There is a concept in the field of Econometrics and Statistics, that numbers can tell any lie. Proponents and opponents can look at the same numbers and draw different conclusions. Consider:
An 8-ouce glass with 4 ounces of water.
It is half full.
It is half empty.
So while numbers can be a source of great debate in the planning and forecasting process, there comes the time where the “rubber meets the road”, where there is no more planning or interpretation, it is just reality; it then becomes this scenario:
“It is what it is”.
This is the reality facing the Detroit Metro-area School District for Farmington, Michigan. This week was back-to-school, the start of a new academic school year, and the reality is:
There are not enough students and too many schools.
Detroit, MI – The Farmington Hills school district says it has too much space and too few students.
This news report aligns with the movement promoting the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The publication took an assessment of the Caribbean’s economic, security and governing engines and then declared … a crisis! The same as the Detroit-area is in crisis after decades of societal decline in their societal engines; to the point that there are now not enough students to fill the class rooms. The Caribbean is suffering a similar fate of dysfunction. The schools buildings in the Farmington District are still there; the teachers are still hired, (under labor contracts); the school buses still roam the city for pick-up and drop-off; food supplies still have to be delivered, prepared and served to the available students. But now there are less of them, and less monies accordingly. (The State of Michigan, like most US States, provides education grants to each school district based on the number of students).
This is the case in Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan USA. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan area. The foregoing article/VIDEO relates to topics that are of serious concern, demographics of the community. The numbers cannot be ignored! Declining populations are a problem and the consequences are dire.
This latter point – education policy – is the focus of this commentary. (College education in particular).
This is a concern for Detroit and other American cities. To the extent that US President Barack Obama came to Detroit, yesterday (September 9, 2015) to advocate for a change in government policy for education. Mr. Obama recognizes that there is the need to re-boot the American tertiary education eco-system to better adapt to the changing workplace and job markets. Without the ability to supply the market with the labor force being demanded, communities will just continue to lose out on population growth and economic growth. The situation would go from good … to bad, to worse, to Detroit. 🙁
Detroit, MI – President Barack Obama touted retraining and reinvention in his speech at Macomb Community College.
We need to apply these lessons in the Caribbean. Education policy has been devastating for this region. Rather than the usual gains, we have experienced declines due to the implementation of education policy in the region. This point has been echoed in many previous Go Lean blog/commentaries. See sample here:
Is a Traditional 4-year Degree a Terrible Investment?
This commentary is a big proponent for the Caribbean of the type of education reform being touted by President Obama. But this commentary is a big opponent of Caribbean stakeholders leaving their homeland to matriculate in these American schools. Our track record cannot be ignored, for far too often, our Caribbean students have not returned, contributing further to our brain drain and societal abandonment problem. We need this Obama-promoted education reform, but we need it in the Caribbean, for the Caribbean.
Change has now come. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. Under the tenants of globalization, the conflict is a Trade War. There are offensive and defensive battles. Caribbean institutions must be able to attract foreign students to study in the region, not just have local students study abroad. Otherwise, we can never compete in this education trade wars. It will be all “give” and no “take” for us.
How do we re-boot the region’s education eco-systems for this Trade War?
The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on reforming the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:
xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.
This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This represents change for the region. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book details how education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment, but with lessons-learned from all the flawed decision-making by the Caribbean in the past and from other communities like Detroit. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. The book details those policies (like online learning; forgive-able student loans), the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to succeed in the education reform quest in the region:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier
Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department
Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job Training
Page 89
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit
Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Online Options
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans – Forgive-able Options
Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations
Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries
Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth
Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education
Page 266
The US is the world’s largest Single Market economy and yet they are failing in some communities, i.e. Detroit. Let’s learn from this… and do better.
We want to only model some of the American example. We want to foster a education climate to benefit the Greater Good of the Caribbean, and not repeat bad mistakes.
Those are the lessons from Detroit and the Caribbean past.
It is time now to graduate from this “school … of thought”. It is time to lean-in to the reform, re-boot and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. It is time to work to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂
The Bible says “to honor your father and mother so that your days may be long” – Exodus 20:12. This is presented in one of the 10 Commandments as a law and a promise. This is best explained at Ephesians 6: 1-3 (New International Version or NIV):
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH …
So caring for aging parents brings honor to them and to us. Some places do a better job of this than others. One such example is Japan.
There are around 55,000 centenarians in Japan
This purpose of this commentary is to highlight the currency of this serious issue. The book Go Lean … Caribbean calls for the elevation of the economic, security and governing engines in the Caribbean region. The end-result is not just on societal engines, but also on people; in this case, the elderly. This Go Lean book is not a public health guide for gerontology, to enjoy optimum treatment towards our seniors, but rather a roadmap for impacting change in our community. This news article on the experiences in Japan is presented here; also consider a related story in the AUDIO podcast below:
Title:Japan is home to the world’s oldest population — and the world’s oldest man By: Daniel Gross, Audrey Adam
The world’s oldest man lives in the country with the world’s oldest population. Yasutaro Koide is 112 years old and was just recognized by Guiness World Records as oldest man on Earth.
Japan’s remarkable longevity is cause for celebration. But it’s also creating challenges for a government dealing with a population that keeps getting older.
According to Naoko Muramatsu, a scientist who studies Japan’s aging population at the University of Illinois, Chicago, one-quarter of the country’s residents are already above 65.
There are many costs associated with an aging population, starting with the familiar challenges of social security and health care. But there’s also the cost of an odd Japanese tradition: giving a silver sake dish to centenarians, or people who reach 100 years of age.
Thanks to a new decision by the Japanese government, that practice — which is currently government-funded — may end soon. They say the total cost of the dishes, which are about $60 each, is simply too high. There are around 55,000 centenarians in Japan, according to 2013 statistics.
Muramatsu says there are several reasons that help explain the age of Japan’s population. “Life expectancy in Japan is the highest in the world,” she points out. “People try to eat well, try to do exercise well.”
Another reason is that ever since a brief postwar baby boom, Japan’s birth rate has remained extremely low. A aging baby from that baby boom will turn 65 soon, and many haven’t had very many children, or any at all — leaving more seniors living alone or in nursing homes.
Japan has started to respond to the challenge. In 2000, Japan started long-term care insurance. “You start paying into the system at the age of 40,” says Muramatsu. “And at the age of 65, you’re entitled to receive long-term care, homecare or nursing home care.”
Muramatsu has a personal connection to the study of aging. She remembers that during her childhood, her mother looked after both the older and younger generations. But the tradition of caregiving has been transformed by Japan’s new demographics.
When Muramatsu’s father died a few years ago, she saw first-hand some of the challenges of growing old in Japan. “In Japan, cremation is the custom,” she explains. But cremation has become difficult in cities whose populations spiked in the postwar years. Many elderly people haven’t left urban areas, which means the death rate has risen. “I couldn’t reserve a cremation facility for my father, in the city that we live in.”
Those sorts of challenges may take decades to overcome. But with them come the fact that in Japan, women can expect to live almost 90 years. And Men live well past 80, on average.
And if they’re like Yasutaro Koide, they might even live to 112.
AUDIO – “The Challenges Posed by an Aging Global Population” – http://n.pr/1IqdCHV
Uploaded on June 22, 2015 – One-fifth of the U.S. population will be 65 or older in 15 years. NPR’s Ina Jaffe talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about the aging of the population worldwide and the challenges it presents.
The book and previous blog/commentaries posit that socio- economic factors must be accounted for in the roadmap to optimize and improve this society. In fact, the book lists 144 missions for the imminent Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); one of them is an advocacy for improved Elder-Care. This is identified on Page 225 under the title:
10 Ways to Improve Elder-Care … in the Caribbean Region
The Go Lean book posits that there is a deficiency in the regional institutions for caring, supporting and planning for the elderly. How do we go about improving on the Social Contract for the senior citizens in our community? What happens if/when we are successful for elevating life for our seniors?
The Go Lean book answers the “how”; it serves as a roadmap for introducing and implementing the CU. In its scope, it features the curative measures for the exact societal deficiencies, highlighted by the CU’s prime directives, as follows:
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 challenges/threats to ensure public safety for the region’s stakeholders, including the elderly.
Improvement of Caribbean governance, including a separation-of-powers with member-states, to support these economic/security engines.
Where as the book addresses the “how”, this commentary features the “when” for succeeding in the improvement of the lives and longevity of the elderly population of the Caribbean. When people live longer, there is a dramatic effect on the socio-economics of a community. This is the lesson from Japan.
In Japan, the improvements in the societal engines (economics, security and governance) have resulted in improved livelihood and longevity for their people. This has resulted in demographic shifts: there are more senior citizens, more centenarians, compared to the rest of the population.
The problem:
Seniors do not work; nor contribute to the public “pools”; they only draw from it. Too many “takers”, compared to the “givers” is bad economics. So while we love our elderly, we must also prepare for the reality of their longevity.
From the Caribbean perspective there is another reality: societal abandonment of the younger generations – this Go Lean movement has fully defined the excessive abandonment rates in the 70% to 90% range for the college-educated populations in the region. This has the same negative effects on the public “pools”: the numbers of the “givers” shrink, while the proportion of the “takers” remains static, or worse, increase.
It is what it is!
This is a matter of heavy-lifting. Serious solutions must be sought to mitigate the risks of communities getting this challenge wrong. In a previous commentary, the socio-economic issues associated with the rising number of seniors in society were fully explored; the dread of elderly suicides was detailed.
The Go Lean roadmap does not ignore the needs of the elderly, nor the actuarial realities being contended in the region. Rather, the roadmap calls for mitigations to dissuade further emigration and also the inducements for the Caribbean Diaspora to return – back to the homeland – and bring their hard-earned entitlements with them. The CU organization structure features the establishment of regional sentinels and advocacy groups to intervene on behalf of local seniors to optimize their benefits from any foreign programs they may have previously participated in. These SME’s will work for the CU’s Special Liaison Group at the CU’s Headquarters or in Trade Mission Offices.
This Win-Win scenario is a prominent feature in the US, with lawyers advocating for Social Security benefits for their clients, for a fee; see this sample Advertisement from a Detroit-area law firm. For stakeholders of the CU, there is no need to pay this fee – normally extracted from future benefits – as the CU Subject Matter Experts (SME) will advocate for the Aging Diaspora returning to the Caribbean. (The Go Lean roadmap calls for funding law degrees for students but binding their services for a few years to impact their communities, as in working for this advocacy).
This is a classic example of the field of socio-economics. The goal of any socio-economic study is generally to bring about socio-economic development, usually by improvements in metrics such as GDP, life expectancy, literacy, levels of employment, etc. In many cases, socio-economists focus on the social impact of some sort of economic change. But this is about more than just numbers, this is about people.
The Go Lean … Caribbean roadmap constitutes a change for the region, a plan to consolidate 30 member-states into a Trade Federation with the tools/techniques to bring immediate change to the region to benefit many stakeholders. The book details the community ethos that must be adopted plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to prepare for an aging society … in the Caribbean; see a sample list here:
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Lessons from Japan
Page 69
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of State – Special Liaison Groups
Page 80
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Health
Page 86
Implementation – Assemble all Member-States
Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Trade Mission Office Objectives
Page 117
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate
Page 118
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 133
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Healthcare
Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Entitlements
Page 158
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Brain Drain Case
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Student Loans – Forgive-able
Page 160
Advocacy – Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Impact the Diaspora
Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Retirement
Page 221
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class
Page 223
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care
Page 225
Appendix – Disease Management – Healthways Model
Page 300
This Go Lean book asserts that there is a direct correlation of population growth/contraction with the economy. This viewpoint has been previously detailed in Go Lean blog/commentaries, as sampled here:
As this commentary opened with a Biblical quotation, it is even more fitting to conclude with one, a Proverb, as follows:
The glory of young men is their strength, [but] gray hair [is] the splendor of the old. – Proverbs 20:29 NIV.
Without a doubt, there is value to keeping senior citizens around in our communities; their “grey hair” – poetic for wisdom – is greatly valued … and needed. As a society, we have made too many mistakes, that with some far-sighted wisdom and best-practice adherence, we could have done better and been better.
We must turn-around, reboot and prepare!
We must listen to the wisdom of the experienced/wise ones. They can help us to make our homelands better places to live, work, and play – for all: young and old. 🙂
Monday August 3, 2015 is Emancipation Day in all countries of the British Dominion. For the Caribbean this includes the current British Overseas Territories and current members of the (British) Commonwealth of Nations; defined as follows:
Overseas Territories
Commonwealth States
Anguilla
Antigua & Barbuda
Bermuda
Bahamas
British Virgin Islands
Barbados
Cayman Islands
Belize
Montserrat
Dominica
Turks & Caicos
Guyana
Jamaica
Saint Kitts & Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent
Trinidad and Tobago
All of these countries memorialize the abolition of slavery in the British Empire on August 1, 1834 with a National Holiday on the First Monday of August. (This holiday is commonly referred to as August Monday). The focus of this commemoration is not slavery, but rather a celebration of Caribbean culture – accentuating the positive.
For those in the Caribbean Diaspora (US, Canada and the United Kingdom), the holiday does not go un-recognized … nor uncelebrated.
This is the case in Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan USA. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit. The book posits that trade with the Caribbean Diaspora can be better organized and fostered so as to better harvest economic benefits to the homeland. This point is well-evidenced in Southfield (Detroit suburb) with the Jamaican restaurant Fenton’s Jerk Chicken:
This establishment thrives in its community with a great tradition of quality food and Caribbean hospitality. But on Sunday, the eve of August Monday, this restaurant extended further with an Emancipation Day tribute/celebration for the public to consume. The main feature of this tribute was a One-Man Band, an elite and prolific Bahamian Recording Artist Ya Tafari. He is an award-winning composer and performer of Jazz, Latin, and Caribbean music. As a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with a fan base stretching from Freeport, Bahamas to Detroit. This presentation was about music and the business of music, as it fostered an increase in sales for that one day at Fenton’s Jerk Chicken Restaurant. See VIDEO here:
Ya Tafari is an author, composer, singer- songwriter, and poet who plays piano, guitar, and Latin percussion. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he lived in the Bahama Islands and was “adopted” by a family there, and now claims the Bahamas as his second home.
Although Ya Tafari started as a folk singer, the genres in which he composes and performs are varied. They include traditional jazz, spiritual jazz, Latin, Caribbean, folk, tropical, and new world music. Using his keyboards, he has become renowned as a “one-man orchestra.”
Ya Tafari is fond of and influenced by other artists from around the world: Brazil – Joao Gilberto, Cuba – Tito Puente, Jamaica – Bob Marley and Harry Belafonte, the Bahamas – Ronnie Butler, Canada – Joni Mitchell, the United States – John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Pharaoh Sanders.
His greatest love and influence is the Holy Bible, and the other Lost Books of God’s Word.
BIOGRAPHY
Yaqob Tafari Makuannen, a.k.a. YaTafari, an award-winning composer, author, and performer of Jazz, Latin, Caribbean, and Spiritual music, grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and settled in Detroit, Michigan.
In Detroit, he received the Spirit of Detroit Award, and earned first place in the Renaissance Center Talent Contest two years in a row. He was presented awards by Chuck Gaidica, a local celebrity.
As an adult, he traveled to the Bahamas and adopted it as his second home. There he performed for the Governor General of the Bahamas and attended the Bahamian Parliament. His first recording contract was with G.B.I. Records and Television in Freeport, Bahamas, with Frank Penn, C.E.O. Thus, he is a Bahamian recording artist.
Ya Tafari has performed throughout Metropolitan Detroit and internationally. As music consultant for the African Heritage Center of the Detroit Public Schools, he hassperformed in DPS schools to audiences from pre-school to high School, introducing students and staff to different rhythms, musical instruments, and genres from the African Diaspora.
His greatest love is reading God’s word in the Holy Bible and Lost Books. His recent projects include a book, Man Woman & Spirit, and a recording of the Psalms of David to the original music of Ya Tafari.
DISCOGRAPHY
Esoteric Jazz
Esoteric sound is therapeutic and healing for the soul and spirit… for meditation and relaxation of body, mind, and spirit. It is a mystical transcendental mood.
Mystery Of The Sea
No matter where you are…riding in a car, sitting in your home, walking, or laying down to sleep, “Mystery of the Sea” will take you there and lift your spirits to another level. The sea speaks to us in its own way. Experience the mystery.
All Blue
Why Blue? God chose the color Blue. The sky, the ocean, rage and calm, to cause people to remember to focus on right living. I thank God for blue. So, I used blue to focus on beautiful sounds of music. All blue.
QUOTES/REVIEWS
“Ya Tafari has a smooth, soothing, CD sound that sends you on vacation.” – Kevin P., Detroit, Michigan
“The Cherry Hill Stage was ablaze with the sounds of Caribbean Jazz performed by YATAFARI & THE AFRO PERCUSSIONS.” – The Dearborn Homecoming Committee, Michael A. Guido, Mayor – Dearborn, Michigan
“…Caribbean Recording Artist YaTafari, the JunkAnoo jazz java and calypso colorful butterfly, is electrifying, exciting, and a ’must see’ entertainer from Nassau, Bahamas.” – Gracie Cross, Ragggedy Girl Publishing Group
“…Mr. Makuannen presented a program here at McKinley (Elementary School) during our Cultural History Celebration. It was outstanding!…You can’t go wrong with this program.” – J. Korenowsky, Principal, Toledo Public Schools
“…A fun festive, and captivating entertainer who will warm hearts with a kaleidoscope of sound, color, and sweet musical beats.” – Mitali Chaudhery, Website Coordinator, Schoolcraft College International Institute (SCII)
In a structured interview, Ya Tafari made the following contributions to this discussion of the roadmap to elevate the Caribbean through music:
Bold = Author
You obviously love the Bahamas/Caribbean, why do you not live there?
I loved my time in Freeport (Bahamas 2nd City). I would love to settle there, but realistically the economic challenges are hard to overcome. I hope they would have a better economic reality there … in the future.
Where do you call home now?
I live here in the Greater Detroit area, in the Town of Novi. Despite not being “home” in the Bahamas, I have the assured comfort of being with my family here. I bring my love for my Bahamaland here to Detroit in my musical presentations.
What was your biggest performance ever?
I’ve had the pleasure of performing as a solo artist at the stage here in Detroit at the Eastern Market. I had a huge crowd completely captivated by my sound. They were into me, and I was into them. Good times!
What would you like to see different in the Bahamas in the next 5 years?
I would like to see that community more accepting of foreign influences, especially a fusion with Eastern/Oriental Music. I’ve incorporated a lot of the spirit of Yoga, Zen and New Age influences in my music and it serves me and my listening audience well. As the old adage goes: “Music does soothe the savage beast”.
What would you like to see different in the Bahamas in the next 10 years?
I would like to see the Bahamas open up the doors to all mankind. The society is not as tolerant of diverse people as they need to be. This is bigger than just music. If/when they do widen-out more, it will even improve their tourism product, by extending their embrace for all people.
What would you like to see different in the Bahamas in the next 20 years?
I would like to see the next generation of Bahamians not join the Diaspora. Of course, I want them to travel, and study, and engage foreign cultures and then bring those experiences back home. That is an exciting prospect.
Where do you consider to be the best place on earth to live?
Italy! That culture is about enjoying life; they are concerned about more than just work, or making money. They strive to care for their people and lift everyone up. Despite the lack of economics though, I still find the Black communities around the world have a closer brotherhood. When a Black person sees another Black person while travelling abroad, they tend to acknowledge each others as brothers. That is inspiring. Yes, we can all do better.
This artist profile is a manifestation of the roadmap depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, that music, food and culture can be accentuated to promote change in the Caribbean and within the Caribbean Diaspora abroad. Music can help make any location a better place to live, work and play.
This Go Lean commentary previously featured subjects related to developing the eco-systems of the music/show business, as sampled here:
Caribbean Music Man Bob Marley: The legend lives on!
This Go Lean roadmap calls for heavy-lifting to build up Caribbean communities, by shepherding important aspects of Caribbean life, beyond music and/or show business. In fact, the development roadmap has these 3 prime directives:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, but it recognizes that music, in its many genres can build up a nation, a city, and a community (Diaspora and local alike). Any difficult subject – like slavery, freedom and emancipation – can be more easily communicated if backed-up by a catchy melody and rhyming words. Yes, music can effect change and forge progress and elevation of society. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is designed to elevate the region’s economic, security and governing societal engines.
The Go Lean book posits that one person, despite their field of endeavor, can make a difference in the Caribbean, and its impact on the world; that there are many opportunities where one champion, one advocate, can elevate society. In this light, the book features 144 different advocacies, one specifically to Promote Music (Page 231). We need champions like Ya Tafari to promote the joys of Caribbean life, culture and music.
The Go Lean roadmap specifically encourages the region, to lean-in to elevate society with these specific community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to advance the music eco-systems:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – Fostering Music and the Arts
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide
Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around
Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Promotion of Domestic Culture
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Celebrate the Music, Sports, Art, People and Culture of the Caribbean
Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Growing Economy to $800 Billion – Education Empowerments
Page 70
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Educational Empowerment from Federation to Member-States
Page 85
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives
Page 117
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – Four Languages in Unison
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade – Diaspora Trade
Page 128
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better – Music/Media/Arts for better PLAY
Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Media Arts of the Caribbean to the World
Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora
Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts
Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music
Page 231
Appendix – Job Creations – Music and Art Related Jobs: 12,600
Page 257
Appendix – 169 Caribbean Musical Genres for all 30 Member States
Page 347
The quest to change the Caribbean is conceivable, believable and achievable. But it is more than just playing or listening to music; it is the business of music, and music’s ability to reflect change and effect change. This helps the heavy-lifting of forging permanent change in the region. The Go Lean roadmap will make the region a better place to live, work and play. From the outset, the book recognized the significance of music in the Caribbean change/empowering plan with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
The foregoing VIDEO explicitly depicted how the addition of music enhanced a Caribbean business establishment in the Detroit Diaspora community. Music can have that effect. It can make bad things good and good things better. It can be fun! While the Go Lean book describes the CU as a hallmark of a technocracy, with a commitment to efficiency and effectiveness, there is still a commitment to concepts of fun, such as music, arts, sports, film/media, heritage and culture.
This roadmap is a fully comprehensive plan with consideration to all aspects of Caribbean life. All stakeholders – residents and Diaspora – are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap. 🙂
The field of Economics is unique! We all practice it every day, no matter the level of skill or competence. There is even the subject area in basic education branded Home Economics, teaching the students the fundamentals of maintaining, supporting and optimizing a home environment. Most assuredly, economics is an art and a science, albeit a social science.
In a previous blog/commentary, Scotman’s Adam Smith was identified as the father of modern macro-economics. Though he lived from 1723 to 1790, his writings defined advanced economic concepts even in this 21st Century. His landmark book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations qualified the divisions of income into these following categories: profit, wage, and rent.[4] We have previously explored profit-seeking (a positive ethos that needs to be fostered in the Caribbean region) and rent-seeking (a negative effort that proliferates in the Caribbean but needs to be mitigated), so now the focus of this commentary is on the activity of wage-seeking, and the concepts of governance and public choice theory to allow for maximum employment.
This is hard! Change has come to the world of wage-seekers – the middle classes are under attack; the labor-pool of most industrialized nations have endured decline, not in the numbers, but rather in prosperity. While wage-earners have not kept pace with inflation, top-earners (bonuses, commissions and business profits) have soared; (see Photo).
As a direct result, every Caribbean member-state struggles with employment issues in their homeland. In fact, this was an initial motivation for the book Go Lean…Caribbean, stemming from the fall-out of the 2008 Great Recession, this publication was presented as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region to create 2.2 million new jobs, despite global challenges.
Needless to say, the global challenge is far more complex than Home Economics. The Go Lean book describes the effort as heavy-lifting; then proceeds to detail the turn-by-turn directions of a roadmap to remediate and mitigate wage-seeking.
The roadmap channels the Economic Principles and best-practices of technocrats like Adam Smith and 11 other named economists, many of them Nobel Laureates. A review of the work of these great men and woman constitute “Lessons in Economic Principles”. Why would these lessons matter in the oversight of Caribbean administration? Cause-and-effect!
The root of the current challenge for wage-seekers is income equality; and this is bigger than just the Caribbean. It is tied to the global adoption of globalization and technology/ automation – a product of global Market Forces as opposed to previous Collective Bargaining factors. This relates back to the fundamental Economic Principle of “supply-and-demand”; but now the “supply” is global. This photo/”process flow” here depicts the ingredients of Market Forces. When there is the need for labor, the principle of comparative analysis is employed, and most times the conclusion is to “off-shore” the labor efforts, and then import the finished products. This is reversed of the colonialism that was advocated by Adam Smith; instead of the developed country providing factory labor for Third World consumption, the developed nation (i.e. United States) is now in the consumer-only role, with less and less production activities, for products fabricated in the Third World. This reality is not sustainable for providing prosperity to the middle classes, to the wage-seekers.
As a community, we may not like the laws of Economics, but we cannot ignore them. The Go Lean book explains the roles and significance of Economic Principles … with this excerpt (Page 21):
While money is not the most important factor in society, the lack of money and the struggle to acquire money creates challenges that cannot be ignored. The primary reason why the Caribbean has suffered so much human flight in the recent decades is the performance of the Caribbean economy. Though this book is not a study in economics, it recommends, applies and embraces these 6 core Economic Principles as sound and relevant to this roadmap:
People Choose: We always want more than we can get and productive resources (human, natural, capital) are always limited. Therefore, because of this major economic problem of scarcity, we usually choose the alternative that provides the most benefits with the least cost.
All Choices Involve Costs: The opportunity cost is the next best alternative you give up when you make a choice. When we choose one thing, we refuse something else at the same time.
People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways: Incentives are actions, awards, or rewards that determine the choices people make. Incentives can be positive or negative. When incentives change, people change their behaviors in predictable ways.
Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives: People cooperate and govern their actions through both written and unwritten rules that determine methods of allocating scarce resources. These rules determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced. As the rules change, so do individual choices, incentives, and behavior.
Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth: People specialize in the production of certain goods and services because they expect to gain from it. People trade what they produce with other people when they think they can gain something from the exchange. Some benefits of voluntary trade include higher standards of living and broader choices of goods and services.
The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future: Economists believe that the cost and benefits of decision making appear in the future, since it is only the future that we can influence. Sometimes our choices can lead to unintended consequences.
Source: Handy Dandy Guide (HDC) by the National Council on Economic Education (2000)
The Go Lean book describes the end result of the application of best-practices in this field of economics over the course of a 5-year roadmap: the CU … as a hallmark of technocracy. But the purpose is not the edification of the region’s economists, rather to make the Caribbean homeland “better places to live, work and play” for its citizens. This branding therefore puts emphasis on the verb “work”; the nouns “jobs” and “wages” must thusly be a constant focus of the roadmap.
This Go Lean book declares that the Caribbean eco-system for job-creation is in crisis … due to the same global dilemma. The roadmap describes the crisis as losing a war, the battle of globalization and technology. The consequence of the defeat is 2 undesirable conditions: income inequality and societal abandonment, citizens driven away to a life in the Diaspora. This assessment currently applies in all 30 Caribbean member-states, as every community has lost human capital to emigration. Some communities, like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have suffered with an abandonment rate of more than 50% and others have watched more than 70% of college-educated citizens flee their community for foreign shores. Even education is presented as failed investments as those educated in the region and leave to find work do not even return remittances in proportion to their costs of development. (See Table 4.1 in the Photo)
The Go Lean book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the labor/wage-seeking engines so as to create more jobs with livable wages. Alas, this is not just a Caribbean issue, but a global (i.e. American) one as well. See the following encyclopedic references for wage-seeking and Collective Bargaining to fully understand the complexities of these global issues:
A wage is monetary compensation paid by an employer to an employee in exchange for work done. Payment may be calculated as a fixed amount for each task completed (a task wage or piece rate), or at an hourly or daily rate, or based on an easily measured quantity of work done.
Wages are an example of expenses that are involved in running a business.
Payment by wage contrasts with salaried work, in which the employer pays an arranged amount at steady intervals (such as a week or month) regardless of hours worked, with commission which conditions pay on individual performance, and with compensation based on the performance of the company as a whole. Waged employees may also receive tips or gratuity paid directly by clients and employee benefits which are non-monetary forms of compensation. Since wage labour is the predominant form of work, the term “wage” sometimes refers to all forms (or all monetary forms) of employee compensation.
Determinants of wage rates Depending on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates will be influenced by market forces (supply and demand), legislation, and tradition. Market forces are perhaps more dominant in the United States, while tradition, social structure and seniority, perhaps play a greater role in Japan.[6]
Wage Differences Even in countries where market forces primarily set wage rates, studies show that there are still differences in remuneration for work based on sex and race. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007 women of all races made approximately 80% of the median wage of their male counterparts. This is likely due to the supply and demand for women in the market because of family obligations. [7] Similarly, white men made about 84% the wage of Asian men, and black men 64%.[8] These are overall averages and are not adjusted for the type, amount, and quality of work done.
Real Wage The term real wages refers to wages that have been adjusted for inflation, or, equivalently, wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages. Because it has been adjusted to account for changes in the prices of goods and services, real wages provide a clearer representation of an individual’s wages in terms of what they can afford to buy with those wages – specifically, in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought.
See Table of European Model in the Appendix below. (The European Union is the model for the Caribbean Union).
Collective Bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.[1]
The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically representing a company’s shareholders) or may negotiate with a group of businesses, depending on the country, to reach an industry wide agreement. A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between an employer and one or more unions.
The industrial revolution brought a swell of labor-organizing in [to many industrialized countries, like] the US. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed in 1886, providing unprecedented bargaining powers for a variety of workers.[11] The Railway Labor Act (1926) required employers to bargain collectively with unions. While globally, International Labour Organization Conventions (ILO) were ratified in parallel to the United Nations efforts (i.e. Declaration of Human Rights, etc.). There were a total of eight ILO fundamental conventions[3] all ascending between 1930 and 1973, i.e. the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (1949).
The Go Lean book presents a roadmap on how to benefit from the above Economic Principles – and how to empower communities anew – in the midst of tumultuous global challenges. This roadmap addresses more than economics, as there are other areas of societal concern. This is expressed in the CU charter; as defined by these 3 prime directives:
Optimization of 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 protect the resultant economic.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):
xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores.…
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.
According to an article from the Economic Policy Institute, entitled The Decline of Collective Bargaining and the Erosion of Middle-class Incomes in Michigan by Lawrence Mishel (September 25, 2012), the challenges to middle class income are indisputable, and the previous solution – Collective Bargaining – is no longer as effective as in the past. (The industrial landscape of Michigan had previously been identified as a model for the Caribbean to consider). See a summary of the article here (italics added) and VIDEO in the Appendix:
In Michigan between 1979 and 2007, the last year before the Great Recession, the state’s economy experienced substantial growth and incomes rose for high-income households. But middle-class incomes did not grow. The Michigan experience is slightly worse than but parallels that of the United States as a whole, where middle-class income gains were modest but still far less than the income gains at the top. What the experience of Michiganders and other Americans makes clear is that income inequality is rising, and it has prevented middle-class incomes from growing adequately in either Michigan or the nation.
The key dynamic driving this income disparity has been the divergence between the growth of productivity—the improvement in the output of goods and services produced per hour worked—and the growth of wages and benefits (compensation) for the typical worker. It has been amply documented that productivity and hourly compensation grew in tandem between the late 1940s and the late 1970s, but split apart radically after 1979. Nationwide, productivity grew by 69.1 percent between 1979 and 2011, but the hourly compensation of the median worker (who makes more than half the workforce but less than the other half) grew by just 9.6 percent (Mishel and Gee 2012; Mishel et al. 2012). In other words, since 1979 the typical worker has hardly benefited from improvements in the economy’s ability to raise living standards and, consequently, middle-class families’ living standards have barely budged since then. This phenomenon has occurred across the nation, including in Michigan.
This divergence between pay and productivity and the corresponding failure of middle-class incomes to grow is strongly related to the erosion of collective bargaining. And collective bargaining has eroded more in Michigan than in the rest of the nation, helping to explain Michigan’s more disappointing outcomes.
Research three decades ago by economist Richard Freeman (1980) showed that collective bargaining reduces wage inequality, and all the research since then (see Freeman 2005) has confirmed his finding. Collective bargaining reduces wage inequality for three reasons. The first is that wage setting in collective bargaining focuses on establishing “standard rates” for comparable work across business establishments and for particular occupations within establishments. The outcome is less differentiation of wages among workers and, correspondingly, less discrimination against women and minorities. A second reason is that wage gaps between occupations tend to be lower where there is collective bargaining, and so the wages in occupations that are typically low-paid tend to be higher under collective bargaining. A third reason is that collective bargaining has been most prevalent among middle-class workers, so it reduces the wage gaps between middle-class workers and high earners (who have tended not to benefit from collective bargaining).
Collective bargaining also reduces wage inequality in a less-direct way. Wage and benefit standards set by collective bargaining are often followed in workplaces not covered by collective bargaining, at least where there is extensive coverage by collective bargaining in particular occupations and industries. This spillover effect means that the impact of collective bargaining on the wages and benefits of middle-class workers extends far beyond those workers directly covered by an agreement. … Source:http://www.epi.org/publication/bp347-collective-bargaining/
The siren call went out 20 years ago, of the emergence of an “Apartheid” economy, a distinct separation between the classes: labor and management. Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (1993 – 1997 during the Clinton Administration’s First Term) identified vividly, in this 1996 Harvard Business Review paper, that something was wrong with the U.S. economy then; (it is worst now):
That something is not the country’s productivity, technological leadership, or rate of economic growth, though there is room for improvement in all those areas. That something is an issue normally on the back burner in U.S. public discourse: the distribution of the fruits of economic progress. For many, the rise in AT&T’s stock after it announced plans [on January 3, 1996] to lay off 40,000 employees crystallized the picture of an economy gone haywire, with shareholders gaining and employees losing as a result of innovation and advances in productivity.
Has the distribution of the benefits of economic growth in the United States in fact gone awry? Is the nation heading toward an apartheid economy—one in which the wealthy and powerful prosper while the less well-off struggle? What are the facts? What do they mean? Are there real problems—and can they be solved? …
Deploying solutions for the problem of income equality in the Caribbean is the quest of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The book identified Agents of Change (Page 57) that is confronting the region, (America as well); they include: Globalization and Technology. A lot of the jobs that paid a “living wage” are now being shipped overseas to countries with lower wage levels, or neutralized by the advancement of technology. Yes, computers are reshaping the global job market, so even Collective Bargaining may fail to counter any eventual obsolescence of wage-earners, their valuation and appreciation; (see EncyclopedicArticle # 2). The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, therefore detailed the campaign to not just consume technology, but to also innovate, produce and distribute the computer-enabled end-products. Therefore industries relating to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/Medicine) are critical in the roadmap. Not only do these careers yield good-paying direct jobs, but also factor in the indirect job market, and the job-multiplier rate (3.0 to 4.1) for down-the-line employment (Page 260) opportunities.
The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the creation of 2.2 million new jobs for the Caribbean region, many embracing ICT/STEM skill-sets. This is easier said than done, so how does Go Lean purpose to deliver on this quest? By the adoption of certain community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample from the book:
Assessment – Puerto Rico – Extreme Unemployment – The Greece of the Caribbean
Page 18
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier
Page 22
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property – Key to ICT Careers
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research and Development – Germaine for STEM jobs
Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide – Vital for fostering ICT careers
Page 31
Strategy – Mission – Education Without Further Brain Drain
Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – East Asian Tigers Model
Page 69
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries
Page 70
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – Trade and Globalization
Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Patents & Copyrights
Page 78
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – As Job-creating Engines
Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization – Technology: The Great Equalizer
Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade
Page 128
Planning – Ways to Model the EU
Page 130
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 – Income Equality Now More Pronounced
Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – e-Learning Options
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Markets and Unions – Collective Bargaining Best-Practices
Page 164
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – STEM Resources
Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Credits, Incentives and Investments
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce – Optimize Remittance Methods
Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class – Exploit Globalization
Page 223
Appendix – Growing 2.2 Million Jobs in 5 Years
Page 257
Appendix – Job Multipliers – Direct & Indirect Job Correlations
Page 259
Appendix – Emigration Bad Example – Puerto Rican Population in the US Mainland
Page 304
The CU will foster job-creating developments, incentivizing many high-tech start-ups and incubating viable companies. The primary ingredient for CU success will be Caribbean people, so we must foster and incite participation of many young people into fields currently sharing higher job demands, like ICT and STEM, so as to better impact their communities. A second ingredient will be the support of the community – the Go Lean movement recognizes the limitation that not everyone in the community can embrace the opportunity to lead in these endeavors. An apathetic disposition is fine-and-well; we simply must not allow that to be a hindrance to those wanting to progress – there are both direct jobs and indirect jobs connected with the embrace of ICT/STEM disciplines. The community ethos or national spirit, must encourage and spur “achievers” into roles where “they can be all they can be”. Go Lean asserts that one person can make a difference … to a community (Page 122).
Other subjects related to job empowerments for wage-seekers in the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:
10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – Job Discrimination of Immigrations
The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but “man cannot live on beauty alone”, there is the need for a livelihood as well. This is the challenge, considering the reality of unemployment in the region; the jobless rate among the youth is even higher.
The crisis of income inequality for the US is a direct result of free trade agreements, like NAFTA, and China’s Preferential Trading Status. Despite this status, we can benefit from the realities of globalization; jobs are being moved to conducive locations with lower labor costs. We should invite these investors to look for cheaper labor options, here in the Caribbean region (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, etc.). This is the same reality as in Europe with different wage levels for the different countries (see Appendix below); the Caribbean also has these wage differences.
The Go Lean roadmap seeks to foster higher-paying job options: Call Centers, Offshore Software Development Centers, R&D Medical campuses, light-manufacturing and assembly plants for “basic needs” products (food, clothing shelter, energy, and transportation) for Caribbean consumption. This is the successful model of Japan, China and the “East Asia Tigers” economies; these are manifestations of effective Economic Principles.
The Go Lean book therefore digs deeper, providing turn-by-turn directions to get to the desired Caribbean results: a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
2014 Annual values (in national currency) for a family with two children with one average salary, including tax credits and allowances.[1] Net amount is computed after Taxes, Social Security and Family Allowances; the result is provided in both the National Currency and the Euro, if different. The table, sorted from highest Net amount to the lowest, is presented as follows:
State
Gross
Net (Natl. Curr)
Net (Euro)
Switzerland
90,521.98
86,731.20
71,407.21
Luxembourg
54,560.39
52,041.36
52,041.36
Norway
542,385.96
415,557.87
49.,741.20
Denmark
397,483.78
289,292.48
38,806.20
Iceland
6,856,099.69
5,872.114.66
37,865.07
UNITED STATES
56,067
45,582
37,671
Sweden
407,974.45
335,501.45
36,874.37
Netherlands
48,855.70
36,648.71
36,648.71
United Kingdom
35,632.64
28,960.38
35,925.65
Belgium
46,464.41
35,810.55
35,810.55
Italy
41,462.67
24,539.93
35,539.93
Germany
45,952.05
36,269.23
35,269.23
France
38,427.35
30,776.75
34,776.75
Ireland
34,465.85
34,382.63
34,382.63
Austria
42,573.25
33,666.04
33,666.04
Finland
42,909.72
32,386.59
32,386.59
JAPAN
4,881,994.24
4,132.432.02
29,452.16
Spain
26,161.81
22,129.78
22,129.78
Greece
24,201.50
17,250.24
17,250.24
Slovenia
17,851.28
15,882.53
15,882.53
Portugal
17,435.71
15,140.25
15,140.25
Estonia
12,435.95
11,176.87
11,176.87
Czech Republic
312,083.83
306,153.76
11,118.31
Slovakia
10,342.10
9,778.16
9,778.16
Poland
42,360.01
34,638.77
8,278.27
Hungary
3,009,283.93
2,530.280.97
8,196.30
Turkey
28,370.00
21,072.12
7,250.00
————-
Appendix Video – Collective Bargaining and Shared Prosperity: Michigan, 1979 – 2009 http://youtu.be/PcT4jK89JmE
Published on September 27, 2012 – This VIDEO depicts the positive effects of Collective Bargaining on the quest for income equality in the US State of Michigan; and the sad consequence of the widening income inequality when Collective Bargaining is less pervasive.
This reflect the “Observe and Report” functionality of the Go Lean…Caribbean promoters in the Greater Detroit-Michigan area.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. – Source unknown
This familiar expression is not intended to give culinary instructions regarding “elephant” meat, but rather it relates a formula for taking on big goals. The answer is to attack the big goal with one small task at a time; taking one step after another in a journey towards a destination. The book Go Lean…Caribbean seeks to engage a big goal, that of elevating the Caribbean region through economic, security and governing empowerments.
This book declares this “elephant-size” goal is heavy-lifting; thusly the above advice applies. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to provide better stewardship for the Caribbean homeland. The book posits that we can do this. We can look internally for solutions, rather than expecting some external “actor” to come in and provide answers. No, we must not fashion ourselves as parasites, but rather protégés of those communities that have already completed these heavy-lifting tasks.
Here is where we benefit from the lessons in history from other communities, families and individuals that have demonstrated unity-of-purpose. We are taught that “bite-size morsels” of the regional “elephant” can be well-handled by strong families; therefore the need exists to strengthen and empower families to optimize their societal contributions.
This strategy of family empowerment is very critical, and has a successful track record. In a previous blog/commentary, the issue of the origin of powerful families was detailed at full length. A direct quote relates:
From the origins of slavery, the region traversed the historic curves of social revolution and evolution. In the 1500, the Protestant movement took hold. As other European powers deviated from Catholicism, Papal Bulls [- which awarded territories in this New World -] carried no significance to them and compliance was ignored. England and Holland established their own Protestant Churches with their own monarchs as head of Church and State; Papal decrees were replaced with Royal Decrees and Charters. The intent and end-result was still the same: territories and lands awarded (colonized) with the stroke of a pen by one European power after another. The Royal Decrees and Charters were then reinforced with a strong military presence and many battles…
[The resultant] “oligarchy” … power effectively rested with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, education, corporate, religious or military affiliation.
In this discussion of oligarchy, focus is given to powerful families. There are encyclopedic references that relate that oligarchy structures are often controlled by a few prominent families, who typically pass their influence/wealth from one generation to the next, even though inheritance alone is not a necessary condition for oligarchies to prevail.
The islands of the Caribbean fit the story-line in the [Caribbean-Calypso] song lyrics: “Islands in the sun; willed to me by my father’s hand”.
This is the challenge that belies Caribbean society. Most of the property and indigenous wealth of the Caribbean region is concentrated amongst the rich, powerful and yet small elite; an oligarchy. Many times these families received their property, corporate rights and/or monopolies by Royal Charter from the European monarchs of ancient times. These charters thus lingered in legacy from one generation to another … until …
The Go Lean book pushes further and deeper on this subject of family empowerment, stressing that success can still be derived in the Caribbean, even without the legacy of 500 years of entitlement. The book therefore stresses certain best-practices to apply to the regional strategies, tactics and implementations.
The lesson of best practices comes from another community, of which we can be a protégé. This is the City of Detroit, Michigan USA. This community is notorious for its urban failures, even filing Bankruptcy in 2013. But from these ashes we have the following example of the pivotal and empowering Ilitch Family. Their Ilitch Holdings, Inc. operates as a holding company for restaurants, sports clubs, real estate, and entertainment businesses. With 17,000 direct employees and annual revenues of $1.8 billion (estimated in 2007; privately held companies are not required to disclose), this family enterprise truly impacts and empowers its community. (Detroit is voted #1 Sports City in the USA). The family operates and franchises the Little Caesars Pizza global chain plus this entertainment company branded Olympia Entertainment:
In 1982, Michael and Marian Ilitch purchased the Olympia Stadium Corporation, the management company for Olympia Stadium and renamed it Olympia Arenas, Inc. (In 1927, the Olympia Sports Arena was built in downtown Detroit to accommodate Detroit’s NHL franchise, and serve as the premier venue for a variety of entertainment). The newly purchased business was responsible for managing events at Joe Louis Arena (which had been completed in 1979 as the home of the Detroit Red Wings), Cobo Arena and the Glens FallsCivicCenter. That same year, Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch purchased the Detroit Red Wings.
In 1987, the Ilitches purchased Detroit’s iconic Fox Theatre (built in 1928) and renovated the 4,800+ seat venue, saving 80% of the original surfaces. In 1988, the Ilitches re-opened the Fox as the hub of the Foxtown Entertainment District and the building now houses the offices of Olympia Entertainment and Little Caesars Pizza. In 1989, the National Parks Service designated the Fox Theatre as a National Landmark.
The Olympia Stadium Corporation was renamed Olympia Entertainment in 1996 to reflect the management company’s expanded operations and venues.
In April 2000, Comerica Park, the new home of the Detroit Tigers hosted Opening Day and ushered in a new era of MLB baseball in Detroit. The 41,000+ seat ballpark is owned by the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority, and Olympia Entertainment operates Comerica Park.
(Source: http://www.olympiaentertainment.com/about-olympia-entertainment/company-history)
Why consider the Ilitch Family as a model? They are impactful in business, sports, entertainment and philanthropy. This applies to the patriarch (Michael, Sr.) and the next generation; thus forging a family legacy. The family enterprises plus the Olympic Entertainment are detailed in the Appendix below. This is truly a family endeavor; in addition to parents Michael and Marian Ilitch, they have seven children: Christopher Ilitch (current CEO and President of Ilitch Holdings, Inc.); daughter Denise Ilitch, an attorney; Ron; Michael, Jr.; Lisa Ilitch Murray; Atanas; and Carole (Ilitch) Trepeck.
Needless to say, the City of Detroit had/has to engage, cooperate and collaborate with this family to induce their investment in the community. This is an example of impacting the Greater Good.
The Go Lean roadmap calls for engaging families in the Caribbean that are committed to elevating the Caribbean. There are truly Ilitch-like families here as well. Just consider this simple list of the most influential families in just one Caribbean member-state, Jamaica; as published by the highly regarded regional online publication, Pan-American World:
1. Joseph M. Matalon Matalon is among the foremost leaders in Jamaica business, part of a family with a legacy of successful business practices for decades. He is the chairman of the ICD Group, a Jamaican investment holding company. For more than 20 years, his knowledge and expertise have been utilized in the areas of transactional finance, investments and banking in various institutions. He is the chairman of British Caribbean Insurance Co., the Development Bank of Jamaica and president of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ). He also is a director of the Gleaner Co. and Commodity Service Co. and a former director of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Jamaica Limited). In addition, he has been involved with a number of special committees to advise the government on financial and economic matters.
2. Michael Lee-Chin He is a self-made billionaire who started his career as a road engineer for the Jamaican government and gradually built his way up to chairman and founder of Portland Holdings, a thriving, privately held investment company in Jamaica. Additionally, Lee-Chin is executive chairman of AIC Limited and National Commercial Bank. Born in Port Antonio in the Portland Parish, the Jamaican-Canadian Lee-Chin also owns stakes in National Commercial Bank Jamaica and Total Finance in Trinidad and Tobago. His personal real estate portfolio includes 250 acres of beachfront property in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and homes in Canada and Florida, according to Forbes. He has been off the magazine’s billionaire list for the last four years, topping out at a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2005.
3. Chris Blackwell He belongs to an affluent family that acquired its wealth through sugar and Appleton Rum. He established himself as a music mogul more than 50 years ago. His rise included introducing the world to reggae. He produced music for artists like Ike and Tina Turner, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and Black Uhuru, among others. He is also the founder of Palm Pictures and creator of the Golden Eye Film Festival that honors Jamaicans who excel in the arts and music. He was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his exemplary work in the entertainment industry in 2004. The Blackwell family name has been the inspiration for “Blackwell Fine Jamaican Rum.” Blackwell currently runs Island Outpost, which is a conglomerate set up to run a group of resorts in Jamaica and the Bahamas. He has an estimated net worth of $180 million, according to celebritynetworth.com.
4. Paula Kerr-Jarrett She is an attorney, philanthropist and influential presence in the Jamaican society circle. She and her husband, Mark, are working to bolster Montego Bay tourism. They announced two months ago a multibillion-dollar partnership project to construct 1,200 homes, a 48-acre tech park with enormous space for information technology that would bring 30,000 jobs and a new University of the West Indies that would accommodate up to 10,000 students. They estimate the investment value of this project to be $500 million. Her great-grandmother, Marion Louise Reece Bovell, was the first woman in Jamaica to run in the general elections of 1944 as an independent candidate. Kerr-Jarrett is connected by marriage to the prominent Jarrett family.
5. Dr. Blossom O’Meally-Nelson O’Meally-Nelson is Jamaica’s first female postmaster general. She is the former pro-chancellor and chairman of Council for the University of Technology (UTECH). Against the background of her outstanding achievements in public service, O’Meally-Nelson is making inroads in the private sector with a family-owned logistics company, Aeromar Group.
6. Joseph John Issa Known mostly as Joe Issa, he is the founder of Cool Group, a multibillion-dollar entity that is made up of more than 50 companies; the chairman of the SuperClubs all-inclusive resort chain, and vice chairman of the Gleaner Co. Issa is credited with introducing the all-inclusive concept into Jamaica more than 30 years ago. He introduced the concept during the tourism slump in the 1970s when many hotels were struggling to break even. It was and remains a booming success. He also maintains a commitment to helping the community, especially children from underprivileged areas in education. He said, ”Born into a rich family, I cannot imagine what it would be like going to school without lunch or books.”
7. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart Stewart reigns as the chairman of Sandals Resorts International, The Jamaica Observer and more than 20 other companies that fall under the Appliance Traders empire, one of the largest private-sector conglomerates in the Caribbean. He has a net worth of $1 billion. His working life began at the age of 12, when he borrowed his father’s fishing boat and began selling his catch of the day and ferrying the rich and famous between their anchored yachts and the harbor front. It was during those times he said he learned the elements of success.
8. Wayne Chen Wayne Chen, the chief executive officer of Super Plus Food Stores, is also the man behind a massive expansion in the local supermarket business in Jamaica. Super Plus is a large supermarket chain with at least 30 stores across the island. He wears other hats, too: chairman of NCB Insurance Co. Limited and West Indies Trust Co. Limited. He is also a director of NCB (Cayman) Limited, AIC (Barbados) Limited and the Christiana Town Centre Limited. He is also a younger brother of billionaire Michael Lee-Chin.
So the consideration of the Go Lean book, as related to this subject is one of governance and economic empowerment. The book posits that empowerment does not only need to emanate from government, but rather individuals and empowering families can have a positive impact. These points were pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) with these acknowledgements and statements:
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.
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.
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 … Detroit…
The same as empowering families ruled in colonial times, based on special favor granted to their forebears by Royal Decree, the family dynamic can help the region again; this time for the Greater Good. While collaboration is so much harder on a societal level – there is the need for buy-in, compromise and consensus – families are already attuned to instinctively trust each other, work together and foster unity-of-purpose. Lastly, families often invest with a deferred gratification ethos, expecting many times that only the next generation will reap the returns on these investment. This eco-system is the microcosm of societal progress.
This Go Lean roadmap calls for incentivizing and engaging many empowering families; and to do so on a regional basis.
In general, the CU/Go Lean roadmap will employ 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.
In much the same way the Ilitch Family seeks to transform Detroit, the Go Lean book stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean society. These points are detailed in the book; the following is a sample:
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Choices Involve Costs
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Minority Equalization
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives
Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds – Learning from Detroit
Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Build and foster local & regional economic engines
Page 45
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Repatriate & Reunite Families
Page 70
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance
Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate
Page 118
Planning – Anatomy of Advocacies – One person can make a difference
Page 122
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit – Turn-around from Failure
Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Anecdote – Caribbean Industrialist – Butch Stewart
Page 189
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Retirement
Page 221
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the One Percent
Page 224
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care
Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women – Focus on Families
Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth
Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Jamaica
Page 239
There are other lessons for the Caribbean to learn from considering the historicity of empowering families, those in the past, present and future. Whether these families prospered due to their own business acumen and hard work, or were entitled by some Royal Decree, we must all be judged on what we do with the gifts we are blessed with.
Our region has experienced a lot of abandonment over the decades; this status quo cannot persist. We have suffered the same as many other failing communities – like Detroit. But the families depicted in this commentary, in Detroit and in the Caribbean, prove that despite hardships, if there is some unity-of-purpose, success can still be fostered even in the most trial-some conditions. Looking and learning at these communities, we glean that we can confer, convene and collaborate with empowering families to positively impact our communities.
Let’s get started! Let’s make our Caribbean homeland – and our individual communities – better places to live, work and play. 🙂
Appendix – Ilitch Family Holdings and Olympia Entertainment Group
Fox Theatre
Opened: September 21, 1928 Re-opened: November 19, 1988 after Michael and Marian Ilitch bought and restored the theatre to its original splendor; saving 80 percent of the original surfaces.Features: The Fox Theatre was the crown jewel of Detroit’s theater district during the first quarter of the 20th Century playing host to some of the biggest names in show business and showing first-runs of some of the greatest films in history. The Fox Theatre has played host to some of the greatest names in entertainment including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross. Designated a National Landmark in 1989, the Fox is the second largest surviving theatre (over 4,800 seats) in the nation and has the second largest functioning Wurlitzer organ.
Joe Louis Arena
Opened: In December 1979. Joe Louis Arena (The Joe or JLA) became the home-ice of the Detroit Red Wings NHL hockey franchise, replacing Olympia Stadium, the former home of Detroit’s NHL team for 72 years.Features: The 20,058-seat arena is Detroit’s largest indoor venue and has hosted a wide variety of events in its 30-year existence including the NHL All-Star Game (February 5, 1980), the Republican National Convention (July 14-18, 1980) and six Stanley Cup Finals. The arena is named after boxing legend and long-time Detroit resident, Joe Louis.First event: December 23, 1979 — University of Detroit vs. University of Michigan basketball; First Red Wings Game: December 29, 1979
ComericaPark
Opened: April 11, 2000 Features: The 45,010 seat, open-air ballpark is home to the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball franchise. The ballpark has hosted more than 850 ball games as well as concerts with more than 80,000 fans. Comerica Park has hosted Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, KISS, Eminem, Jay-Z, The Rolling Stones and Kid Rock.First Event: Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners on April 11, 2000 First Concert: The Dave Matthews Band on July 5, 2000
City Theatre
Opened: September 15, 1993 as the Second City-Detroit Reopened: October 6, 2004 as renamed City Theatre. Features: An intimate, 472-seat theatre with the atmosphere of a Broadway house.
Affiliates
Little Caesars Pizza
Little Caesars Pizza founders Michael and Marian Ilitch opened their first restaurant in Garden City, Michigan, in 1959. Little Caesars, the fastest growing pizza chain, built more stores in the world in 2009 than any other pizza brand and today is the largest carry-out chain globally with restaurants on five continents. Little Caesars is growing in prime markets across the country, and is offering strong franchisee candidates an opportunity for independence with a proven system. For the third year in a row, Little Caesars was named “Best Value in America”* of all quick-serve restaurant chains. In addition, Little Caesars offers strong brand awareness with one of the most recognized and appealing characters in the country, Little Caesar.
“Highest-Rated Chain – Value for the Money” based on a nationwide survey of quick-service restaurant consumers conducted by Sandelman & Associates, 2009
Detroit Red Wings
One of the Original Six franchises in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings have won more Stanley Cup Championships than any other American franchise. Purchased in 1982 by Mike and Marian Ilitch, the Red Wings have stood as one of professional sports’ premier franchises with the most recent Cup victories in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. The Red Wings play in front of sellout crowds of 20,000-plus fans at Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. Visit us at http://www.detroitredwings.com.
Detroit Tigers
In 1992, Mike Ilitch purchased the Detroit Tigers, Detroit’s major league baseball team, which plays in Comerica Park. The ballpark is located directly across the street from the Fox Theatre. ComericaPark opened in 2000 to rave reviews. Sports Illustrated called Comerica Park a “brilliant ballpark”, among the top two or three in the country.
In 2005, the Detroit Tigers hosted the 76th All-Star game at Comerica Park. All-Star Week in Detroit produced the highest grossing revenue in the history of the All-Star Game. Comerica Park has also hosted numerous concerts and the 2006 World Series. Visit the Detroit Tigers website at www.detroittigers.com
Little Caesars Pizza Kits
Since its introduction in the Detroit area in 1997, Pizza Kits has become the “Hottest Fundraiser in America” for all types of nonprofit organizations. Pizza Kits contain all the ingredients to make delicious pizza at home. The Pizza Kit Program now offers a variety of family favorites: 9 Pizza Kits, 3 Breads, and 3 Specialty Items.
In Fall 2003, the Little Caesars Cookie Dough Program was launched with 8 great tasting varieties including: Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Raisin.
Today, Little Caesars Fundraising Programs proudly helps raise millions of dollars for thousands of schools, churches, sports teams and nonprofit organizations throughout the continental United States. Visit us at www.pizzakit.com or call us toll free at 1-888-4-LC-KITS.
Olympia Development
Olympia Development, L.L.C. was established by the Ilitch organization in 1996 to cultivate and attract development in downtown Detroit. The company was instrumental in negotiating the side-by-side Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions stadiums. As a result, the 76th All-Star Game played at Comerica Park in 2005 and the XL Super Bowl that played at Ford Field in 2006. Olympia Development is dedicated to supporting further growth with the new Foxtown sports and entertainment district in downtown Detroit; see VIDEO below.
Uptown Entertainment
Uptown Entertainment includes two of Detroit’s finest movie theatres – the historic Birmingham 8 and Ren Cen 4. In addition to featuring first-run movies, Uptown Entertainment offers unparalleled event services in a variety of unique settings. Uptown is dedicated to faithfully providing our guests with the ultimate in theatre projection, sight, sound, and service. Special features of Uptown Entertainment theatres include stadium seating, digital surround sound, wall-to-wall curved screens and full bar service is available for any private theatre reservations.
In 2010, the Birmingham 8 theatre was one of the first in the area to offer Sony Digital Cinema 4K projection and RealD 3D, which provides the highest resolution projection available, 3D capability and a superior viewing experience for guests. The technology also allows for a variety of alternative content such as live concerts, sporting events, operas and more! Visit UptownEntertainment.com. The Destination for an Exceptional Entertainment Experience.
Hockeytown Cafe
Voted the No. 2 sports bar in the country week after week by ESPN2’s Cold Pizza, Hockeytown Cafe is the hottest place to take part in the action before, during and after both Red Wings and Tigers games with live bands, great food and drink and the best view of Comerica Park in the MotorCity! Visit us at www.hockeytowncafe.com.
Blue Line Foodservice Distribution
Blue Line Foodservice Distribution was established in 1971 in Farmington Hills, Michigan as a premier foodservice distribution company. With 14 distribution centers in North America and satellite locations within the U.S., the company distributes food and equipment to Little Caesars® stores as well as many other customers throughout the world. Through its West Coast centers, Blue Line provides exporting services to the Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Rim and other territories; through its East Coast centers support is provided to the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and South America. Blue Line, with 700 employees, offers a single point of contact for product purchasing, replenishment, equipment, customer service and logistics. Learn more about Blue Line Foodservice Distribution at www.bluelinedist.com.
Champion Foods
Champion Foods is a premier manufacturer of top quality private label and branded food products. Its specialty products are high quality packaged retail pizzas and breadsticks, par-baked pizza crusts and premium cookie dough. Champion Foods services many customers including major grocery retailers, foodservice distributors, restaurant chains and industrial toppers. Its experienced and professional staff makes dozens of products, any of which can be customized to specific customer needs at their state-of-the-art manufacturing research center located in Metro Detroit. Champion Food offers an expansive distribution network to ship throughout North America. www.championfoods.com
The Little Caesars Amateur Hockey League
Little Caesars Amateur Hockey League (LCAHL) is the nation’s largest amateur youth hockey league, involving teams from all over America’s Midwest — Michigan, Ohio and Indiana including Nashville, Tennessee — with more than 700 Travel and House Teams and over 11,000 players in 45 affiliated Associations.
Little Caesars AAA Hockey
Little Caesars AAA Hockey is one of the most recognized and respected organizations in amateur travel hockey. A cornerstone of the Midwest Elite Hockey League since 1968, the program has captured numerous state championships and tournament titles over its 30-plus year history. Mike and Marian Ilitch, owners of the Little Caesars Pizza chain, have been sponsoring amateur hockey teams since 1968 and are a major reason for the club’s success. Visit us at www.littlecaesarshockey.com.
Little Foxes Fine Gifts
Little Foxes Fine Gifts, located in Downtown Detroit’s Fox Theatre Building, offers Metro Detroiters unique gifts for every occasion. You’ll find one-of-a-kind gifts from around the world including pottery, fine crystal, art, jewelry and home furnishings. Established by Marian Ilitch in 1992, Little Foxes is the premiere downtown location for all your gift giving needs! Free Parking is available. Visit us at www.littlefoxes.com.
MotorCity Casino Hotel
Motor City Casino Hotel has 400 rooms and suites. Dining options include Iridescence, Detroit’s only AAA Four Diamond Award-winning restaurant, Grand River Deli, and Assembly Line Buffet. With live entertainment nightly at Chromatics, Detroit’s only Radio Bar, Spectators sports bar to watch the game, and Amnesia, Detroit’s only ultra lounge, there’s something for everyone. For more information please visit www.motorcitycasino.com. Due to Sports league ownership rules, the casino is directly owned by Marian Ilitch.
The Caribbean Community (CariCom) in general and Jamaica in particular had the great privilege of hosting the United States President Barack Obama. He is the first Black Man to hold that esteemed office. In his visit, he was hailed as a conquering hero for agreeing to attend a regional meeting on Caribbean soil, thereby facilitating consultation and collaboration on regional issues between Caribbean government officials and the Chief Executive of the American Republic. Though the Caribbean member-states have no vote in the US Capitol of Washington DC, including the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Island, we do have a voice. The Jamaica meeting allowed more audiences for those voices.
The US is the world’s largest, and richest, single market economy – an economic and military Super Power – plus the largest trading partner for most Caribbean member-states. We are directly affected by the economic, security and governing policies emanating from the shores of America. This focus aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which seeks to elevate the Caribbean economic, security and governing engines. Begrudgingly, the book admits that the Caribbean is only a parasite of the American eco-system but presents a roadmap to elevate the region to a better status: protégé instead of parasite.
Due to constitutionally mandated term limits, President Obama only has less than 2 years left in his administration. The focus now moves to his possible successor. The next presidential election in the US is set for November 2016. Despite being 18 months away, the jockeying has begun. Will the next president be a Democrat or a Republican? Will their policies be Pro-Caribbean, Anti-Caribbean or completely agnostic; indifferent to the Caribbean’s needs and issues? Agnosticism is not far-fetch as this is the observation given by President Obama. He concluded that 55 years of indifference towards Cuba was long-enough and he has “set the machinery in motion” to normalize relations with Cuba. Will this initiative continue with the new president? The world will have to wait-and-see.
As of this writing, 4 people have already officially declared and launched their campaigns, 1 Democrat (Hillary Clinton) and 3 Republicans (Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio). Most stakeholders in the Caribbean may think that the Democratic Party may be more conducive to Caribbean elevation. But still, the decision of American leadership is not ours to make nor influence. We must simply convene, consult and collaborate with whomever the elected official is, Democrat or Republican.
This commentary therefore asserts that we need to work to influence both sides of the American political divide; perhaps even more on the Republican side, since as of late, their policies are less empowering for African-American, and less empowering for the Caribbean. Therefore, there is the need for more mitigation and remediation for the Republican party … as of late.
As of late…
… because the Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP (abbreviation for Grand Old Party), was founded by anti-slavery activists in 1854. (The Caribbean and the United States share the same historic legacy of slavery and the slow drag throughout history to remediate the experiences and injustices for this Black-and-Brown population). The GOP dominated politics nationally and in most of the northern U.S. for most of the period between 1860 and 1932. There have been 18 Republican U.S. presidents, the first being Abraham Lincoln, who served from 1861 until his assassination in 1865, and the most recent being George W. Bush, who served two full four-year terms 2001 to 2009. The most recent Republican presidential nominee was former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney who lost in 2012 to the incumbent president, Democrat Barack Obama. See the full 19th and 20th Century history of the GOP in the Appendix below.
Today, the party’s platform is generally based on American conservatism,[8][9][10] in contrast to the contemporary American liberalism of the rival Democratic Party. The Republican Party’s conservatism involves supporting free market capitalism, limited government, strong national defense, opposing regulation and labor unions, and supporting socially conservative policies.[2] Civil rights, or issues related to empowering minorities, are not identified with the Republican Party. What a change compared to the historic beginnings of this party.
In the current 114th U.S. Congress, the Republicans have their largest majority in the U.S. House of Representatives since the 1928 election; the GOP also holds a majority of seats in the Senate.[12] The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures.[13]
It is what it is!
We must seek to engage Republicans. It is only the US Presidency that is missing in their echelon of American power.
There is expected to be a full corps of Republican presidential candidates for 2016. Some of the names that have expressed interest in running include the following, but these ones have not officially launched their federal campaigns … yet:
Jeb Bush – former 2-term Florida Governor
Mike Huckabee – former Arkansas Governor and 2008 presidential candidate
Chris Christie – Current Governor of New Jersey
Donald Trump – Popular Billionaire businessman and media personality
Ben Carson – Retired neurosurgeon and businessman; he happens to be an African-American; see article here:
Title: Will He Run? Ben Carson Set To Address Presidential Plans In May 4 Announcement
He may announce his bid to run for president in 2016. He may not.
But whatever Ben Carson’s political aspirations are, we’ll all know when he makes them public in a May 4 announcement in Detroit, his team tells [news outlet] CNN.
The announcement, set to take place at the Detroit Music Hall Center for Performing Arts, is expected to be the launch for his presidential bid. Details, including ticketing and the subject of the announcement, however, have “yet to be hammered out,” Carson spokeswoman Deana Bass said.
“He will make an announcement. But he’s still very much in the exploratory phase, so he hasn’t made a decision yet,” she said.
From CNN: The retired neurosurgeon has been traveling the nation over the past six months, giving paid speeches and meeting with supporters to gauge interest in a bid. He recently traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire, and spoke last weekend at the National Rifle Association’s meeting in Tennessee. Carson’s relative political inexperience, however, hasn’t turned him away from the campaign — if he runs, he’ll look to make it an asset, framing himself as a common-sense alternative to the broken policies of Washington politicians.
So far, the presidential race has gained three GOP senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida — but Carson’s green political experience (and the already full pot of GOP candidates) doesn’t seem to be a deterrent. And according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, he may have a real shot.
From CNN: Carson surveys right in the middle of the potential GOP field, ahead of more seasoned or better-known GOP contenders like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee or Rubio, and he took fifth place with 9% support in the last CNN/ORC survey, conducted in March.
Still, that’s a marked decline from late February, when he was polling in the top three of the pack, indicating he still has some work to do in proving his credibility with voters.
Is the United States ready for a second Black Man to assume the highest office in the land? Is Ben Carson ready? Is Black America ready for this Black Republican?
These are all appropriate questions. From the Caribbean perspective, we will observe-and-report on these developments.
The focus of the Go Lean book is not American politics, but rather the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean. Yet still, we need to have a productive relationship with the American federal government and whichever administration is in the White House. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); an initiative to bring “Hope and Change” to the Caribbean region; to make the region a better place to live, work and play. This Go Lean roadmap also has these 3 prime directives:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The book describes the CU as a technocratic administration with 144 different missions to elevate the Caribbean homeland. The underlying goal is stated early in the book with this pronouncement in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12):
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…
The Go Lean roadmap represents “Hope and Change” for the Caribbean. In 2008, Barack Obama propelled forward into American conscience with that theme “Hope and Change“, now the effort is to propel an initiative for the Caribbean. We have some serious crises to contend with. We need hope and we need change…now.
This fact was enunciated by Obama in his visit to Jamaica. He explained how we have to better manage our interactions with Super Powers to ensure we are getting the sought-after benefits, and not being exploited for their self-interest. The President prescribed a formula for the Caribbean’s dealing with China … and also America itself.
VIDEO: President Barack Obama’s response on China’s involvement in Jamaica’s Development – https://youtu.be/rRaQjukEPOo
Published on
Apr 22, 2015 — We are a movement of Jamaicans both at Home and Abroad who are willing to fight for real and lasting change. This isn’t for everyone — we’re Changing Jamaica Through Leadership, and we’re proud of it. If you’re someone who’d rather get involved than sit back, if you refuse to be cynical about what we can get done together, then you should be part of this at www.ourjamaicavote.org
The Go Lean roadmap was constructed with the following community ethos in mind, plus the execution of strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to elevate the Caribbean eco-system. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:
Assessment – Caribbean Community’s stalled Single Market Initiative
Page 15
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens
Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Minority Equalization
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – Leadership Skills/Development
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations
Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederation of the 30 Caribbean Member-States into a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Celebrate the Music, Sports, Art, People and Culture of the Caribbean
Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers: Federal Administration versus Member-States Governance
Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade
Page 128
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image
Page 133
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit
Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance in the Caribbean Region
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership
Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications
Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Reboot Cuba
Page 236
There is a consistency with this Go Lean commentary, applying lessons from a consideration of historic events and people. The premise is simple:
Those who refuse to learn from history are forced to repeat it.
A Lesson in History: America’s War on the Caribbean
The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean engines. It is out-of-scope to impact the US. That will be the campaign of the presidential candidates, perhaps also including Ben Carson. He would not be the first Black Republican presidential candidate; in fact in 2012 Herman Cain ran a substantial campaign for much of that “season” – a one-time front-runner. Further, in 2000, former ambassador Alan Keyes sought the Republican nomination for President.
Will “Ben Carson” campaign change the Republican party, making it more amiable to the Black Community? Did the previous candidates (Herman Cain & Alan Keyes) impact the party? It is only logical to conclude that each attempt by serious Black candidates will “crack the glass ceiling”; then eventually a substantial Black candidate will “break through”.
Will “Ben Carson” be that candidate? Let’s observe-and-report.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by anti-slavery activists, modernizers, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the briefly popular Know Nothing Party. The main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting where the name “Republican” was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin.[14] The name was partly chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson’s Republican Party.
The first official party convention was held on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan.[15] By 1858, the Republicans dominated nearly all Northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency and Republicans in control of Congress and again, the Northern states. It oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877.[16]
The Republicans’ initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest [States].
Early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan “free labor, free land, free men”, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio (and future Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Justice of the United States).[17] “Free labor” referred to the Republican opposition to slave labor and belief in independent artisans and businessmen. “Free land” referred to Republican opposition to plantation system whereby slave-owners could buy up all the good farm land, leaving the yeoman independent farmers the leftovers. The Party strived to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power (“slaveocracy”) and the expansion of freedom.[18]
Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union and destroying slavery during the American Civil War and over Reconstruction. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket.
The party’s success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the spoils system; the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service.
The GOP supported business generally, hard money (i.e., the gold standard), high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, and (after 1893) the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans supported the pietistic Protestants who demanded Prohibition. As the northern post-bellum economy boomed with heavy and light industry, railroads, mines, fast-growing cities and prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth.
Nevertheless, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. The high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself.
After the two terms of Democrat Grover Cleveland, the election of William McKinley in 1896 is widely seen as a resurgence of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the [Economic] Panic of 1893, and that the GOP would guarantee a sort of pluralism in which all groups would benefit.
20th century
The 1896 realignment cemented the GOP as the party of big business, while Theodore Roosevelt added more small business support by his embrace of trust busting. He handpicked his successor William Howard Taft in 1908, but they became enemies on economic issues. Defeated by Taft for the 1912 nomination, Roosevelt bolted the party and led the third party ticket of the Progressive Party. The party returned to the White House throughout the 1920s, running on platforms of normalcy, business-oriented efficiency, and high tariffs. The national party avoided the prohibition issue after it became law in 1920.
The New Deal coalition of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt controlled American politics for most of the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Blacks moved into the Democratic Party during the New Deal era; they could vote in the North but not in the South. After Roosevelt took office in 1933, New Deal legislation sailed through Congress and the economy moved sharply upward from the nadir in early 1933. However long-term unemployment remained a drag until 1940. In the 1934 midterm elections, 10 Republican senators went down to defeat, leaving them with only 25 against 71 Democrats. The House of Representatives likewise had overwhelming Democratic majorities.
The GOP split into a majority “Old Right” (based in the Midwest) and a liberal wing based in the Northeast that supported much of the New Deal. The Old Right sharply attacked the “Second New Deal” and said it represented class warfare and socialism. Roosevelt was reelected in a landslide in 1936 but everything went awry in his second term, as the economy plunged, strikes soared, and FDR failed to take control of the Supreme Court or to purge the Southern conservatives in the Democratic party. The GOP made a major comeback in the 1938 elections, and had new rising stars such as Robert A. Taft of Ohio on the right and Thomas E. Dewey of New York on the left.[19] Southern conservatives joined with most Republicans to form the conservative coalition, which dominated domestic issues in Congress until 1964. Both parties split on foreign policy issues, with the anti-war isolationists dominant in the GOP and the interventionists who wanted to stop Hitler dominant in the Democratic party. Roosevelt won a third and fourth term in 1940 and 1944. Conservatives abolished most of the New Deal during the war, but did not attempt to reverse Social Security or the agencies that regulated business.
Unlike the “moderate”, internationalist, largely eastern bloc of Republicans who accepted (or at least acquiesced in) some of the “Roosevelt Revolution” and the essential premises of President Truman’s foreign policy, the Republican Right at heart was counter-revolutionary, anti-collectivist, anti-Communist, anti-New Deal, passionately committed to limited government, free market economics, and congressional (as opposed to executive) prerogatives, the G.O.P. conservatives were obliged from the start to wage a constant two-front war: against liberal Democrats from without and “me-too” Republicans from within.[20]
The Democrats elected majorities to Congress almost continuously after 1932 (the GOP won only in 1946 and 1952), but the Conservative Coalition blocked practically all major liberal proposals in domestic policy. After 1945, the internationalist wing of the GOP cooperated with Harry Truman’s Cold War foreign policy, funded the Marshall Plan, and supported NATO, despite the continued isolationism of the Old Right.
The second half of the 20th century saw election or succession of Republican presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Eisenhower had defeated conservative leader Senator Robert A. Taft for the 1952 nomination, but conservatives dominated the domestic policies of the Eisenhower Administration. Voters liked Ike much more than they liked the GOP, and he proved unable to shift the party to a more moderate position. After 1970, the liberal wing faded away.[21]
Ever since he left office in 1989, Reagan has been the iconic Republican; and Republican presidential candidates frequently claim to share his views and aim to establish themselves and their policies as the more appropriate heir to his legacy.[22] In 1994, the Party, led by House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich campaigning on the Contract with America, was elected to majorities to both houses of Congress in the Republican Revolution. However Gingrich was unable to deliver on most of its promises, and after the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998 and subsequent Republican losses in the House, he resigned. Since Reagan’s day, presidential elections have been close. However, the Republican presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote only in 2004, while coming in second in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012.
Imagine a university with 75,000 students, faculty and staff. That is a whole city in itself.
This is not make-believe; this is the City of Ann Arbor, in the US State of Michigan. When you visit this city, you would not know when the university begins and the city ends; or when the city begins and the university ends. [33]
Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan and 43,625 students; it is one of the foremost research universities in the United States. The university shapes Ann Arbor’s economy significantly as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about 12,000 in the medical center. The city’s economy is also centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the university’s research and development money, and by its graduates.[8]
The City of Ann Arbor was founded in 1824, named for wives of the village’s founders and the stands of Bur Oak trees.[7] The University of Michigan moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, and the city showed steady growth throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as a center for left-wing politics. Ann Arbor became a focal point for political activism and served as a hub for the civil-rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement, as well as various student movements.
The idea of impactful cities aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean in stressing the elevation of the societal engines through entrepreneurial endeavors. The book asserts that Caribbean society can be elevated by improving the eco-system to live, work, learn and play. This is the example of Ann Arbor. This point is strongly conveyed in this following news article/profile entitled “Ann Arbor – Start-up City” about the city in the In-flight Magazine for Delta Airlines: Sky (Published January 2015; retrieved 04-17-2015 from http://msp.imirus.com/Mpowered/book/vds2015/i1/p102:
Click on the Photo/Article to Enlarge
Go Lean blog commentaries have chronicled a lot of the travails of the State of Michigan and its principle City of Detroit. The metropolitan areas were rocked during the Great Recession of 2008, with Detroit eventually having to file a municipal bankruptcy to reorganize it’s finances. Despite all the economic dysfunction in the region, the foregoing article relates how the City of Ann Arbor thrived, not just because of it’s college-town status – see Appendix-VIDEO – but also because of its entrepreneurial ethos and incubation of companies-industries related to Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT).
The cause-and effect of the Great Recession was a great motivation for the composition of the Go Lean book; its 370-pages now serve as a roadmap detailing how the Caribbean can elevate its community by leaning-in to optimizations for the region’s economic, security and governing engines. The roadmap calls for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This technocratic agency will do the heavy-lifting of executing this roadmap; the prime directives are stated as follows:
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.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book stresses industrial incubation, which generally refers to the practice of working with “early bird” innovators to exploit business opportunities in certain nascent industries. Ann Arbor has done this, and thusly provide a fitting model for Caribbean communities.
The Go Lean roadmap declares that the region needs “all hands on deck” to model the positive examples of Ann Arbor and other innovative communities. Education is key, as Ann Arbor is a college-town. The correlation is very direct: to create a plethora of new jobs, it is necessary to forge genius, innovation and participation in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM). The book relates that many people can develop the appropriate genius qualifiers with strenuous incentives and fostering on the community level. These points are pronounced early in the following statements in the book’s Declaration of Interdependence(Page 13 & 14):
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
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…
xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.
The Go Lean roadmap accepts that change has come to the global marketplace, due mostly to the convergence of Internet & Communications Technology (ICT). The book posits that size no longer matters, that from any location – like Ann Arbor in the photos here – innovative solutions can be developed and promoted to an appreciative audience. What matters most is the innovation, not the location; so any Caribbean member-state, large or small can be impactful. The first requirement is the community ethos of valuing intellectual property. This ethos would be new for the Caribbean market; it is therefore a mission of the CU to forge.
The Go Lean book posits that the technocratic facilitations to drive innovation may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state to invest alone, rather the collaboration efforts of the CU is necessary, as the strategy is to confederate all the 30 member-states of the Caribbean into an integrated “single market” to allow for better leverage and incubation.
The CU is designed to do the heavy-lifting of organizing and optimizing the Caribbean for this proposed-improved environment. The following list details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster this environment:
Community Ethos – Forging Change
Page 20
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Anecdote – Valedictorian Experience
Page 38
Strategy – Strategy – Caribbean Vision
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department
Page 73
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patent, Standards, and Copyrights
Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 103
Implementation – Capital District Requirements – like Ann Arbor
Page 110
Planning – Lessons from 2008
Page 136
Planning – Lessons from Detroit
Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street
Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology
Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Electronic Commerce
Page 204
Advocacy – Ways to Battle Poverty – Entrepreneurial Values
Page 222
Appendix – Job Multipliers
Page 259
The Go Lean roadmap asserts that one individual or community can make a difference in the quest to elevate Caribbean society – the promoters of Go Lean have come to Ann Arbor to observe and report on their progress. We want the same outcomes by fostering genius qualifiers in our region; we therefore need impactful college-towns in the Caribbean. Colleges and universities can foster more innovators as there is a need for many contributors. This is true of Metropolitan Michigan / Greater Detroit / Ann Arbor and true for the Caribbean region. These points have been frequently conveyed in previous blogs/commentaries. Consider this sample here:
The Go Lean/CU roadmap presents the change that will come to the Caribbean. The people, institutions and governance of the region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for empowerment. We know there can be many towns in the Caribbean region that can model Ann Arbor. They are waiting to be fostered and nurtured to impact the Caribbean’s Greater Good.
Published on May 16, 2013 – The journey is college, Ann Arbor the destination. Place no limits on your Michigan experience. From the nightlife of Main Street to the glowing skies over Barton, go out and #exploreA2.
Produced by Filmic Productions, 2013
“What good is a birthright when I’m starving now?” – Bible Drama of Esau and Jacob; Genesis 25: 19 – 34.
A subject like snow removal should have no significance in the tropical climate of the Caribbean. Right?
Yet, this commentary is more attuned to Big Business than it is related to snow removal. The subject of impetuous governance is of extreme importance to the Caribbean. For this reason, the art and science of snow removal teaches a lot of lessons for tropical destinations.
During winter months in northern climates, snow is the reality. The snow (and ice) must be managed and removed. Roads and pavements will ice over, making them slippery and dangerous to drive and walk on. So local authorities will often remove snow/ice from major roads, by plowing and de-icing. The most common de-icer is rock salt.
Halite, the most common form of rock salt, is a brittle, isotropic sediment that can be found in evaporated piles left in lake beds, playas, seas, oceans, and mined from underground. It forms cubic crystals that can be broken up and refined for numerous purposes, though one of the most common is for its use as a de-icing agent. Rock salt is relatively inexpensive, abundant, and mostly for these reasons is used extensively by local authorities to de-ice the roads. In Detroit-USA, locally mined rock salt is Big Business.
When rock salt is placed in snow, or on top of ice, it will naturally form a bond and become brine, a mixture of water and salt. Brine has a lower freezing point than water, meaning the mixture will melt and remain unfrozen, an effect called freezing point depression, unless the temperature drops significantly.
While the freezing point for water is 32 °F (0 °C), the freezing point for salt is −6.02 °F (−21.12 °C).
Another good reason that rock salt is used to clear roads is to improve traction for road vehicles. Rock salt is grainy and therefore allows the tire tread of vehicles to get a better grip on the road surface.
These are all short-term benefits. The list of long-term damage is extensive; see the following blog/article here:
The spreading of rock salt as a de-icer for our roads is something that has been undertaken every year in the UK for as long as I can remember. Local authorities up and down the country have a responsibility to keep our roads clear of ice and snow, as much as is practically possible. It was obviously decided some time ago that this was the most cost effective method of doing so.
False economy As a pure costing method measured solely against the alternatives this probably was the best way to ensure value for money for tax payers but there would seem to have been no account taken of the substantive consequential costs that come with using a toxic and corrosive substance on our roads. Rock salt consists primarily of sodium chloride (salt) and it is the sodium and the chloride that cause the problems.
The real costs The major problem in my view is the damage salt can cause to our water sources and water based eco systems. When the snow and ice melts the sodium chloride in the rock salt doesn’t just disappear, it contaminates water supplies whether by direct run-off into surface water drains or by moving through the soil and groundwater into streams and other natural water locations. To put the contamination in perspective, just one teaspoonful of rock salt will permanently contaminate five gallons of water and once it is in the water it cannot be removed unless by expensive methods. The rock salt therefore can eventually damage our drinking water and affects aquatic life and other organisms that have not adapted to living in salt water.
A problem that is close to my heart in relation to the use of rock salt is the risk to pets. Rock salt can cause severe irritation and inflammation to pets’ paws and when the natural reaction of your pet is to lick the affected area then this can cause sickness and other related problems. If the rock salt is directly ingested, and this can easily happen from a build-up of residue at the side of roads, then this is highly toxic and can lead to severe reactions and even death.
Another significant problem with rock salt is the corrosive nature of salt and the effects it has on cars and the under carriage components of cars such as brake pipes are well known to motorists. This damage also applies to road structures such concrete and metal structures such as bridges. Rock salt causes ongoing damage in these areas the cost of which can only be substantive.
If you have ever put salt down to kill weeds then you will fully understand the damage it must be doing to plants, vegetation and the soil itself of all areas adjacent to roadways. It is also harmful to insects and small animals that inhabit the roadway eco systems.
Spread the word, not the salt If the real cost of using rock salt was to be determined I am sure it would cease immediately as the costs would far outweigh the benefits and an alternative would be used. The point is that there are alternatives to rock salt; we just need to make the authorities aware of this. If you want to check out one source for an alternative you can visit www.rocksalt-alternative.com.
——-
2. Encyclopedia Reference for Snow/Surface Treatment (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_removal)
For snow removal, roads are also treated by spreading various materials on the surface. These materials generally fall into two categories: chemical and inert. Chemical (including salt) distribution induces freezing-point depression, causing ice and snow to melt at a lower temperature. Chemical treatment can be applied as a preventive measure and/or after snowfall. Inert materials (i.e. sand, brash, slag) make the surface irregular to improve traction. Both types can be applied together, but the inert materials tend to lower traction once snow/ice has melted.
In the European Union, 98% of chemical treatment materials used in 2000 were sodium chloride in various forms. For colder temperatures, calcium chloride (CaCl2) is added to NaCl in some countries, but deployment is limited as it costs about 6 times as much as sodium chloride. Other substances were used rarely and experimentally. Alternative substances (urea, alcohols, glycols) are often used at airports.[23] In recent years, Geomelt, a combination of salt brine and beet juice that is otherwise considered a waste product has been used for pretreatment.[24]
The choice of treatment may include consideration of the effect on vegetation, pets and other animals, the local watershed, and effectiveness with regard to speed and temperature. Some chemicals can degrade concrete, metals, and other materials. The resulting meltwater and slush can cause frost heaving if it re-freezes, which can also damage pavement. Inert materials can damage vehicles and create dust.
As an example, in the Czech Republic during the winter season of 2000/2001, net material expenditure for road treatment was: 168,000 tonnes of salt (mostly NaCl), 348 000 tonnes of sand and crushed stone and 91 000 tonnes of other materials like slag. In Ireland, the annual expenditure of salt was 30 000 tonnes. Switzerland reports their annual expenditure as 600 grammes of salt to every square metre of roads on average.[23]
Side effects De-icing chemicals and inert materials need to be selected and applied with care.
Chemicals may react with infrastructure, the environment, and vehicles. Chlorides corrode steel and aluminum in reinforced concrete, structures and vehicles. Acetates can cause asphalt stripping, weakening the bond between asphalt binder and aggregate. Sand and grit can clog pavement joints and cracks, preventing pavement from expanding in the summer and increasing stress in the pavement.[25]
Salts can be toxic to plants and aquatic life. Sand can alter aquatic habitats where roads are near streams and lakes. Acetates can reduce oxygen levels in smaller water bodies, stressing aquatic animal life. Sand can be ground by tires into very fine particulate matter and become airborne, contributing to air pollution.[26][27]
While this may appear to be an issue of local roads, and subsequent damage – see VIDEO in the Appendix as it relates to damages to cars – it can be argued that actually this is an issue of Crony-Capitalism.
One consequence of Crony-Capitalism is that it short-changes the future for immediate gains, or profits. This paradox has been a constant concern of this commentary. Like Esau in the Bible drama above, many impetuously ignore their birthright – or the birthrights of their children – for immediate benefits.
This consideration aligns with the book Go Lean … Caribbean; this book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This empowerment effort represents a change for the region, calling on all 30 member-state governments in the region to confederate and provide their own solutions in the areas of economics, security and governance. The book directly advocates for lean facilitation of infrastructural needs. The subject for roads and bridges fit under the category of Public Works for the Greater Good; so decisions in this regards should never be based on short-term benefits only or lining someone’s pocket.
The CU/Go Lean roadmap defines these 3 prime directives as follows:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines against “bad actors”.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The purpose of this commentary is to draw reference to the governing principles used in northern communities regarding snow removal and how best-practices are ignored just to placate some immediate need; and immediate profits. Considering the long-term effects on the environment, the next generations’ birthright is being sold for a “bowl of soup”.
This is not an issue of “snow”; this is an issue of ethos.
Just who is the influence behind the “salt” decisions? Big Mining operations and Road Construction companies. This group can collectively be referred to as Big Salt. This is just another example of Crony-Capitalism, where public-long term benefits are shortchanged for private-short-term gains. Is Big Salt a conspiracy or just a coincidental fact of modern life in colder climates? While it is only honorable to give Big Salt the benefit of any doubt, the anecdotal account is consistent in one big American, Canadian and European city after another.
Consider the issues being debated in Michigan at this time. The State (plus counties and cities) must find new monies to pay for the overdue maintenance on the roads, tunnels and bridges. The infrastructure is collapsing.
Just “follow the money” is a constant refrain among conspiracy theorists. Besides, many sources – including this Go Lean book and accompanying blogs – have reported on the “bad intent” in the American eco-system, associated with Crony-Capitalism. (Though the use of rock salt is not just an American issue).
This negative community ethos is an example for the Caribbean to avoid in emulating American society.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean region must do better; we must not allow the US to take the lead for our own nation-building, that American capitalistic interest tends to hijack policies intended for the Greater Good. This assessment is logical considering the realities of so many of these “Big Corporate Bullies” where public policy is set to benefit private parties. The subject of Big Salt is just another example. Consider this chart of well-documented cases of bad corporate behavior:
Big Media
Cable companies conspire to keep rates high; kill net neutrality; textbook publishers practice price gouging; Hollywood insists on big tax breaks/subsidies for on-location shooting.
Big Oil
While lobbying for continuous tax subsidies, the industry have colluded to artificially keep prices high and garner rocket profits ($38+ Billion every quarter).
Big Box
Retail chains impoverish small merchants on Main Street with Antitrust-like tactics, thusly impacting community jobs.
Big Pharma
Chemo-therapy cost $20,000+/month; and the War against Cancer is imperiled due to industry profit insistence.
Big Tobacco
Cigarettes are not natural tobacco but rather latent with chemicals to spruce addiction.
Big Agra
Agribusiness concerns bully family farmers and crowd out the market; plus fight common sense food labeling efforts.
Big Data
Brokers for internet and demographic data clearly have no regards to privacy concerns.
Big Banks
Wall Street’s damage to housing and student loans are incontrovertible.
Big Weather
Overblown hype of “Weather Forecasts” to dictate commercial transactions.
Big Real Estate
Preserving MLS for Real Estate brokers only, forcing 6% commission rates, when the buyers and sellers can meet without them.
The Go Lean book, and accompanying blog commentaries, go even deeper and hypothesize that American economic models are dysfunctional from the Caribbean perspective. The American wheels of commerce stages the Caribbean in a “parasite” role; imperiling regional industrialization even further. The US foreign policy for the Caribbean is to incentivize consumption of American products, and serve as a playground for their leisure.
The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to forge the elevation of the Caribbean region from parasite to the preferred role of protégé. This point is made early in the Declaration of Interdependence(Page 11) with these statements:
iii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our society is that of an archipelago of islands, inherent to this nature is the limitation of terrain and the natural resources there in. We must therefore provide “new guards” and protections to ensure the efficient and effective management of these resources.
vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.
The Go Lean book purports that the Caribbean can – and must – do better than Crony-Capitalism. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic-security-governing engines. We can weld more power and influence collaborating and consolidating Public Works projects. The Go Lean book details the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate Caribbean society, and make our homeland a better place to live, work, play:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy versus Public Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Unified and Integrated Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for the Eventuality of Natural Disasters
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Protect the Homeland’s Natural Resources
Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management
Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Public Works & Infrastructure Oversight
Page 82
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization – Interdependence
Page 119
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters
Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Finance Public Works
Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street
Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living
Page 234
Appendix – Caribbean (Puerto Rico) Diaspora in Northern States
While the US is the world’s largest Single Market economy, we want to only model some of the American example. We would rather foster a business climate to benefit the Greater Good, not just some special interest group. There are many Go Lean blog commentaries that have echoed this point, addressing the subject of the Caribbean avoiding American consequences. See sample here:
10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – American Self-Interest Policies
While the Caribbean region does not have to contend with snow removal tactics, we do have to manage the edicts associated with infrastructure (road) maintenance, industrial waste and environmental by-products. It’s important that we always consider the long view.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that many problems of the region are too big for any one member-state to solve alone, that there is the need for the technocracy of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. The purpose of this Go Lean/CU roadmap is to conquer the problems/challenges of modern day life and make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work, and play.
Climate change is one such challenge.
We know that the short-term actions we do now, have long-term consequences. So we must act right!
Though we are on the frontline of the onslaughts of climate change weather challenges – think, hurricanes – we must demonstrate best-practices to manage our environment well and send the world the right message of prudence.
The Go Lean roadmap calls for some integration of the regional member-states, a strategy of confederation with a tactic of separation-of-powers between CU federal agencies and member-states’ governments. The roadmap calls for the integrated role for infrastructure planning, financing and maintenance. Surely there will be many maintenance decision where the short-term “pro and con” will have to be weighed against the long-term “pro and con” It is hoped we will always consider the long-term and not “sell out our birthright”.
The people and governing institutions of the Caribbean are hereby urged to take heed the exhortations in this commentary; and also to learn more, and do more, by leaning-in to this Go Lean roadmap for Caribbean empowerment.
Published on Jan 9, 2014 – A simple substance that is supposed to protect you while driving in a winter storm could actually be costing you money. Reported for Omaha’s KETV NewsWatch 7.
“What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” – Novelist and Poet Sir Walter Scott.
The viral debate regarding some parents refusal to vaccinate their children is not one that can be simply reduced to bad parenting; there are some heavy issues surrounding this topic. This is not 1950, where there were only 3 vaccines; the number has now grown voluminously. Consider the US standards:
Vaccination of 14 diseases by two years of age…
U.S. children receive as many as 24 vaccine injections …
Then in the 1990’s, a new deterrent arose, the sudden rise in the cases of Autism among children; 1 in every 160.
No wonder a growing number of parents apply for exemptions from vaccinating their kids; (see Forbes Magazine article below). It almost seems logical.
Though there is no conclusive evidence that Autism may be linked to vaccinations, the occurrence rate is ungodly, 1 in 160. This alarming Autism rate seemed to exceed any risk of exposure to “wild” pathogens targeted by vaccinations – until the Disneyland outbreak recently. It was hard to ignore these numbers, thusly parents were trying to protect their children from the cure, not the disease, and refusing to vaccinate their children. Consider this story from Metropolitan Detroit:
While this may appear to be an issue of Public Health policy, it can be argued that actually this is an issue of capitalism.
The vaccine, the medicine comes from Pharmaceutical companies. When new drugs are introduced and then compelled for the entire population, it is a boon for the drug company. This is the kinetics of capitalism at full hilt. The below encyclopedic reference (Appendix #1) help us to appreciate the background of the economic dynamics of this issue.
This consideration aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean; this book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This empowerment effort represents a change for the region, calling on all 30 member-state governments in the region to confederate and provide their own solutions – together – in the areas of economics, security and governance. The book directly advocates for a Group Purchasing Organization to facilitate better pricing and delivery options for Public Health medications – the vaccines that must be administered. This issue therefore relates to all three areas (economics, security and governance). The CU/Go Lean roadmap defines these 3 prime directives as follows:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines against “bad actors”.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The purpose of this commentary is to draw reference to the different governing bodies regulating these policies around the world, or at least in countries within scope of a Caribbean focus. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US, European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe and the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) hold sway over this issue.
Just what influence does the Pharmaceutical industry have in lobbying these agencies to steadily increase the vaccination requirements? This industry is pejoratively referred as Big Pharma. Why the negative reference?
More and more parents have not trusted Big Pharma’s assertions, motives and sponsored research into side-effects and repercussions of vaccinations. There is no doubt that this industry would have a profit motive to protect and deflect any criticism of their Public Health policies. The charges of Autism fit this mode. See Autism Reference in the Appendix #2 below.
Is there a conspiracy? While it would only be honorable to give Big Pharma the benefit of any doubt, odds like 1-in-160 is very hard to ignore. Besides, many sources, including this Go Lean book and accompanying blogs have reported on the “bad intent” in the American eco-system associated with crony-capitalism.
But vaccination is an honorable cause. Many of these “now” preventable diseases wreaked havoc on human society until the vaccines were developed and distributed. The sustainability of modern life has actually improved due to immunizations. This fact was re-affirmed with the recent Disneyland measles outbreak. See article here:
“In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her.”
Those words were written by Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and James the Giant Peach, about his seven-year-old daughter who died in 1962. In 1986, when he wrote them in an entreaty to his fellow Britons to vaccinate their children so that his little girl would not have died in vain, Dahl followed up with a taunt that played on his readers’ sense of national pride. “In America,” he wrote, “where measles immunization is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.”
I saw Dahl’s 621-word pamphlet shared dozens of times this weekend, on sites like Io9 and DailyKos and by friends on Facebook who are frustrated and upset that Dahl’s statement is no longer true – that America, which led the eradication of smallpox, has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. As a result of the growing number of parents who are applying for exemptions from vaccinating their kids, an outbreak that started in Disneyland in California has now spread. There have been 102 cases of measles reported in 14 states since January 1, more than in all of 2012.
What’s different now – and this is a reason for hope, even celebration – is that people are angry. This was clear Monday when Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor and likely Republican presidential candidate, when he told an MSNBC reporter that he vaccinates his own kids, but that “I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide.” The backlash was so fast and fierce that an hour-and-a-half later Christie’s office was walking the statement back, saying that “with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated.”
Turning Walt Disney’s Happiest Place on Earth into the measles kingdom flipped a switch in our collective brain. The thought that thousands of people could have been exposed to a virus that was declared eliminated in the U.S. a decade-and-a-half-ago is scary. And it drives home the reality that vaccines only fully protect us if almost everyone uses them.
Between CNN’s tale of an infant quarantined due to measles and NPR’s profile of a little boy named Rhett who’d battled leukemia and whose father was angrily campaigning to require schoolmates to be vaccinated, we remembered that even amazingly powerful vaccines aren’t perfect, and that people with measles can spread the disease for four days before symptoms occur, and that at least 5 out of 100 vaccinated people will still catch measles if exposed to it.
Up until now, politicians frequently at least gave lip service to the very small but very vocal group of parents who believe that vaccines are harmful and that they should be able to opt-out. California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, did more than that in 2012, signing a law that loosened vaccine exemptions, allowing parents who claim a religious reason for not vaccinating to leave a doctor’s office without even mandatory counseling. The reaction was subdued.
Now a few Republicans, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Wisconsin Representative Sean Duffy, are arguing that vaccines should be voluntary. The nine out of ten of American parents who vaccinate their children should let their elected officials know that this isn’t acceptable – that we want the rules about vaccine exemptions tightened. We don’t need draconian measures (I’ve seen arguments that parents who don’t vaccinate should be jailed or sued, which is impractical and harsh) just the same fair rules we’ve had for years. Want to send your kid to school? Make sure he gets his shots, or have a very, very, very good reason not to have.
Measles is still a small problem. Even if there are 1,000 cases this year, it remains so. The high vaccination rates through most of the country mean it will burn out. But we’re also likely to face 28,000 cases of whooping cough, another vaccine-preventable illness that has been on the rise not so much because of patients who don’t get vaccinated but also because the new vaccine adopted in the 1990s is less effective than the old one. And every year there are between 3,000 to 49,000 deaths due to influenza; even though the flu vaccine is one of the least effective we have, if everyone got it each year it would reduce that number.
In a Roald Dahl story, a big friendly giant could visit people who choose not to vaccinate and give them nightmares of measles encephalitis. But this is the real world. The way for people to keep vaccine rates up is to write their elected representatives, and to be very public about the benefits of vaccines. Mention in conversations the way that vaccines have changed the world. Or get your flu shot, and brag about it as if you just shaved a ten seconds off the time it takes you to run a mile. That’s the way to turn the anger that’s been produced by the news about Disneyland into a happier world for everyone.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean Public Health must be strenuously protected. Like Disneyland, the Caribbean economic engines are based on extending hospitality to visitors; so (preventable) infectious diseases undermine the attractiveness of the destination.
So all stakeholders need to employ best-practices. Citizens need to embrace immunizations and Pharmaceutical companies need to “play nice” and not excessively pile on the vaccination formulas. The region must do better; we must not allow the US, or Big Pharma, to take the lead for our own nation-building. In America, capitalistic interest tends to hijack policies intended for the Greater Good. This assessment is logical considering the realities of so many of these Big Corporate Bullies, as follows, where public policy is set to benefit private parties:
Big Oil
While lobbying for continuous tax subsidies, the industry have colluded to artificially keep prices high and garner rocket profits ($38+ Billion every quarter).
Big Box
Retail chains impoverish small merchants on Main Street with Antitrust-like tactics, thusly impacting community jobs.
Big Pharma
Chemo-therapy cost $20,000+/month; and the War against Cancer is imperiled due to industry profit insistence.
Big Tobacco
Cigarettes are not natural tobacco but rather latent with chemicals to spruce addiction.
Big Agra
Agribusiness concerns bully family farmers and crowd out the market; plus fight common sense food labeling efforts.
Big Data
Brokers for internet and demographic data clearly have no regards to privacy confines
Big Media
Hollywood insists on big tax breaks/subsidies for on-location shooting; cable companies conspire to keep rates high; textbook publishers practice price gouging.
Big Banks
Wall Street’s damage to housing and student loans in 2008 are incontrovertible.
Big Weather
Overblown hype of “Weather Forecasts” to dictate commercial transactions.
The Go Lean book, and accompanying blog commentaries, go even deeper and hypothesize that American economic models are not always suitable for long-term Caribbean benefits. The American wheels of commerce stages the Caribbean in a “parasite” role; imperiling regional industrialization even further. The US foreign policy for the Caribbean is to incentivize consumption of American products, and serve as a playground for their leisure.
The book and blogs assert that this disposition of a “parasite” is not the only choice. Other communities have demonstrated how to forge a protégé relationship with the US. Japan and South Korea, despite American pressure and having a small population-size, are examples of countries having trade surpluses for the US. They are protégés, not parasites, and thusly provide a role model for the Caribbean to emulate.
The broken Pharma eco-system in the US does not have to be modeled in the Caribbean. Parents should not have to demand exemptions from mandatory immunizations, nor should corporations be allowed to bully Public Health demands. Change has now come to the region. The Go Lean book posits that the governmental administrations must be open to full disclosure and accountability. Any encroachment into bullying should be easily detected and censured. Plus the ubiquity of the internet allows whistleblowers to expose “shady” practices to the general public; (WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden provide great examples).
The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions for forging change to reboot Caribbean societal engines. This roadmap is thusly viewed as more than just planning; this is pronounced early in the Declaration of Interdependence(Page 11 – 12):
viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.
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.
The Go Lean book purports that the Caribbean can – and must – do better. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean doing the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic-security-governing engines. We can weld more power and influence collaborating and consolidating Public Health acquisitions. The Go Lean book details the policies and other community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate Caribbean society, and make it a better place to live, work, play and heal:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Choices Involve Costs:
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy versus Public Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Whistleblower Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Witness Security & Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations – Group Purchasing Organization
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations
Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management
Page 76
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Justice Department – Trade/Antitrust
Page 77
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Disease Control
Page 86
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Health Department – Drug Administration
Page 86
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change – GPO Logistic Fees
Page 101
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Big Data Analysis
Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization
Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices
Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Measure Progress
Page 147
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Healthcare – Public Health Extension
Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis
Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Ways to Protect Human Rights
Page 220
The foregoing article/VIDEO relates to topics that are of serious concern, even for Caribbean communities. While the US is the world’s largest Single Market economy, we want to only model some of the American example. Instead we would rather foster a business climate to benefit the Greater Good, not just some special interest group.
There are many Go Lean blog commentaries that have echoed this point, addressing the subject of the Caribbean avoiding American crony-capitalism consequences. See sample here:
10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – American Self-Interest Policies
“Measles” is a serious, painful disease; death can result as well. This disease does not make an inviting call for our guests to visit the Caribbean destination for vacations and festivals. Not just the manifestation of measles but also any unsubstantiated rumors can curtail economic activity in the CU regional area.
What is the connection with vaccinations and Autism? Currently, a connection is not definitive; more research is needed. Autism must be monitored, tracked and catalogued. There is no cure; but the conditions can be managed as an chronic ailment…
The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that many problems of the region are too big for any one member-state to solve alone; there is the need for the technocracy of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. The purpose of this Go Lean/CU roadmap is to elevate the Caribbean homeland; and improve the lives for Caribbean citizens. We want our people to prosper where they are planted in the Caribbean.
The Go Lean roadmap calls for integration of the regional member-states drug acquisition and regulatory oversight. Further, the roadmap posits that to succeed as a society, the Caribbean region must not only consume, but also create, produce, and distribute intellectual property products (like medical innovations) to the rest of the world. We need our own Caribbean solutions.
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes/empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean.
A vaccination schedule is a series of vaccinations, including the timing of all doses, which may be either recommended or compulsory, depending on the country of residence.
A vaccine is an antigenic preparation used to produce active immunity to a disease, in order to prevent or reduce the effects of infection by any natural or “wild” pathogen.[1] Many vaccines require multiple doses for maximum effectiveness, either to produce sufficient initial immune response or to boost response that fades over time. For example, tetanus vaccine boosters are often recommended every 10 years.[2] Vaccine schedules are developed by governmental agencies or physicians groups to achieve maximum effectiveness using required and recommended vaccines for a locality while minimizing the number of health care system interactions. Over the past two decades, the recommended vaccination schedule has grown rapidly and become more complicated as many new vaccines have been developed.[3]
Some vaccines are recommended only in certain areas (countries, subnational areas, or at-risk populations) where a disease is common. For instance, yellow fever vaccination is on the routine vaccine schedule of French Guiana, is recommended in certain regions of Brazil but in the United States is only given to travelers heading to countries with a history of the disease.[4] In developing countries, vaccine recommendations also take into account the level of health care access, the cost of vaccines and issues with vaccine availability and storage. Sample vaccinations schedules discussed by the World Health Organization show a developed country using a schedule which extends over the first five years of a child’s life and uses vaccines which cost over $700 including administration costs while a developing country uses a schedule providing vaccines in the first 9 months of life and costing only $25.[5] This difference is due to the lower cost of health care, the lower cost of many vaccines provided to developing nations, and that more expensive vaccines, often for less common diseases, are not utilized.
In 1900, the smallpox vaccine was the only one administered to children. By the early 1950s, children routinely received three vaccines, for protection against (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and smallpox), and as many as five shots by two years of age.[3] Since the mid-1980s, many vaccines have been added to the schedule. As of 2009[update], the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends vaccination against at least fourteen diseases. By two years of age, U.S. children receive as many as 24 vaccine injections, and might receive up to five shots during one visit to the doctor.[3] The use of combination vaccine products means that, as of 2013[update], the United Kingdom’s immunization program consists of 10 injections by the age of two, rather than 25 if vaccination for each disease was given as a separate injection.[6]
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child’s life.[2] The signs typically develop gradually, but some children with autism will reach their developmental milestones at a normal pace and then regress.[3]
It has long been presumed that the cause of Autism is genetic. But now environmental factors that have been claimed to contribute to or exacerbate autism, or may be important in future research, include certain foods, air pollution, infectious diseases, solvents, diesel exhaust, PCBs, phthalates and phenols used in plastic products, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs, and … vaccines[19].
Controversies surround many of these environmental causes;[6] for example, medical stakeholders posit that the vaccine hypotheses are biologically implausible and have been disproven in scientific studies.
Trade and location go hand in hand. Until globalization took root, the quest was always to do business in a nearby marketplace. Even now there is a Green Conservation movement to return to those principles, to minimize energy usage by growing most foods locally and consuming locally. This move uses the tagline: Think Global, Buy Local!
In Marketing 101, a basic tenet is “location, location, location”.
But what if that location is at the cross-roads of countries, borders and independent states?
The same precepts should apply, only with more coordination.
This is a lesson learned from the Detroit-Windsor metropolitan area; but this lesson is fitting for application throughout the Caribbean.
This consideration by the publishers of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, a roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), is a continuation of the effort to “observe and report” on the turn-around of the once great City of Detroit. Previous commentaries alluded that transportation options are critical to this metropolitan’s area’s revitalization. Now that consideration extends across the international border for the US and Canada. Detroit aligns the west-side of the Detroit River (see Appendix below); the east-side is the City of Windsor in the Canadian Province of Ontario. Despite the two cities and two countries, this area is actually just one “single market”.
The vision of the Go Lean roadmap is a “single market” out of all the Caribbean 30 member-states of independent countries and overseas territories. Since so many individual states are in close-proximity with other states, many times of different jurisdiction and even language, cross border coordination is fitting for deployment within this region. Consider these examples:
Haiti – Dominican Republic: Shared island with a border
St. Martin – Saint Maarten: Shared island with a border
Lesser Antilles: Neighboring islands, 30 to 40 miles apart
Trinidad – Venezuela: 7 mile strait
US – British Virgin Islands: 6 Major Islands 30 to 40 miles apart
The Go Lean roadmap calls for the deployment of ferries, railroads, tunnels, bridges, causeways, light-rail streetcars, natural-gas powered vehicles/buses and toll roads, all part of the effort to empower the region through transit (Page 205).
In order to facilitate commerce between the Caribbean member-states, there is the need to efficiently and effectively process Customs and Border Inspections. The Detroit-Windsor model furnishes a great example of pre-registering stakeholders as “Known Travelers” and then allowing this efficient border crossing system branded as NEXUS. See details here of the program and aligned products/features (NEXPRESS Toll Cards/Transponders and DWT Mobile App):
NEXUS The NEXUS alternative inspection program has been completely harmonized and integrated into a single program. NEXUS members now have crossing privileges at air, land, and marine ports of entry. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the NEXUS card has been approved as an alternative to the passport for air, land, and sea travel into the United States for US and Canadian citizens.
The NEXUS program allows pre-screened travelers expedited processing by United States and Canadian officials at dedicated processing lanes at designated northern border ports of entry, at NEXUS (CA Entry) and Global Entry (US Entry) kiosks at Canadian Preclearance airports, and at marine reporting locations. Approved applicants are issued a photo-identification, proximity Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card. Participants use the three modes of passage where they will present their NEXUS card, have their iris scanned, or present a WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) and make a declaration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) are cooperating in this venture to simplify passage for pre-approved travelers.
What are the Benefits of NEXUS? Individuals approved to participate in NEXUS receive an identification card that allows them to:
Receive expedited passage at NEXUS-dedicated lanes, airport kiosks, and by calling a marine telephone reporting center to report their arrival into the United States and Canada; and
Cross the border with a minimum of customs and immigration questioning
NEXUS applicants only need to submit one application and one fee. Applicants may apply on-line via the CBP Global On-Line Enrollment System (GOES) Web site. Qualified applicants are required to travel to a NEXUSEnrollmentCenter for an interview. If they are approved for the program at that time, a photo identification card will be mailed to them in 7-10 business days. NEXUS allows United States and Canadian border agencies to concentrate their efforts on potentially higher-risk travelers and goods, which helps to ensure the security and integrity of our borders.
How Do I Apply?
Applications can be submitted using the CBP on-line application system, Global On-Line Enrollment System (GOES), or to one of the Canadian Processing Centers (CPC), along with photocopies of their supporting documentation and the US $50 or CN $50 application-processing fee.
———— NEXPRESS
As a NEXPRESS TOLL card holder you can take advantage of dedicated lanes, express toll lanes and expedited crossing-service to get to your destination faster.
Are you commuting to work, visiting top restaurants, gaming in the Detroit Casinos and/or Caesars Windsor [Casino], attending your favorite sporting events and attractions, or just visiting family and friends?
No matter the destination, we’ll try to get you there as fast as possible.
Located between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, our tunnel connects the U.S. interstates to Ontario’s Highway 401. In fact, the Detroit Windsor Tunnel provides one of the fastest links between Canada and the United States.
As part of the U.S.Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), the United States requires that all travelers, including U.S. and Canadian citizens, present a specific document to enter the United States by air, land or water:
A valid Passport, a Passport Card, a Nexus card, or
An Enhanced Michigan Driver’s License, a FAST Card
Commercial Carriers
Have you replaced your larger vehicles with vans for environmental and economic reasons? You may enjoy a savings of up to 25% on toll and volume discounts!
And with our commercial credit system, you can take advantage of faster processing at the toll booths, automatic fare calculation by vehicle weight, easier record-keeping, and top-notch customer service.
o Tunnel Bus
Check out The Tunnel Bus, operated by Transit Windsor. With this exclusive feature of the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, you can leave the driving to us and enjoy quick, cost-effective trips between downtown Windsor and Detroit.
—————–
VIDEO:http://youtu.be/igdqylbm8yI – American Roads – “Innovating Mobile, Transit, Tolling and Parking technologies”
DWT Mobile
DWT Mobile is a free app now available for Apple and Android devices!
Cross the border faster and pay only $4.25 per trip with your smartphone! Pre-purchase your trips, show the barcode at the gate, and be on your way. You will save time, save gas, AND save money!
(Source: Detroit – Windsor Tunnel Authority – Retrieved December 11, 2014 http://www.dwtunnel.com/Default.aspx )
There are security issues as well. The Appendix (Outlaw History/Prohibition) relate past challenges on the Detroit River. (The Caribbean was also complicit in Prohibition-era security breaches).
Customs and Border operations facilitates security as well as commerce. The NEXUS model demonstrate how technology can be employed to foster efficiency in this process. “Known Traveler” processing can be used to filter daily/occasional commuters, so that security officials can focus more attention on high-risk/high-threat cargo and passengers.
The Go Lean book asserts the economic principle that “voluntary trade creates wealth” (Page 21); the more trade the more wealth. The roadmap anticipates the challenges that port cities and border towns, (like the role of Detroit for the US), would have to endure and changes they must foster to help grow the regional economy. These points were pronounced early in the book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14), with these statements:
vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.
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.
xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent OverseasTerritory 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 by sharing tools, systems and teamwork within the geographical region.
xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries … impacting the region with more jobs.
xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.
The CU mission is to implement the complete eco-system to expand interstate trade in the region. There are many strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies that will facilitate this mission; a sample is detailed here:
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Economic Principles – People Choose because Resources are Limited
Page 21
Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs
Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security
Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Commerce – Interstate Commerce
Page 79
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Transportation – Turnpike Operations
Page 84
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Command-and-Control
Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization
Page 119
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – Union Atlantic Turnpike
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade
Page 128
Planning – Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce
Page 129
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government
Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis
Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources
Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street
Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation
Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry
Page 206
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Transit Options
Page 234
Appendix – Alaska Marine Highway System
Page 280
The world is preparing for changes to more efficient border crossing and customs operations, as demonstrated in Detroit. This is a tenet of globalization: less Customs duties-less barriers, plus easier access to foreign markets, customers and patrons. The Caribbean must compete better in this global marketplace by first optimizing interstate trade in the regional market. This blog commentary touches on many related issues and subjects that affect planning for Caribbean empowerment in this trade and transportation industry-space. Many of these issues were elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:
The Go Lean book introduces the “Union Atlantic” Turnpike as a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all CU member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. Crossing borders means there must be “Customs” operations embedded in this Turnpike structure; Known Traveler processing, as modeled by the NEXUS program, allows for the empowerments described here in this blog commentary and in the 370 pages of the Go Lean book. This plan refers to multiple transportation arteries envisioned for the Turnpike: Tunnels, Pipelines, Ferries, Tolled Highways, and Railroads.
The Caribbean needs help with transportation options, jobs, security and growing the economy; plus the heavy-lifting tasks of motivating our youth to impact their future here at home… in the Caribbean; as opposed to the recent history of societal abandonment. Detroit as a model, teaches many lessons: good, bad and ugly.
Let’s pay more than the usual attention to these lessons, examining how the Detroit metropolitan area has managed the agents of change; much is dependent on our applying lessons learned.
The people of the region are urged to “lean-in” for the Caribbean empowerments as described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits of this roadmap are very alluring: emergence of an $800 Billion single market economy and 2.2 million new jobs.
The Detroit River is a 24-nautical-mile-long[1] river that is a strait in the Great Lakes system.[2] The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as River of the Strait. The Detroit River has served an important role in the history of Detroit and is one of the busiest waterways in the world.[3] The river travels west and south from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, and the whole river carries the international border between Canada and the United States. The river divides the major metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario — an area referred to as Detroit–Windsor. The two are connected by the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel.
On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified, ushering in Prohibition in the country of the United States, which lasted from 1920 to 1933. To go into effect one year after its ratification, the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were nationally banned. Detroit was (and still is) the largest city bordering Canada, where alcohol remained legal during Prohibition.
Detroit became the center of a new industry known as rum-running, which was the illegal smuggling or transporting of alcoholic beverages or any other illegal drinks during Prohibition. There were no bridges in the area connecting Canada and the United States until the Ambassador Bridge was finished in 1929 and the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel in 1930. Since ferry services were inoperable during the winter months, “rum-runners” traveled across the frozen Detroit River by car to Canada and back with trunk loads of alcohol. Rum-running in Windsor became a very common practice. This led to the rise of mobsters such as the Purple Gang, who regularly traveled across the frozen river and used violence as a means to control the route known as the “Detroit-Windsor Funnel” — parodying the newly built tunnel.[12] The river typically freezes over during much of the winter. Detroit became the leader in the illegal importation of alcohol, which found its way all over the country.
The Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair River (another strait connecting Lake St. Clair with Lake Superior) carried 75% of all liquor smuggled into the United States during Prohibition. During warmer months, specialized boats were used to haul alcohol across the river. There was no limit on the methods used by rum-runners to import alcohol across the river. Government officials were unable or unwilling to deter the flow of alcohol coming across the Detroit River. In some cases, overloaded cars fell through the ice, and today, car parts from this illegal era can still be seen on the bottom of the river. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution, the rum-running industry ended.[3][13][14]
