Prêcheur, Marcellin Nadeau.

Nadeau is reported to be opposed to the move to expel the Dominican family, citing the historical links of the town with its neighbours from Dominica.
Source: St. Lucia Times – posted August 17, 2018; retrieved August 29, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/08/17/martinique-supporters-mobilise-against-expulsion-of-dominican-family/

It is apparent from this article, that refuge-seekers from hurricane-damaged areas seek refuge in their neighborhoods, first. It is only logical that displaced people will only want to move the shortest distances possible. If your island is only 40 miles away, then despite the divergent colonial heritage, that proximity overrides any cultural affinity.

Culture can move and adapt to a land; a land cannot move and adapt to a culture.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an intergovernmental entity to empower all of the Caribbean member-states – the independent and dependent territories. This new regime for the Caribbean needs the islands in the French Antilles. But, the French Antilles need the CU, too. Accordingly, there is a lot of discord in those lands; see this opening anecdote from the Go Lean book on Page 17:

Anecdote # 3

French Caribbean – Organization & Discord

The terms French Caribbean, French West Indies or French Antilles all refer to the five territories currently under French sovereignty in the Antilles islands and related areas of the Caribbean. There are two organizational types:

1. Overseas departments are constituencies of France that are outside metropolitan France. They have the same political status as metropolitan departments. As integral parts of France and the European Union, overseas departments are represented in the National Assembly, Senate, and Economic and Social Council, vote to elect European Parliament (MEP), and also use the Euro as their currency. Under the 1946 Constitution of the Fourth Republic, the French colonies were defined as overseas departments. Since 1982, following the French government’s policy of decentralization, overseas departments have elected regional councils with powers similar to those of the regions of metropolitan France. As a result of a constitutional revision that occurred in 2003, these regions are now to be called overseas regions; though there is no difference in relevance or function.

o Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre & Grande-Terre); plus dependencies: Les Saintes, Marie-Galante, La Désirade
o Martinique
o French Guiana – actually on the South America mainland

2. Overseas collectivities are first-order administrative divisions of France. These constitute some former French overseas territories and other French overseas entities with a particular status, all of which became collectivities by constitutional reform on 28 March 2003. For the Caribbean, they include:

o Saint Martin – the northern part of the island shared with a Dutch Territory
o Saint Barthélemy

There is recent history of discord in the French Caribbean. Saint Barthélemy has a more developed and prosperous economy than its previous administrative “big brother” Guadeloupe. Duty-free port attractions, retail trade, high-end tourism and its luxury hotels/villas have increased that island’s standard of living for its citizens, even exceeding metropolitan France. Plus, unlike most Caribbean islands, the population of Saint “Barths” is mostly of European ancestry. With the 2003 constitutional reforms, the populations of the French territories of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin were given the choice to remain within France or alter their status; they voted in favor of secession from Guadeloupe and to form separate overseas collectivities of France. In July 2007, these island communes were officially detached from Guadeloupe and became two separate French overseas collectivities with their own local administration and own deputies in the French National Assembly and Senate.

There is also discord in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The average salary in Guadeloupe is lower than in mainland France while the unemployment and poverty rates on both islands are double those found in metropolitan France; these islands suffered the 2nd and 3rd highest unemployment rates in the European Union (2007), and #1 in youth unemployment.

In January/February 2009, an umbrella group of approximately fifty labor unions and other associations called for a €200 ($260 USD) monthly pay increase for Guadeloupe and Martinique’s low income workers. The protesters had proposed that authorities “lower business taxes as a top up to company finances” to pay for the €200 pay raises. Employers and business leaders in Guadeloupe had said that they could not afford the salary increase. The strike lasted 44 days, during the high season, and escalated to “the verge of revolt”, finally ending with an accord in March 2009 in which the French government agreed to raise the salaries of the lowest paid by the requested €200 and granted the petitioners top 20 demands. Tourism suffered greatly during this time and affected the 2010 tourist season as well; the islands were believed to have lost millions of dollars in tourism revenues due to cancelled vacations and closed hotels. The strikes exposed deep ethnic, racial, and class tensions and disparities – discord – within the French Caribbean territories.

<—————————->

Hurricanes are a serious threat for Caribbean life. This is true for the French Caribbean as well. There is nothing that Paris can do to eliminate the threat! (Notwithstanding the COP 21 Paris Accords to mitigate Greenhouse Gases to retard the effects of Climate Change).

All the Caribbean must band together to cope. This includes all islands of all colonial heritage. This was the opening declaration in the Go Lean book (Page 5), quoting the lyrics of the popular 1970 song “Lean On Me”:

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

The current governance in the Caribbean is inadequate for dealing with the challenges of Climate Change; this is affecting all facets of our society: economics, security and governance. Rather than an intra-island focus, all these lands need to look to the full region and then convene, consolidate, collude, confederate and collaborate with each other to make the homelands better places to live, work and play. A regional construct is the focus of the technocratic CU; it is designed to shepherd the economic engines, while also guarding against all security challenges – including preparation and response for natural disasters.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

This directive transcends national borders, languages or culture. It just delivers …

This was always the hope for the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), the initiative spurred by CariCom; but it never delivered. This new regime embraces the spirit of CariCom – the need for integration – but with an execution foundation that goes down to the bedrock.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – opened with an honest assessment there must be a regional interdependence. This assessment was 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 transform the Caribbean society, even the French Antilles. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines from this sample on Page 239 entitled:

10 Ways to Impact French Territories

1 Lean-in for Caribbean Integration
The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states for 42 million people with the scale to effect change; the CU does not involve sovereignty. The treaty includes the French Overseas Territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, but not French Guiana initially. Though France is one of the biggest economies, French economic prosperity has not always extended to these islands
2 Trading Partners based on Nature not Politics
One original motive of French colonialism was the facilitation of trade. That need is even more pronounced now. But with the changes of globalization, technology and the demographic regionalization it is more fitting to trade with neighbors, based on natural location, rather than political alignment. The CU extends that push with this Trade Federation.
3 Homeland Security Pact – NATO style
4 Disaster Preparation & Response
Mother Nature, and the reality of hurricanes, plays no favorites for one island versus another due to political alliance. The CU will better plan/prepare/respond, with a professional Emergency Management Agency and recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by capital markets to restore economic engines in the islands.
5 Caribbean Dollar and the Caribbean Central Bank
6 Emigration Circuit Breaker
7 EU Participants
8 Cruise Line Collective Bargaining
9 Paris Hand-off / Proxy
10 Host Country Entitlements

The Caribbean must foster a better homeland that allows for Free Movement of People … and also better disaster preparation and response. This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for the French Caribbean and their full participation in this regional construct; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13319 Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Freedom of Movement
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12581 State of the Union – Annexation: French Guiana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11287 Creating a Legacy in Pro-Surfing in Martinique
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10554 Welcoming the French
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043 Caribbean Integration Plan for Greater Prosperity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=382 Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Maarten Join the ACS

The reasons why people abandon a beloved homeland is due to 2 reasons: “push” and “pull” factors. “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. The French Antilles have many of the same problems as the rest of the Caribbean. Societal defects abound, to the point that many of the people – and institutions – flee their homelands. This is true even more so right after a disastrous storm – a “push” factor. In the foregoing news articles, the displacement drama was associated with the aftermath of Category 5 Hurricane Maria in Dominica. Since all Caribbean member-states are “in the same boat”, all territories-countries should “pick up an oar” and collaborate on solutions.

(The absolute latest news on this Dominican family: Stay of Execution on Deportation –  https://stluciatimes.com/2018/08/29/martinique-decision-pending-on-expulsion-of-dominican-family/).

In summary, the Go Lean roadmap 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. Due to our Climate Change realities, our region must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines so as to better allow for our tropical realities.

Let’s be better – together.

All Caribbean stakeholders – including European governments (i.e. France and The Netherlands) – are urged to lean-in to this roadmap for change … and empowerment. We need “all hands on deck” to make this region a better place to live work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – The Leaning Tower of San Francisco – https://youtu.be/qKtlZc-u9TU

Published on November 5, 2017 – The Millennium Tower opened to great acclaim with high-priced, posh apartments. But those accolades and property values are sinking, along with the building’s foundation. No Bedrock! Jon Wertheim reports.

See full story here: https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/nn9f_o573SfUTgnxuseZn5qbLYNtHCQI/the-leaning-tower-of-san-francisco/

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Legislating Morality – Yes, We Can

Posted on February 27, 2018 in Ethos, Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

We have always heard: “No one can legislate morality”.

But truth be told, that is a fallacy. With the proper application of best-practices, we can legislate – pass laws – and change people’s attitudes and actions about habits and practices. Follow-up, messaging and enforcement is key! In modern society, we have seen this repeatedly in one community after another. Let’s examine … with the experiences with some common vices.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – present numerous examples of advocates and their advocacies where they have labored to change their community (or nation) attitude and actions towards certain causes. The book addresses this whole subject under the topic of “community ethos”. This is defined as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of society; dominant assumptions of a people or period. Think of the derivative term: “work ethic”.

Can we change community ethos?

Yes, indeed …

… but it is not easy; in fact the Go Lean book identifies the effort as heavy-lifting, but the movement behind the book volunteers for the task of executing change for the Caribbean.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – 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.
  • 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.

We have seen changes to public morality: from bad to good; and from good to bad. We have seen the bad community ethos of “drunk driving” and “white supremacy” relegated to an “unbecoming” status in good citizenship. But we have also seen the good ethos of recreational drugs prohibition become accepted and demand for decriminalization and legalization. (In the US, Marijuana legalization is now the norm for 40 percent of the American population).

Change continues …

These changes have been duly documented by the movement behind the Go Lean book in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13882 Managing ‘Change’ in California
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12703 Lessons from Colorado: Legalized Marijuana – Heavy-lifting!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646 ‘Time to Go’ – American Vices, i.e. Marijuana. Don’t Follow!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1386 Puff Peace – The Debate  for Marijuana in Jamaica

This is not just a phenomenon in the Americas; success in legislating morality have also been experienced in the Old Country; consider this European example in France.

Imagine the French and their affinity for Red Wine (Bordeaux), and Champagne and Cognac and Sherry … (There is also the traditions of the French Caribbean islands and their mastery of the rum eco-system). See Appendix VIDEO below.

These are export products for the Republic of France and indicative of the complex French culture. Yet, this country has legislated morality and reduce their alcohol consumption, by means of Evin Loi or Evan’s Law; see summary here from Wikipedia:

The loi Évin is the French alcohol and tobacco policy law passed in 1991. It takes its name from Claude Évin, then Minister of Health, who proposed it to Parliament. …

Before the law, French advertising laws discriminated against non-French producers. However, Scotch whisky producers challenged France in the European Court of Justice and won. France was condemned and required to change the law in 1980 but did not produce satisfactory legislation until 1991, with the enactment of Loi Evin, which affected both alcohol and tobacco policies. …

The provisions of the law reinforce the restrictions placed on tobacco and alcohol and their advertising by its predecessor Loi Veil (1976), legalising abortion. …

Alcohol advertisements are prohibited on television or in cinemas. The law requires strict control over messages and images and the inclusion in all advertisements of a message to the effect that alcohol abuse is dangerous to one’s health.

So this French law regulated alcohol advertising; advertising affected alcohol demand; so the end result on alcohol consumption are as reported in the following article:

“It has had a huge impact on the consumption of alcohol in France,” says Dr Mick Loftus, the anti-drinks campaigner and a former president of the GAA. “In 1960, the average adult in France consumed 30 litres of alcohol. Today, that figure is down to 13.5 litres and it’s mainly thanks to Loi Evin.

See full article in Appendix below.

Related Article:
Alcohol policy in France – Between traditions and paradoxes
https://intra.tai.ee/images/eventlist/events/27-11-15-alkokonverents_4_Craplet.pdf

The movement behind the Go Lean book asserts that Caribbean community ethos can be changed; even further, that Caribbean societal defects can be assuaged. But before the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies of a roadmap to elevate a society can be deployed, the affected society must first embrace a progressive community ethos. This is where legislating morality becomes so important. Yes, we can effect change in our region.

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 transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, regarding a lot of matters of morality. The Go Lean book cites (Page 122) one particular example of an advocate campaigning to legislate America’s morality. See this quotation here:

Candice Lightner
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
Ms. Lightner forged change in her country (United States) values and attitudes with her founding of this organization. She advocated change in attitudes, acceptance, laws and enforcement so that families would be spared the heartache she personally experienced with the tragic lost of her daughter to a drunk driver in the 1970’s. One woman made a difference!

The Go Lean book asserts that every community has bad actors – stemming from bad community ethos. There must be “new guards” to assuage any risks and threats in society. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) that claims:

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

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

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

Societies change …

We have all seen it; think seat belts, smoking, high fat diets. Leaders can legislate change and morality. It works … eventually. There are heavy-lifting involved, like messaging and enforcement. But if the effort persists, the values, priorities and motivations of people in communities can transform, for the better or the worse. Let’s work for better!

The Caribbean wants (or should want) to be an elevated society; to be a better homeland and a better place to live, work and play. So we urged everyone in the region to lean-in to this roadmap for change, and to pay more than the usual attention to other communities and their developments and manifestations for change. Let’s study their successes and failures. 🙂

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: Alcohol Action – Advocating to reduce alcohol harm in Ireland

Title: How To Tackle The Drink Link To Sport? Just Ask The French

We know it as the Heineken Cup, but in France they call European rugby’s leading club competition the H Cup.

And when Liverpool FC played there in the Europa Cup some years ago, they had to wear shirts free of their then sponsor Carlsberg.

These are just two examples of the very strict anti-alcohol policies that have been in place in France for more than two decades.

From Indpendent.ie

While Irish people are used to drinks companies sponsoring a diverse range of sports, music festivals and arts events, as well as extensive alcohol-related advertising across the media, a whole new generation in France has grown up never seeing a single drinks ad or attending an event sponsored by a drinks company.

It’s thanks to Loi Evin (Evin’s Law – named after the then health minister Claude Evin) and it has been a feature of life in France since 1991. Advocates keen to curb binge-drinking in this country believe it is a model that we should adopt.

“It has had a huge impact on the consumption of alcohol in France,” says Dr Mick Loftus, the anti-drinks campaigner and a former president of the GAA. “In 1960, the average adult in France consumed 30 litres of alcohol. Today, that figure is down to 13.5 litres and it’s mainly thanks to Loi Evin.

“If you go to France now, you’ll rarely see the sort of drink-to-get-drunk culture that’s so prevalent here. There, there isn’t the same emphasis on consuming alcohol in order to have a good time that’s long been the case in Ireland. The fact that alcohol is not associated with fun events like music festivals and sport has helped shift the perception French people have with alcohol. Generally speaking, drinking alcohol is seen as something to do with food.”

The origins of the law are rooted in old French protectionist polices of curbing the promotion of “foreign” goods in order to give their indigenous products an advantage.

UK drinks firms took the fight to European courts in the 1970s and ’80s, and French lawmakers were eventually forced to level the playing field by also banning the promotion of home-grown alcohol companies.

The ruling continues to outrage the country’s wine industry. “They treat us as if we were making a dangerous product,” Burgundy winemaker Pascale Chicotot told The New York Times. “We are not terrorists. Wine is not a dangerous product. Wine is a noble thing.”

Yet, anti-alcoholism advocates in France believe it is this very restriction that is helping to reduce consumption across the board. Leading campaigner Dr Alain Rigaud says Loi Evin has had a significant positive impact: “The law has been efficient in correcting excesses in the form and the content of advertising messages and it is essential for the implementation of an overall and coherent preventative effort.”

Yet, he contends that it is still too soon to gauge its full consequences.

“The effectiveness of the law on younger generations will not be felt for several decades,” he says.

Despite the restrictions, there is evidence of growing alcohol misuse among teenagers in France since Evin Law was introduced. A recent survey there shows a rise of 17pc in this age group who said they had consumed five or more drinks in one session in the previous 30 days.

It’s a problem that is causing French authorities considerable disquiet, especially as the 2009 ruling that raised the legal purchase age from 16 to 18 does not appear to have had an impact.

Meanwhile, some lobbyists who favour the retention of alcohol’s relationship with sport, argue that sponsorship simply gives one brand a competitive advantage over another but does not influence consumption trends.

“We analysed consumption, sponsorship spend and disposable income per head in all the major markets,” said the authors of a report on behalf of the Sponsorship Today consultancy.

“There was a very clear correlation between consumption and disposable income, but no clear pattern regarding sponsorship spend and consumption.

“In Germany, for example, beer consumption per capita is among the highest in the world, but sports sponsorship spending is comparatively low, whereas in Portugal sponsorship spend is high, but consumption is low. The findings are not definitive proof of no impact, but they add to the body of research that suggests that sponsorship is not a major contributory factor in increasing alcohol consumption.”

Mick Loftus does not agree.

“If we want to protect the health of our young people, we need to have a blanket ban on all promotion of alcohol, including the sponsorship of sports event and we should look to France for a model. We simply won’t be serious as a nation about coming to terms with our alcohol problem until we do that.”

Source: Alcohol Ireland – Posted June 2013; retrieved February 27, 2018 from: http://alcoholireland.ie/how-to-tackle-the-drink-link-to-sport-just-ask-the-french/

———

Appendix VIDEO – Is French Wine the Best in the World? | #WineWars | French Guy Cooking – https://youtu.be/4u_PRozZsWw 

Jamie Oliver – Drinks

Published on Jan 26, 2015 – Alex – AKA Food Tuber French Guy Cooking – enters the #WineWars ring to fight the corner for French wine. Alex thinks French wine is the best in the world – but is he right? In this video he shows us three of his favourite French wines – a red (J. Boutin Saint-Joseph), a white (Alsace Gewurztraminer) and a rosé (Coteaux du Cap Corse: Domaine Pieretti Rosé).

Which country do YOU think produces the best wine in the world?

Leave a comment and get involved on social media using the hashtag #WineWars.

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First Steps – Free European Money – To Start at Top

Posted on January 18, 2018 in Ethos, Government, Implementation

Go Lean Commentary

Do I look like I have a plan? – Sarcasm by ‘The Joker’, the villain advocating for anarchy in the 2008 movie Batman: The Dark Knight

Most definitely, yes we do!

Despite the reality of a regional crisis, there is a plan to stop the bad trend of Caribbean people abandoning their homeland and emigrating away to North American and European destinations. Consider these thoughts:

  1. Do you know the Golden Rule; it’s he who has the gold that makes the rules.
  2. In the best control conditions of time, temperature and pressure, people will do … as they damn well please.

This is the conundrum of forging change in Caribbean society; where do we start, the Top (leaders) or the Bottom (people)?

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – declares: Both!

The fact that both approaches must be engaged at the same time depicts both a Top-Down plan plus a Bottoms-Up plan. The quest is that Caribbean society must change – if it is to survive – so either and both approaches are pursued.

Yes, we can …

The 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:

  • 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 is the first of a 6-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the First Steps for instituting this new regime for the Caribbean homeland. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1.     First Steps: EU – Free European Money – To Start at Top
  2.     First Steps: UK – Dignified and Efficient
  3.     First Steps: US – Congressional Interstate Compacts – No Vote; No Voice
  4.     First Steps: CariCom – One-Man-One-Vote Defects
  5.     First Steps: Deputize ‘Me’!
  6.     First Steps: A Powerful C.P.U.

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the Caribbean can finally get started with adapting the organizational structures to optimize the region’s societal engines. This is the consideration of leading from the Top. This conforms with the Go Lean quest to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states so that they can be better places to live, work and play. Then, only then, can we stop the bad trend of our people emigrating away to North American and European destinations.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. – The Bible Proverbs 29:18.

In a previous Go Lean commentary, it related:

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.

The people of the Caribbean are more ordinary than they are extraordinary, they just want what everyone else wants: opportunities, peace & security, good stewardship, and the fulfillment of the Social Contract (implication that people will surrender their natural rights to the State in exchange for protection of other human and civil rights).

People deserve this and demand this – they will petition their leaders, cry-and-complain, and even take to streets if necessary. But once these Social Contract deliverables are delivered, Caribbean people will do what people everywhere do: comply with any new regime. This is the plan to lead from the Bottom – demand change – this is the easy part, leading from the Top on the other hand is the mystery.

This is easier said than done…

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the 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. (One implementation is the assembly of all regional organizations and “overseas masters”: French, Dutch and British authorities, separately and in concert with the European Union).

This all sounds good, but what do “we” do next … or first, since the CU Trade Federation is not currently in force?

Accordingly, the strong urging here is to “follow the money”! There are available grants from organizations like the EU to conform, comply and “confederate as a regional entity to bring about change”. Yes, the EU provides Aid for Trade between the Caribbean and the EU. To strengthen the competitiveness of economic operators as well as the integration process of our countries in the global economy, the EU provides development cooperation in the region.

Note: The Caribbean region following the EU’s lead automatically includes the EU’s Caribbean jurisdictions: Dutch and French sovereign territories (17 lands). CARIFORUM – see below – includes 15 other nations. So these efforts are intended to be Caribbean-universal.

See a sample reference here, with excerpts from the European Union Commission website – and a related Pro-Con discussion VIDEO:

Title: European Commission Trade Policy for the Caribbean
The EU’s trade and development partnership with the Caribbean stretches back over more than 30 years. In October 2008 Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Surinam, Trinidad, Tobago, and the Dominican Republic signed with the EU the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. Haiti signed the agreement in December 2009, but is not yet applying it pending ratification.

The agreement also comes with substantial EU aid for trade.

The purpose of the agreement is to make it easier for people and businesses from the two regions to invest in and trade with each other and thus to help Caribbean countries grow their economies and create jobs.

The EU-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership in Practice

Trade picture
The EU is CARIFORUM’s second largest trading partner, after the US. CARIFORUM runs a trade deficit with the EU. In other words, CARIFORUM countries export less in goods and services to the EU than they import from the EU.

The main exports from the Caribbean to the EU are in:

  • fuel and mining products, notably petroleum gas and oils;
  • bananas, sugar and rum;
  • minerals, notably gold, corundum, aluminium oxide and hydroxide, and iron ore products;
  • fertilisers.

The main imports into the Caribbean from the EU are in:

  • boats and ships, cars, constructions vehicles and engine parts;
  • phone equipment;
  • milk and cream;
  • spirit drinks.

EU and Caribbean
Economic Partnership Agreements set out to help African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to improve their trade. The Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the 15 Caribbean countries provides predictability in the market access into the EU for these countries. The agreement will lead to a general opening of the EU market beyond WTO commitments in the services sectors, including creative and entertainment industries. It ensures duty-free-quota-free market access into the EU for all products. With regard to EU exports to the region, EU exports of sensitive products will gradually be liberalised over a period of 25 years. The Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU will make it possible for CARIFORUM companies to set up a commercial presence in the EU.

The Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the 15 Caribbean countries  is in part a free trade agreement, or FTA. And like any FTA, it opens up trade in goods between the two regions. But unlike other FTAs, the EU-Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement goes further. In fact, it’s a wide-ranging partnership putting trade at the service of development.

That is because the agreement:

  • also opens up trade in services and investment;
  • makes it easier to do business in the Caribbean – governments there have made commitments in many areas directly affecting trade, like rules to ensure fair competition;
  • comes with financial support from the EU to help Caribbean:
    • governments implement the accord; and
    • businesses to use the EPA to export more and attract more outside investment.

In recent years CARIFORUM countries have been integrating more closely with each other. This is part of their strategy to play a fuller role in global trade, and to offer the economies of scale and simpler rules which are vital to attract more foreign investment.

The EU-Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement helps to consolidate this process, by making it easier to export goods and services between:

  • the fourteen countries of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, and the Dominican Republic, which together make up CARIFORUM;
  • these fifteen CARIFORUM countries (CARICOM plus the Dominican Republic) and seventeen territories in the Caribbean with direct links to EU countries (four French ‘outermost regions’ and thirteen ‘overseas territories’ – six British, six Dutch and one French)

…
Trading with Caribbean

This can include support for building new transport, energy or telecommunications infrastructure, investments in agriculture, fisheries and services.

  • Help for exporters from developing countries
    • The EU’s Trade Helpdesk supports small traders in developing countries by helping them access the EU market, and provides information on EU rules and regulations.
    • The International Trade Center (ITC) supports several development projects across the world.
    • The ITC’s Standards Map provides information on standards, codes of conduct and audit protocols for international trade.
    • The Small Traders Capacity Building program supports developing countries in administration, training, and information on tariffs, trade flows, standards, etc.

Source: Retrieved January 16, 2018 from: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/caribbean/</a

——–

VIDEO – DISCUSSION | E.U – A.C.P Economic Partnership Agreement – https://youtu.be/la-ZQRfnUrY

Strong Body and Mind

Published on Jun 7, 2016 – E.U – A.C.P Economic Partnership Agreement Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are trade and development agreements negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners engaged in regional economic integration processes. Take a look at the various arguments, do some research then let me know your thoughts on the subject. European Commission – Economic partnerships: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/coun…

This foregoing reference is not just a document of talking points; it is an actual Action Plan. In fact, the Actions have already manifested in the region, as related in this previous Go Lean blog-commentary describing the EU’s sponsor of Green Energy initiatives in the country of Barbados; they gave 1.12 million Euros (US$1.37 million) towards the advancement of energy self-sufficiency from renewable resources. This is the first payment of a total contribution of 3 million Euros.

Needless to say, EU money comes with strings attached – see the foregoing VIDEO. They are leading the leaders of the Caribbean. This constitutes a Top-Down approach for forging change in society.

Top-Down and Bottoms-Up – this is the First Step! The Go Lean roadmap (Page 96) calls for this functionality – “assembling” all the regional stakeholders in the Caribbean, including the “overseas masters” – for the first year of the confederacy plan. (Since this book was published in 2013, the United Kingdom has divorced themselves from the EU).

Forging change is a common theme by this Go Lean movement. Consider these previous 10 blog-commentaries that detailed approaches for forging change, in reverse chronological order:

  1. Forging Change – Collective Bargaining (April 28, 2017)
  2. Forging Change – Addicted to Home (April 14, 2017)
  3. Forging Change – Arts & Artists (December 1, 2016)
  4. Forging Change – Panem et Circenses (November 15, 2016)
  5. Forging Change – Herd Mentality (October 11, 2016)
  6. Forging Change – ‘Something To Lose’ (November 18, 2015)
  7. Forging Change – ‘Food’ for Thought (April 29, 2015)
  8. Forging Change – Music Moves People (December 30, 2014)
  9. Forging Change – The Sales Process (December 22, 2014)
  10. Forging Change – The Fun Theory (September 9, 2014)

As related in these commentaries, forging change is how the Go Lean roadmap will make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. We urge every Caribbean stakeholder to lean-in to this roadmap to elevate the societal engines of the region. 🙂

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.

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EU Assists Barbados in Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency

Posted on January 17, 2018 in Government, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The dream of transforming to 100% renewable energy in the Caribbean can be realized. There is hope for this reality.

If only we can get the people behind it.

Our people …

So far other people are doing it for us. Thank you, European Union (EU), for talking the talk for us, and opening your wallets and walking the walk.

If only now we can step-in, step-up and step out ourselves … to do a better job of delivering basic needs, including energy.

This is the actuality of the latest developments taking place in the Caribbean. See this story here of a Green Energy initiative in Barbados:

Title: EU Assists Barbados in renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency

PRESS RELEASE – Barbados has received 1.12 million Euros (BBD$2.7M) from the European Union towards the advancement of energy self-sufficiency from renewable resources. This is the first payment of a total contribution of 3 million Euros. This activity is in line with the country’s commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of reducing its total and per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

A major objective of the EU’s support is the engagement of the private sector in renewable energy power generation and should result in consumers making increasing use of energy efficiency measures during the 36 month duration of the programme and after.

Some of the guidelines which will be used for performance assessment of the programme include the introduction of a favourable licence regime for independent power producers with generation systems larger than 1 megawatt, by March 2019. Another requirement is that by 2019 at least 30 megawatt of renewable energy will be installed by public and private entities. In addition, it is expected that there will be the establishment and implementation of a renewable energy roadmap according to defined milestones.

EU Ambassador Daniela Tramacere said: “This is another effort by the EU to assist Barbados in transforming its economy which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, which result in annual drain on its foreign reserves.”

The Barbados government is also expected to adopt and implement energy sector reform measures that are expected to prepare the country for the transition towards renewable energy and energy efficiency on the basis of the national energy policy.
Source: St Lucia Times Daily Newspaper; posted 01/05/2018; retrieved 01/12/2018 from:
https://stluciatimes.com/2018/01/05/eu-assists-barbados-renewable-energy-self-sufficiency/

This is the reality of Caribbean life. We have deliverables that must be delivered and yet we do not. We wait for other people to deliver for us. Time to Grow Up, you people of the Caribbean! It’s time to put on your “Big Boy pants and walk like a man”!

This is the call of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book 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-. The book explains that the Caribbean is in crisis, people are fleeing day-in and day-out. Their people are “pushed and pulled” to other lands that do a better job of managing basic needs. Energy costs in the Caribbean are among the highest in the world. Therefore the 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.

Notwithstanding, Barbados is doing more for regional integration and problem-solving …

… the [CARICOM] Secretary-General lauded the significant role Barbados continues to play in the Community with its Prime Minister having responsibility for the regional flagship initiative, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). – Report

The technology, systems and processes are available right now for Caribbean communities to fulfill the dream of a society consuming renewable energy sources 100%.

We must work harder ourselves to fulfill this dream here in our region. Doing so is win-win as it accomplishes 2 important objectives: environmental (no fossil fuels) and economic (affording conveniences of modern life):

  • Solar – The sun always shines in the Caribbean and its free.
  • Wind – The wind always blows in the Caribbean – i.e. Trade Winds – and its free.
  • Tidal – The tides always rise and fall in the Caribbean and its free – see Appendix VIDEO below.

No doubt, these renewable options bring many benefits in arresting “Climate Change” – there is no scientific doubt that burning fossil fuels contribute to greenhouse houses. (The only doubt is political , not scientific). The Caribbean is in peril because of the actuality of greenhouse gases, think hurricane activities. Consider these recent blog-commentaries:

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=12879 Remembering Harvey, Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12856 Remembering Harvey, Hurricane Flooding – ‘Who Knew?’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9334 Hurricane Categories – The Science
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6189 A Lesson in History – ‘Katrina’ is helping today’s crises
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2119 Cooling Effect – Oceans and the Climate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817 Caribbean grapples with intense new cycles of flooding & drought

In addition to science (meteorology), there are economic benefits as well. These too cannot be ignored. There is the example of the US City of Burlington, Vermont where they saved over $20 million in a few years by migrating to renewable energy sources. This meant their local households have not experienced energy costs increases since before the year 2009.

With economics, comes the consideration of “standard of care”. There is a reality to living in the Caribbean heat where air-conditioning is essential otherwise life is unbearable – think: Hotter than July’ – yet most people are not able to afford the excessive costs of this modern comfort.

So the environmental and economic issues must be the primary focus for any Green Energy consideration! The Go Lean book initiates with the pronouncement that our region is in crisis and struggling with these issues. The pressing needs are pronounced early in the book in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 11), with these opening statements:

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.

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. …

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.

Combating Climate Change should be important for Caribbean stakeholders. Deploying more efficient and cost-effective power generation options should also be of paramount importance in this region. But the motivation behind the Go Lean book is even bigger still; it is to elevate all of Caribbean society – above and beyond just combating Climate Change or just lowering costs.

With the unmistakable benefits of Green Energy systems, it should not matter who leads, Caribbean stakeholders or the EU, as long as the Caribbean region proceeds down this path. Well, according to the foregoing news article, the EU has stepped up. We now need all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this focused effort.

The Caribbean is struggling with the costs and reality of energy. The Go Lean book related (Page 100) in 2013 that this region pays one of the highest rates in the world; averaging US$0.35 /kWh. The book, in presenting more optimized solutions, posits that the average energy costs can come down to US$0.088/kWh with just a better mix of fossil-fuels and renewables.

Other communities are doing this – lower energy costs due to 100% renewable energy – now, as the model of City of Burlington, Vermont referred to previously. If this city can get to 100% renewables, despite harsh winters for 3 months every year, imagine how much more so the Caribbean communities with their near-365 days of sunshine. Even some European communities are successful at this quest. This is en vogue right now, despite the different geographies and climates.

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 and to foster the progress in the pursuits of green energy generation.

The Caribbean energy needs are undeniable. The effects of fossil-fueled-driven Climate Change are also undeniable. The need to lower the costs of living in the Caribbean is therefore undeniable as well. The Caribbean region must therefore move forward – we do not have the luxury of standing still – alternative energy options are now vast and available. There is simply the need for the commitment. The Go Lean roadmap portrays that we must engage these alternatives if we want to make this region a better homeland to live, work and play.

The Go Lean book opened (Page 3) with the job description for the CU technocracy to make better provisions for the region’s basic needs: food, clothing, shelter and energy. There is the need now to fully embrace renewable energy options, maybe even for 100%. There are even grants – i.e. from the EU – to pursue this course of action.

We have no further excuse!

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people, businesses, institutions and governments – to lean-in for the optimizations and opportunities of Green Energy options; and to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

The vision of 100% renewable energy is now more than just a dream. 🙂

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 – Tidal Power 101 – https://youtu.be/VkTRcTyDSyk

Student Energy

Published on May 17, 2015 – Tidal power converts the energy from the natural rise and fall of the tides into electricity. Learn more about Tidal Power and all types of energy at www.studentenergy.org

  • Category: Education
  •  License: Standard YouTube License
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White is Right – Not!

Posted on March 21, 2017 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

White Supremacy has been “weighed in the balance and found to be wanting“, invalid and fallacious.

US-RACE-PROTEST

Yet still, in many circles around the world in general and the Caribbean in particular, there is the impression that “White is Right“.

Why does this fallacy proliferate and how can we dispel this false notion?

The origins are tied to a religious orthodoxy. In a previous blog-commentary, it was related that the Universal Catholic Church …

… permitted trade with Barbary merchants, in which foodstuffs would be given in exchange for slaves who could then be converted to Christianity.[11] This was the de jure authorization of the Slave Trade.

From this origin, the foundation of the New World was established.

All stakeholders have now renounced this history. It is accepted that “Whiteness” is only a social construct, a product of a bad history in social development;  (see the AUDIO-PODCAST in the Appendix below). Though it is a different world today, some things still linger; think Colorism where “White is Right” on one end of the spectrum, while all things non-White is … “Less Than“.

One more lingering item is language. The 5 major languages in the New World are English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish – all from previous European colonizers. One other language not listed above but that held sway over the New World was the “dead language” of Latin. This was the ancient language of the Roman Empire, as described here:

Undoubtedly, Latin is the language that has the most longevity in the Roman Liturgy: It has been in use for over sixteen centuries, that is to say, from the time when the official liturgical language of the Church went from Greek to Latin – a change completed under Pope Damasus (+384). The official liturgical books of the Roman Rite are still published in Latin today (editio typica). – Vatican Office of Liturgical Celebrations
CU Blog - White is Right - Not! - Photo 1

So “White is Right” was a natural extension from all the religious activities that transpired in the dead language of a European culture, White Romans. To the simple mind, this logic flowed:

Language is White

God is White

White must be Right

This orthodoxy or liturgy continued, with Latin as the only language of the Roman Catholic Church … until 1963.

What happened then and why is it deemed that this change actually changed the world? See the full article here on the Second Vatican Council, informally known as “Vatican II”; this addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world[3]:

Title: Vatican II Changed The Catholic Church — And The World
By: John Pope, Religion News Service

CU Blog - White is Right - Not! - Photo 3Fifty years ago on Thursday (Oct. 11), hundreds of elaborately robed leaders strode into St. Peter’s Basilica in a massive display of solemn ecclesiastical pomp. It signaled the start of a historic three-year assembly that would change the way members of the world’s largest Christian denomination viewed themselves, their church and the rest of the world.

It was the first day of the Second Vatican Council, more popularly known as Vatican II, which was designed to assess the church’s role in a rapidly changing world. Leading the prelates was Pope John XXIII, who said frequently that he convened the council because he thought it was time to open the windows and let in some fresh air.

For many Catholics, the air came in at gale force.

As a result of Vatican II, priests started celebrating Mass in the language of the countries in which they lived, and they faced the congregation, not only to be heard and seen but also to signal to worshippers that they were being included because they were a vital component of the service.

“It called for people not to have passive participation but active participation,” said New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who chairs the Committee on Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Prayer is not supposed to be a performance. We’re supposed to be actively participating.”

CU Blog - White is Right - Not! - Photo 2The changes didn’t stop when Mass ended. As time went by, many nuns shucked their voluminous habits in favor of clothes similar to those worn by the people they served. And men and women in religious orders started taking on causes, even risking arrest, when they spoke out in favor of civil rights and workers’ rights and against the war in Vietnam.

Such changes represented an about-face from the church’s defensive approach to the world before Vatican II, said Christopher Baglow, a theology professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

“It wasn’t that the church wasn’t committed to human dignity before Vatican II,” he said. “With Vatican II, the church began to look closely at the ways with which modern thinkers tended to promote human dignity and showed how they and the Gospels are complementary.”

With Vatican II, the Catholic Church sent out the message that it was part of the modern world, said Thomas Ryan, director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry. “Not against, not above, not apart, but in the modern world,” he said. “The church sought to engage, not condemn.”

The council documents say there must be a conversation between the church and the world, Aymond said.

    “The church, by its teaching and by its discipleship, has something to say to the world. At the same time, the world is saying something to the church.”
    “We can’t just say we’re not going to be involved in these conversations,” he said. “As the church, we have to be in conversation with others who agree and disagree with us.”

This shift included the Catholic Church’s attitude toward other religions. Before Vatican II, Catholics weren’t supposed to visit other denominations’ houses of worship. “Catholics looked down on other religions and thought of them as condemned to hell,” Ryan said.

But one document from the council acknowledged that these disparate faiths had a common belief in God, said Ryan, who described it as nothing less than “a revolutionary approach.”

Perhaps the biggest of these changes came in the church’s approach to Judaism. Before Vatican II, Jews were stigmatized as the people who killed Jesus Christ. That changed with the council, when the Catholic Church acknowledged its Jewish roots and Jews’ covenant with God, Ryan said.

    “It had the effect that the sun has when it comes up and interrupts the night,” said Rabbi Edward Cohn of New Orleans’ TempleSinai, whose best friend as a child had to get permission from the archbishop to attend Cohn’s bar mitzvah. “It was no less dramatic than that. It provided an entirely new day. It changed everything.”

Not all the changes brought about by Vatican II have been welcomed, and many would say there haven’t been enough changes regarding the status of women. This spring, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog launched a full-scale overhaul of the largest umbrella group of American nuns, accusing the group of taking positions that undermine church teaching and promoting several “radical feminist themes” that are incompatible with Catholic teachings.

Although Vatican II was a catalyst for a great deal of change, it didn’t happen in a bubble, Aymond said. The 1960s was a decade of change, with protests against racism, war, sexual behavior, the status quo and authority in general.

    “If that’s going on in the world and in society, that’s bound to affect the church because we’re both a divine and a human institution,” Aymond said.
    “Vatican II isn’t about replacing what the church is,” said Baglow, the theologian at Notre Dame Seminary. “It’s about helping it be more vitally what God intended it to be in the first place.”

(John Pope writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)

Source: HuntingtonPost Posted Oct 12, 2012; retrieved March 19, 2017 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/vatican-ii-catholic-church-changes_n_1956641.html

Accordingly, it took something drastic to force this change on Christian (Catholic) society. Such an entrenched society would need a revolution to change.

As detailed in the book Go  Lean…Caribbean (Page 241 – Bottom Line on European Colonialism) the revolutionary event was World War II – upheaval of the European continent (mostly Christian nations), plus 55 million deaths. That global war was a watershed event that led to revolutionary change amongst the European powers – and their overseas territories – including their religious institutions. The changes included:

  • Decolonization
  • Human Rights Empowerments
  • Religious Orthodoxy Neutralization

These changes brought implementation challenges; many of which we are still contending with. These efforts belie Caribbean society. Our focus in this commentary is the historicity of the Second Vatican Council and its effect on the “White is Right” fallacy. See this excerpt here from Wikipedia:

The Vatican II formally opened under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1965.

CU Blog - White is Right - Not! - Photo 4… the most important and essential message of the council is “the Paschal Mystery as the center of what it is to be Christian and therefore of the Christian life, the Christian year, the Christian seasons”.[5] Other changes which followed the council included the widespread use of vernacular languages in the Mass instead of Latin, the subtle disuse of ornate clerical regalia, the revision of Eucharistic prayers, the abbreviation of the liturgical calendar, the ability to celebrate the Mass versus populum (with the officiant facing the congregation), as well as ad orientem (facing the “East” and the Crucifix), and modern aesthetic changes encompassing contemporary Catholic liturgical music and artwork. Many of these changes remain divisive among the Catholic faithful.[6]

Of those who took part in the council’s opening session, four have become popes: Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini, who on succeeding John XXIII took the name Pope Paul VI; Bishop Albino Luciani, the future John Paul I; Bishop Karol Wojtyła, who became John Paul II; and Joseph Ratzinger, present as a theological consultant, who became Benedict XVI.[7][8][9]

The consequences from Vatican II were impactful!

Consider this one quotation regarding the Second Vatican Council recommendation henceforth related to the horrors of war:

In addition to general spiritual guidance, the Second Vatican Council produced very specific recommendations, such as in the document Gaudiem et Spes: “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.”[48]

The concept or fallacy of “White is Right” was never an agenda item of Vatican II. The same as White Supremacy was never an official doctrine of the Church, only a bad community ethos among its adherents. The Go Lean book defines “community ethos” as …

… the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; the dominant assumptions of a people or period.

It is possible to “weed out” bad community ethos and debunk societal fallacies. Notice here, how these previous blog-commentaries have detailed how to “weed out” some identified bad community ethos:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10629 Learning from the Bad Ethos of McCarthyism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10532 Learning from Bad Stereotypes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222 Waging a Successful War on ‘Terrorism’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10220 Waging a Successful War on Rent
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10218 Waging a Successful War on Stupidity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10216 Waging a Successful War on Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5529 American Defects: Inventory of Crony-Capitalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5527 American Defects: Racism – Not Over!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3780 No Sacrifice; No Victory

Debunking fallacies has also been a frequent past-time for the Go Lean movement; consider these previous blog-commentaries depicting this theme:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8381 Economic Fallacy – Casino Currency – US Dollars?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8379 Economic Fallacy – Self-regulation of the Centers of Economic Activity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8377 Economic Fallacy – Phillips Curve: Fallacy of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373 Economic Fallacy – Student Loans As Investments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8370 Economic Fallacy – Austerity: Dangerous Idea?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8351 Economic Fallacy – Independence: Hype or Hope

There are a lot of manifestations from the bad “White is Right” ethos.

Two momentous expressions are presented here: 1. Housing Discrimination and 2. White Flight.

  • Housing Discrimination – Many urban communities suffered from a legacy of racial segregation; as those patterns started to breakdown after World War II and minorities integrated previous White neighborhoods, there were many upheavals and protests. See this sample blog-commentary highlighting the bad trend in American northern cities. In addition, the experience was the same for many Caribbean immigrants to European cities; see a previous blog-commentary here with that theme.
  • White Flight – Decolonization meant a lot of countries that were previously ruled by White minorities came suddenly under a Black-or-Brown majority rule. Many dysfunctions ensued. See this sample blog-commentary highlighting the lessons-learned from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Zimbabwe ascended to majority-rule in 1980; there was an immediate movement of nationalization – forfeiting and seizing commercial farms and mines. This turned out disastrously for this country. Next door in South Africa, the strategy, tactics and implementation was different. This latter country ascended to majority rule in 1994; the first President there, Nelson Mandela saw the futility of this nationalization strategy amongst the precedent African nations that sought independence, so he pursued an alternate approach to assuage White Flight and keep the capital and skilled labor in the country. But the continuation of the status quo of the White minority permeated the White is Right ethos. This sample blog-commentary depicted how majority rule therefore brought no revolutionary change for the average man there in South Africa.

Considering these case studies, we see lessons from history; we get a new appreciation for best-practices in “weeding out” bad community ethos … in the Caribbean region. This is the quest of the Go Lean book, to serve as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); to spearhead the elevation of Caribbean society. The book seeks to reboot the region’s economic, security and governing engines, hypothesizing that the European colonial stewards did not have societal efficiency in mind when they structure administrations of the individual “overseas territories” in this region; (many times, their attitudes reflected the defective White Supremacy fallacy).

In general, the Go Lean/CU will employ better strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with 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 protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate internal and external threats.
  • Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book, all 370 pages, stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean society. Imagine the messaging campaigns.

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines. It is out-of-scope to impact the Vatican and the religious orthodoxy of Europe; our focus is only here at home in the Caribbean. Already we are advocating for the Greater Good ethos as opposed to orthodoxy. Our former European colonial masters now realize the futility of the actions of their ancestors and predecessors who advocated for White Supremacy and White is Right; They are now battling to try and weed-out the last vestiges of racism and ethnic supremacy in their society.

In conclusion, “White is NOT Right“. There is good and bad in every ethnicity.

The quest of the Go Lean movement is just to move forward, not to prosecute any “bad actors” from previous generations. We cannot go back in time, so we do not want to be shackled to the past. Instead, we want to move forward. Our 21st century quest is to do the heavy-lifting to “weed out” the bad, and bring on the good – the Greater Good – to make our Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.  We urged everyone in the Caribbean to lean-in to this roadmap for change. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————-

Appendix AUDIO-VIDEO – What Is Whiteness? –  https://the1a.org/segments/2017-02-27-what-is-whiteness/

What Is Whiteness?

Posted Feb 27 2017 – Biological races do not exist. So why do we continue to rely on race as a key defining factor in our society? A new crop of scholars and artists have turned their attention to examinations of those who identify as white. We talk with some of them about what “whiteness” is — and isn’t — and what the dangers are in the context of a renewed call for white supremacy in America.

Guests

  • Sandra Kim founder of Everyday Feminism and Compassionate Activism.
  • Tim Wise anti-racism activist; author, “Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority” and “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.”
  • Mat Johnson associate professor of English at the University of Houston; author of “Pym” and “Loving Day.”
  • Carol Anderson professor of African-American Studies at Emory University; author of “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide.”
  • LeRonn P. Brooks Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Lehman College and Curator for Claudia Rankine’s The Racial Imaginary Institute.
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10 Things We Want from Europe and 10 Things We Do Not Want

Posted on October 19, 2016 in Government, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The phrase “New World” assumes that there was an “Old World“.

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Royal Charter - Truth and Consequence - Photo 3The Old World would refer to Europe. The New World on the other hand, refers to the lands in the Western Hemisphere – North, Central and South America, plus the Caribbean – that was first opened up with the 1492 Discovery by Christopher Columbus. After the first 100 years of legal and papal wrangling, the settlement of the New World by diverse European powers commenced in earnest in the 1600’s. This started a period of colonization by Imperial powers from Europe grappling for dominance and/or some presence in the Americas.

This colonization historicity was detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it summarized the European history of ebb-and-flow of the colonial power struggle in the Americas in general and in the Caribbean region in particular; see these samples:

The Bottom Line on European Colonialism  – (Page 241)
The European colonial period was the era from the 1500s to the mid-1900s when several European powers (Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Portugal) established colonies in the Americas, in a “Space Race” to dominate the New World. The Northern Coast of South America became a typical New World battleground for conflict and pushing between these powers, and many military campaigns and diplomatic initiatives (treaties) ensued. … When did this European Colonial “push-shove-match” end? Not until almost 500 years later, after World War II, after the effects of that war left all these European powers drained – of finances and the will to continue.

***********

Appendix – US Virgin Islands – Economy Past, Present & Future  – (Page 305)
The Virgin Islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway. The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, on Saint John in 1694, and purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish-West Indian Islands. Like other Caribbean islands, sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands’ economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries, until the abolition of slavery by Danish Governor Peter von Scholten on July 3, 1848.
…
During the submarine warfare phases of the First World War, the United States, fearing that the islands might be seized by Germany as a submarine base, … approached Denmark with a view to buying them. After a few months of negotiations, a selling price of $25 million in United States gold coin was agreed. (This is equivalent to $2.2 Billion in 2012 dollars @ $1770 per ounce)…. The United States took possession of the islands on March 31, 1917.

To recap, here are the European countries that have shown “interest” in the Caribbean:

Britain
Denmark
Germany
The Netherlands
Norway
France
Portugal
Spain

cu-blog-10-things-we-from-europe-photo-2

The Old World powers came to the New World, liked what they saw and fought over it. As referenced above, these Caribbean territories featured an economy based on African slavery. In the end, the European colonizers left the island and coastal territories, mostly in the hands of the descendants of former slaves. These mature empires and advanced democracies left these shores without the needed governance to lead their own affairs efficiently or effectively. Today, all of these European countries (listed above) function as better societies than their former colonies here in the Caribbean.

This is a sad but true reality. The Caribbean could be argued to be the “greatest address in the world”, in terms of terrain, fauna/flora, hospitality, culture, food, drink (rum) and tobacco (cigars). Yet, a large number of Caribbean people have fled and now live abroad. They live in places like the US, Canada, the UK and the European countries listed above.

This seems illogical, considering all the blood, sweat and tears for domination here in the Caribbean over the years, decades and centuries. But it is what it is! People leave … in droves. They do not only leave to go somewhere else (the destinations), but rather they leave just to get away from “here”.

So for Europe – not considering the UK-Britain-England this time – we must ask the questions of our Diaspora there:

  • Why do they now live in Europe and what can we learn from that experience?
  • What can we gather for the Pros and Cons of European life?

This commentary is Part 4 of 4 in a series examining the destinations of the Caribbean Diaspora. The full series is as follows:

  1. 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Do Not Want
  2. 10 Things We Want from Canada and 10 Things We Do Not Want
  3. 10 Things We Want from the UK and 10 Things We Do Not Want
  4. 10 Things We Want from Europe and 10 Things We Do Not Want

The stakeholders of this Go Lean … Caribbean movement truly believe that the Caribbean is the “greatest address in the world”. Yet still, we have an atrocious record of societal abandonment. This disposition is so acute that we report 70% of the region’s college-educated classes have fled the region for refuge elsewhere.

Refuge? An appropriate word, as there are “push and pull” reasons why Caribbean citizens leave such beauty to relocate to the cold and unknown places like Europe. Our societal defects – in the economic, security and governing engines – are that bad.

This is a crisis! Alas, the Go Lean book also asserts that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste” (Page 8). Let’s look, listen and learn from the European mainland, and then let’s lend-a-hand and then eventually lead a reboot and turn-around of Caribbean society. We can do better than our recent past. We must do better!

This is the quest of the Go Lean book and subsequent movement, to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. Previously, these Go Lean blog-commentaries have looked inward and identified the many facets of our societal defects. Now, this commentary looks at these refuge countries that our people flee to, and glean the Good and Bad of those destinations. We want our people back … and to not lose anymore; so consider this review a competitive analysis to discern how we compete with these foreign locales. We want our young people to set their sights – their hopes and dreams – on a viable future, right here in the Caribbean homeland.

This honest assessment requires that we study the things that we, in the Caribbean, want and things that we do not want from places like Europe ; (the UK was previously considered separatedly). Here is a laundry list of the Good and the Bad and how the roadmap to elevate Caribbean society, the book Go Lean…Caribbean, describes how the lessons should be applied in the implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU):

European Imports

10 GOOD Things We Want from Europe

10 BAD Things We Don’t Want from Europe

1

 Profit-Seeking Many people frame the motivation for New World expansion as the quest to expand sovereign empires, or a quest for religious missions; but many historians put the motivation accurately at “profit”. First there was the gold and other precious metals extracted from the Americas, then after exhaustion, then came slavery to exploit the agricultural opportunities for crops not grown in Europe: cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, etc. The Go Lean roadmap accepts that profit-seeking – not greed – is not a bad ethos; there must be growth in a community, otherwise people leave to seek profit elsewhere. The CU seeks to grow the regional GDP to US$800 Billion over 5 years. History of Aggression To protect the Empire expansion goals, countries were willing to be aggressive militarily; as a result there where many scrimmages in the Caribbean, and many islands changed hands from one power to another. That aggression continued for the hundreds of years since the start of colonization of the New World, leading to World War I and World War II. Though there has not been any global conflicts in the 70 years since WW II, the community ethos is there, to become aggressive easily. The Go Lean roadmap anticipates the emergence of “bad actors”, so mitigations need to be proactive and reactive. The roadmap therefore stresses economics and security measures equally.

2

 Tourists Tourism is still the primary economic driver for the Caribbean region. While there is a lot of competition for European tourists, the Caribbean continues to make the case that its region is the best tourist destination in the world. The region wants to continue to appeal to Europeans of all demographic persuasions to come visit the islands for stay-overs (land-based hotels) and/or cruise ships. We want to forge vacation options and traffic for the upper, middle and lower classes of European society. See VIDEO in the Appendix below. The CU forges plans, advocacies and re-boots to further enhance the Caribbean tourism product array. Latent Racism For societies to promote the exploitation of slaves, there must have been an underlying creed of racism, or racial supremacy. This emerges from time to time, as reflected recently with the Middle East Refugee crisis.  People with this mindset may not have a problem with coming to a Black majority Caribbean destination for leisure travel; it may be fun for them to be pampered by “servants”, but not so much for those facilitating the service. The Go Lean roadmap promotes racial equality in a free market. But accepting that the past was tainted, the roadmap also invites Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to settle many prior conflicts.

3

 Capital There are many Financial Centers around the world and in Europe (Zurich, Paris, London, etc.). They have the capital the Caribbean needs for Direct Foreign Investments. To be attractive for these opportunities, we have to facilitate the corporate governance to allow for full transparency and accountability. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the emergence of a new financial eco-system around the Caribbean Dollar (C$) managed by a regional technocratic Caribbean Central Bank. This structure will allow for more liquidity in the existing regional stock exchanges. Austerity The European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2009 – 2012) is mostly over now. But the remediation required more taxes and spending cuts, austerity. But economists assert that economic growth is the best way to counteract recession. So austerity measures may be a flawed strategy. The Go Lean roadmap presents strategies, tactics and implementation to grow the economy … sharply. The plan is to create 2.2 million new jobs and the incubation of many entrepreneurial endeavors. There is also the plan to streamline municipal operations and finances. This execution will eliminate the need for austerity measures.

4

 Education System Germany provides tuition-free colleges (see Photo). Many other European states feature progressive education systems that foster more STEM careers. This commitment starts at kindergarten school and follows suit all the way up to college. Rather than incurring mounds of debt, the European model is a state investment in its youth. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to reboot the education eco-system and invest in STEM fields. One strategy is to deploy more e-Learning schemes. This will benefit people in urban and rural addresses of the Caribbean. Study Abroad Going off to school is one of the most exciting times in a young student’s life, but for the CaribbeanEuropeanOverseasTerritories, it is also a rite of “passage” to the Diaspora. Places like Aruba, Curacao, Guadeloupe and Martinique have the experience of hosting graduations one week and final emigration-trips the next week. The CU/Go Lean roadmap seek to turn-around the tertiary education environment in the Caribbean, so that local students do not have to leave. They are encouraged to study in-country.

5

 Health Care/Dental CareMany European member-states feature a Universal Health scheme. These programs provide examples of successful healthcare for all of its citizens. They ensure that everyone has access and quality delivery, including dental care. They have coverage for indigents, alleviating price shocks.The Go Lean roadmap calls for schemes to mandate healthcare insurance for every adult. With the leverage across the 30 member-states and 42 million people, the wholesale costs of products/services would be reduced. GMO’sThere are Crony-Capitalists in most European powers, especially in the agricultural sectors. Leave unchecked, GMO’s could easily become the standard and deployed to the general public. (This is the American experience).The European Medicines Agency is a model for the corresponding Caribbean Medicine-Food-Nutrition regulatory agency. The Go Lean roadmap calls for strict food labeling, resembling the EU more so than the deceit/ American bad example. Life is more important than profit.  

European Imports (cont’d)

10 GOOD Things We Want from Europe

10 BAD Things We Don’t Want from Europe

6

 Human Rights Ideals The Nobel Prize is awarded by a committee in Stockholm, Sweden. Plus the United Nations Human Rights Commission is based in The Hague in the Netherlands. European are the most active in watching human/civil rights abuses around the world. The CU/Go Lean roadmap features monitoring for human rights in the Caribbean region. There is the need, we have a pattern of hatred towards certain minority groups. Same Sex Marriage While there is a need for human rights and civil rights, many consider Same Sex Marriage to be “a bridge too far” too fast. For those communities with orthodox religious traditions, they balk at Same Sex Marriage being shoved on them. The CU advocates for human rights and civil rights. There must be a compromise to extend property and privacy rights without insulting religious standards.

7

 Social Safety Nets The Western European nations all feature Democratic Socialism as the form of government, even with monarchs in some countries. This structure allows for more social “Safety Nets”, like unemployment benefits, welfare and disability. The people are still “covered” even if their plans for their life and career do not succeed. This incentivizes people to stay “home” for the “good, bad and the ugly”. To benefit the “Greater Good”, the CU plans a lot of “Safety Nets” for when Crap Happens, financed through insurance schemes: premiums and claims, spread across a wide region for more leverage (42 million people). Taxes on Poor People The European states featuring Democratic Socialism feature a high tax structure – (see Photo/Chart below). This means poor people have the same tax burden as rich people. The preference is now to consider a progressive tax scheme where the rich bear a heavier burden than the poor, through either consumption or sliding scale. The CU/Go Lean roadmap proposes new balanced tax schemes that mostly “skim off the top”. The CU will deploy systems to help member-state governments do better at collecting their tax revenues. Overall the Caribbean tax burden will increase, but only marginally.

8

 Police Training Security concerns are equally important in nation-building. With economic prosperity comes “bad actors”, so good law-enforcement is vital for social cohesion. In Europe, the incidences of police-civil-rights abuses is lower than say the Americans, one reason is good police training. The CU does not want a repeat of Cop-on-Black violence that the Americans experience. We want to follow the European models more for best-practices. War on Terror Considering the historic past with former colonized people, the European mainland has to be “on guard” for bad actors and terrorism attacks; there have been recent attacks in France, Belgium and Germany. The EU is now cooperating with security intelligence globally to mitigate these threats. The CU seeks to implement a comprehensive security apparatus with robust intelligence gathering and analysis.

9

 Media Arts – Film, TV, Music & e-Games While prospects for many traditional 20th Century jobs and industries (factories, auto, steel, mining) have declined in Europe due to the competitive imbalance of globalization and technology, electronic media-related industries now flourish. The challenge of language translation has been mitigated with technology – a global market has emerged. The CU roadmap posits that art and music can drive big economic returns. The only way to win in the global marketplace is to ensure that “we” produce/contribute and not just consume. The CU will ensure the complete eco-system is there to identify, foster & compensate stakeholders for this new world of electronic media.. Cultural Neutralizations – Domination of Euro-centric There are other cultures other than just White-Europeans. European (White) media brings European values, and these may not always advocate what’s best for Caribbean life. If not abated, the world gets the impression that Black-and-Brown only “takes”, rather than “give” to the world’s cultural landscape. Afro-Caribbean culture must be preserved and promoted to the rest of the world. The Go Lean book compares cultural protectionism as employed in France versus the free market approach. While France doesn’t lead many of the world’s media output, they maintain and promote their unique culture. This propels their tourism: 25 million to Paris alone.

10

 Sports Professionalism The European legacies for Soccer/Football and even their Olympic models (Track & Field) inspire athletes that they can earn a living based on their talents, disciplines and abilities. The Go Lean roadmap includes a comprehensive sport promotion and administration apparatus to facilitate amateur, collegiate and professional sports careers. Win at all costs ethic There is a worldwide movement to curb the sports world of performance enhancing drugs. Many European stakeholders have been identified and censured for bad sportsmanship in this area. The Go Lean roadmap calls for rebooting sports eco-system to include an Anti-Doping agency within the CU Trade Federation to elevate regulation and enforcement.

cu-blog-10-things-we-from-europe-photo-1

Europe has been a frequent topic for considerations from the Go Lean movement (book and blogs). The opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14) recognized that there is value in considering the Good and Bad examples of Europe, with this statement:

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

Not just life in Europe is addressed by the Go Lean book, but also life in the remaining European Overseas Territories in the Caribbean (Dutch & French). The CU treaty includes the DutchTerritories (Netherland Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius) and also these FrenchTerritories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, and French Guiana eventually).

Though France and the Netherlands are among the most prosperous economies in the world, that prosperity has not always extended to these islands.

In addition, the book specifically addresses Europe, Dutch/French Territories and the Caribbean Diaspora in Europe with these direct references of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth Page 21
Community Ethos – Minority Equalizations – 4 Languages; One People Page 24
Strategy – Invite empowering immigrants – Like STEM stakeholders from Europe Page 46
Tactical – Confederation Models – i.e. Denmark, Sweden, Norway Page 63
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security – Model of NATO Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Medicine-Food-Nutrition Administration Page 87
Implementation – Assemble Dutch and FrenchTerritories into the Caribbean Union Page 96
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives – Trade Mission Offices: Paris, Amsterdam, Spain Page 117
Implementation – Reason to Repatriate – From Europe Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence – Autonomous Rule for Territories Page 120
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade – Trade to Diaspora in Europe Page 128
Planning – Ways to Model the European Union Page 130
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Encourage More Foreign Investment from Europe Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives – Models from French Origins Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora – Large Pockets in Holland and France Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to ImpactDutchTerritories Page 246
Advocacy – Ways to ImpactFrenchTerritories Page 247
Appendix – The Guianas Historic Timeline – Sample European Grappling Page 307

In addition, previous Go Lean blog/commentaries addressed many issues in regards to Europe, the Dutch/French Overseas Territories and the interactions of Caribbean people that live there in Europe; see sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7834 French Caribbean ready for the Martinique Surf Pro
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6247 Tragic images show refugee crisis at a tipping point in Europe
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5818 European Country of Greece: From Bad to Worse
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4971 The Legacy of Royal Charters in Europe: Good & Bad
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090 Introduction to Europe – All Grown Up
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2809 A Lesson in History – Economics of East Berlin, Germany
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1364 Uber Demonstrations Snarl Traffic from London to Berlin
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1193 EU willing to fund study on cost of not having CARICOM
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020 Revolutionary Changes needed in European Soccer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833 The Euro – One currency, Divergent Economies

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. Our scope is to impact the Caribbean’s economic, security and governing engines, not European society. But we do hope to engage the Caribbean Diaspora living there. Perhaps even entice them to consider a Caribbean repatriation. 🙂

There are Good lessons and Bad lessons that we can learned from Europe. The Old World can now teach the New World important new lessons.

So let’s pay more than the usual attention to the lessons from “over there”. Everyone is urged to lean-in to this Go Lean/CU roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation, to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Cayman looks to boost tourism from Europe – https://youtu.be/s6rQ5lsRp-Y

Uploaded on Jan 21, 2008 – Charles Clifford, Minister of Tourism for the Cayman Islands. The islands in the Caribbean are looking to boost tourism from the European region. The Mandarin Oriental is also planning to open a property in the islands. The interview was conducted by Breaking Travel News at Caribbean Marketplace.

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Introduction to Europe – All Grown Up

Posted on November 27, 2014 in Ethos, Government

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Introduction to Europe - All Grown Up - Photo 1The countries in the western hemisphere are considered the New World. Why “new”? Because none of the independent nations in this hemisphere are older than 250 years. Despite previous civilizations in the lands; the hemisphere’s modernity started as colonies of their European forebears: England, France, Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands. The European lands are thusly referred to as the Old Country.

Well now, the Old Country has a new lesson for the New World: economic, security and governing integration of the European Union (EU). This structure is such an advancement in democracy, that it is now presented as a model for the Caribbean region to explore.

This is the quest of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to get the Caribbean region to model their society to incorporate the best practices of the EU. The book urges the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book therefore serves as a roadmap for this goal, with turn-by-turn directions to integrate the 30 member-states of the region, forge an $800 Billion economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.

While this is a big idea for the nascent Caribbean, this is just a microcosm of the EU’s width and breadth – Europe is all grown-up. The EU has the economies-of-scale of 508 million people and a GDP of $15 Trillion (2012) in 28 member-states; (the EuroZone Currency Union is a subset of 18 states, 333 million people and $13.1 Trillion GDP). The EU is even larger than the Caribbean’s neighbor, the US, with its 50 states, 320 million people, and $14 Trillion integrated economy.

There is an even more important number in the discussion of EU dynamics: 100 million. That’s how many lives were lost prematurely due to the wars of the 20th Century, all spurred from European conflicts, think World War I and World War II. Since the European integration began, after WW II and completing with the EU charter in 1992, there has been no full continental or global wars. This absence is a testament of European economic-security-governing integration.

The continent of Europe has now “grown up”, organizationally. In fact, because of the success of this integration, the EU was awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for 2012. This fact was detailed in the Go Lean book (Page 130).

Considering the EU example, the economic benefits are undeniable; shocks and dips in economic performance can be more easily absorbed and leveraged across the entire region. (The US provides a similar lesson).  Despite recent crises in the US (2008) and in Europe (Sovereign Debt of 2009 – 2011), the US is still the #2 economy, while the EU is the world’s #1 economy.

At the outset, the Go Lean roadmap identified an urgent need to collaborate and consolidate for economic resilience. This is pronounced in this clause in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

xxv.   Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.

The biggest lesson for the Caribbean to glean from a consideration of the EU is the need for compromise in consensus-building. This is why there are asterisks on so many confederation clauses. See the details in this VIDEO here:

Direct Link: http://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg

The CU is modeled from the EU – see Page 130 in the Go Lean…Caribbean book, so as to provide good stewardship and shepherding of the Caribbean economic, security and governing engines.

The theme of applying models and best-practices from other countries/regions has been elaborated on in these previous blog commentaries:

Why India is doing better than most emerging markets
‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version
A Lesson in European Dysfunctional History: 100 Years Ago – World War I
EU willing to fund study on cost of not having CARICOM
European Model: One currency, divergent economies
How Nigeria’s economy grew by 89% overnight
Book Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’

The CU roadmap drives change among the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region. The book presents the solutions to elevate Caribbean society as new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; as follows:

Community Ethos – Forging Change Page 20
Community Ethos – Economic Principles Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principles Page 22
Community Ethos – Governing Principles Page 24
Community Ethos – Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – CU Vision – Integrate Caribbean member-states modeling the European Union Page 45
Strategy – Facilitate a Currency Union, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), and the Caribbean Central Bank, modeled after the Euro and European Central Bank Page 48
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – $800 Billion Economy – How and When Page 67
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Central Bank Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt Page 114
Planning – Ways to Model the EU Page 119
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 Page 136
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations Page 199

The Go Lean roadmap posits that modeling the EU is easier said than done. On the one hand, the economic optimizations are easy, just show up with investments (money) and jobs and any Caribbean community will acquiesce. On the other hand, the attempts to introduce empowerments for security and/or governing engines are doomed to be more complicated, requiring a political process, with a lot of compromise and consensus-building.

See a dissenting view of the EU structure, expressed here:

Dissenting View: Some people object to the structure of the EU. Notice this comment added to the same foregoing YouTube VIDEO above:

By: aalexmary – 1 month ago (October 2014):
So, explained. The European Union is US’s pathetic slave. The European Union is an unsuccessful organisation who took the sovereignty of the nations away. the European union is a monster (I mean its leaders) who carries out coups and bloody wars. The EU, NATO, US destroyed and blooded Ukraine and Novorrosia with the purpose of starting WWIII and to destroy Russia. The European Union hurts its own nations (eg: the illegal insane sanctions against Russia, and this is not the only example). Obama, Merkel and all the leaders of the EU are just pathetic war criminals. Not to mention Pigosenko and his clique. The “democrat” EU brought back the cruel Nazism. EU is ugly. It is not the European “dream” anymore. It is about EU’s leaders greed for power. In EU the individuals do not count. I will be so happy when EU and NATO will disappear. Useless organisations. It is time for the countries to regain their sovereignty.
YouTube Video Sharing Online Site – Posted July 2, 2013; retrieved November 26, 2014
http://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg

This heavy-lifting, navigating the dissent and overcoming opposition, is worth the effort. This is the mission of the CU: built for the heavy-lifting of integration and collaboration. With the successful execution of the deliveries in the Go Lean roadmap, the effect will be undeniable: a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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