Jobs – Page 3 – Go Lean…Caribbean

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Exploring Medical School Opportunities … as Economic Engines

Posted on March 1, 2019 in Economics, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

“Birds of a feather flock together” – Old Adage

Is this true?

Can we use this actuality to explore economic opportunities for our communities?

The reality is that Medical Schools average over $300,000 in tuition for a 4-year education; ($60,000/yr). Imagine 3,000 students. That’s a lot of economic opportunity; that’s $180 million annually added to a community’s GDP just based on tuition. Imagine too, room-and-board, extra-curricular activities and spending by visitors to the campus and students.

Economics = supply and demand dynamics; fulfilling the outstanding demand for some financial remuneration.

Now that we have your attention for the supply-side of Medical Education, how realistic is it to explore opportunities on the demand-side? (Unfortunately, this industry and demographic have seen abuse; thus the need for a new technocratic stewardship).

Since “birds of a feather flock together”, “we” assert that there is a great opportunity right now to attract and foster medical students from the African-American communities in the US to our Caribbean destinations. See a recent news article story here relating this overarching need:

Title: After decades of effort, African-American enrollment in medical school still lags
By: Jayne O’Donnell and David Robinson, USA TODAY NETWORK

WASHINGTON – Gabriel Felix is on track to graduate from Howard University’s medical school in May.

The 27-year-old from Rockland County, N.Y., has beaten the odds to make it this far, and knows he faces challenges going forward.

He and other black medical school students have grown used to dealing with doctors’ doubts about their abilities, and other slights: being confused with hospital support staff, or being advised to pick a nickname because their actual names would be too difficult to pronounce.

“We’re still on a steady hill toward progress,” says Felix, president of the Student National Medical Association, which represents medical students of color. But “there’s still a lot more work to do.”

After decades of effort to increase the ranks of African-American doctors, blacks remain an underrepresented minority in the nation’s medical schools.

USA TODAY examined medical school enrollment after the wide coverage of the racially controversial photo that appeared in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook entry of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. The picture showed one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.

The proportion of medical students who identified as African-American or black rose from 5.6 percent in 1980 to 7.7 percent in 2016, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That’s a substantial increase but still short of the 13.2 percent in the general population.

The disparity matters, physicians, students and others say, because doctors of color can help the African-American community overcome a historical mistrust of the medical system – a factor in poorer health outcomes for black Americans.

“It’s been a persistent, stubborn racial disparity in the medical workforce,” says Dr. Vanessa Gamble, a professor at George Washington University. “Medical schools have tried, but it also has to do with societal issues about what happens to a lot of kids in our country these days.”

Those who have studied the disparity blame much of it on socioeconomic conditions, themselves the legacy of systemic racism. African Americans lag other Americans in household income and educational opportunity, among other indicators.

Medical schools and professional organizations have tried to boost enrollment and graduation rates by considering applicants’ socioeconomic backgrounds when reviewing grades and test scores, connecting doctors of color with elementary and middle schools and awarding more scholarship money.

They’ve achieved some success: The number of medical students who identified as African-American or black grew from 3,722 in 1980 to 6,758 in 2016, an 82 percent increase.

Individual schools have outperformed their peers.

Eastern Virginia Medical School has increased the enrollment of students of color since then. In 1984, 5 percent of M.D. students identified as black, the only category then available. In the school’s most recent class, 12.4 percent identified as African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean or black.

But further progress toward a more representative student body nationwide remains elusive. That’s due largely to the high cost of medical school – student loans average $160,000 and can take decades to pay off – and the attraction of other professional options available to the strongest minority students that cost less and require fewer years of training.

The benefits of greater enrollment could be considerable: Studies show that having more black doctors would likely improve black health in the United States. Many African-Americans remain mistrustful of the health care system, with some historic justification, and so are less likely than others to seek preventative or other care.

Gamble knows the phenomenon as well as anyone. She chaired a committee that investigated the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the notorious experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972. Researchers withheld treatment from a group of black men with syphilis to study the progress of the disease, jeopardizing their health and that of their sexual partners.

Building pipelines to medical school
Universities are working to boost minority enrollment and increase the likelihood that students will stay in school and pass the exams required to graduate and get licensed to practice.

Dr. Thomas Madejski, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, says efforts such as the American Medical Association’s Doctors Back to School program, in which physicians of color visit grade schools, help encourage minority students consider careers in medicine.

But he cautions that such programs don’t address all of the socioeconomic hurdles confronting African Americans.

“I think we may have to relook at some of the factors that may still be barriers and create some new initiatives to overcome those and get the citizens of the U.S. to have the physician workforce that they want and need,” Madejski says.

His group and others are pushing for tuition relief and expansion of scholarship programs for underrepresented groups.

Felix, the Howard student, calls for more outreach by physicians of color, particularly in African American communities.

Felix’s parents are from Haiti, where black doctors are a common sight. They could easily envision the career for their son. Felix says African-American parents might discourage their children.

Dr. Mia Mallory is associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Cincinnati medical school.

“Patients do better when they are taken care of by people who look like them,” she says. “So we’re trying to grow talented physicians that look like them and are more likely to go back into the community they came from.”

Some of what’s being done:

► New York. About a third of the state’s population is black and/or Latino, but only 12 percent of doctors in practice are. The decision of New York University’s decision to offer free tuition to medical students who maintain a certain grade point average has more than doubled the number of applicants who identify as a member of a group that’s underrepresented in medicine.

Associated Medical Schools of New York, which represents the state’s 16 public and private medical schools, says several programs give college students academic help, mentoring or other aid, and guarantee medical school acceptance upon completion.

About 500 practicing physicians from underrepresented groups graduated from one of these programs at University at Buffalo.

These were “kids who otherwise never would have gotten into medical school,” says Jo Wiederhorn, president of Associated Medical Schools of New York.

The share of black and Latino students at medical school rose from 13.5 percent in the 2010-11 school year to 15.4 percent for the past school year, Wiederhorn said.

► Maryland. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, produces more African-Americans who go on to earn dual M.D./Ph.D. degrees than any college in the country.

Its Meyerhoff Scholars program selects promising high school students for a rigorous undergraduate program that connects them with research opportunities, conferences, paid internships, and study-abroad experiences. The program is open to all people, but nearly 70 percent of the scholars are black.

The university also sends students in its Sherman Scholars program to teach math and science in disadvantaged elementary schools in the Baltimore area. That helps build an early pipeline to the university and its science and math programs.

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III says, “We’re going to find some prejudice wherever we go.” But he prefers to look for solutions that keep students of color in math and science, which increases their chances of medical school acceptance.

► University of Cincinnati. The College of Medicine welcomed the largest group of African-American men in its history last year at 10 – an important milestone, given the gender gap within the few black doctors.

Mallory says the school looks at students’ applications “holistically,” considering “what it took for them to get where they are.” That includes whether they had to work while they were in college and whether they had access to tutors.

The school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion hired Dr. Swati Pandya, a physician and learning specialist, to teach medical school students how to take standardized tests and improve study habits.

All of the school’s third-year students last year passed the first of their medical licensing exams, achieving the highest average in the school’s and the highest of any medical school in the state.

Why so few?

Dr. Georges Benjamin executive director of the American Public Health Association, cites the criminal justice system’s targeting of young black men and the pull of other professions for others.

“The cream of the crop has a broader portfolio of things they can do,” Benjamin says. “They can go into other disciplines, including MBA and law programs.”

Dr. Garth Graham is a cardiologist by training, but in a nearly 20-year career, he has become something akin to a doctor of disparities.

A former assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, he’s Aetna’s vice president of community health and president of the Aetna Foundation.

He also chairs the Harvard Medical School Diversity Fund, which supports science, technology, engineering and math education and other support for minority students and faculty members in kindergarten through grade 12.

The National Bureau of Economic Research studied African-American men’s use of preventive health services when they had black and non-black doctors. The bureau reported last year that black doctors could reduce black men’s deaths from heart disease by 16 deaths per 100,000 every year. That would reduce the gap between black and white men by 19 percent.

Black doctors “bring a cultural understanding because of their background in their communities,” Graham says. “Relatability is important in patient-doctor relationships.”

Contributing: Shari Rudavsky, The Indianapolis Star

Source: Posted February 28, 2019; retrieved March 1, 2019 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/02/28/medical-school-student-african-american-enrollment-black-doctors-health-disparity/2841925002/

Since 29 of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean boast a majority Black population, it should be a natural assimilation to invite Black American students to Caribbean campuses.

By the way, this is being done already! There are medical colleges and universities operating in Caribbean communities right now that do a good job of providing the needed educational training and experience (internships). See the list of campuses in Appendix A below. Some schools have an impressive track record of success with testing and examinations on medical boards. Many alumni get residency in the US as International Medical Graduates.

This theme of medical education eco-system has been elaborated in previous blog-commentaries from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15543	Ross University Saga – Search for a New Home This medical school actually had to move from their Dominica campus due to Hurricane Irma’s devastation in 2017. They created a new campus in Barbados.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15310	Industrial Reboot – Trauma 101 A successful business model is Trauma Centers affiliated with medical schools. For example: Jackson Memorial Hospital / University of Miami / Ryder Trauma Center (Miami, Florida).
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13472	Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style There is a comprehensive tertiary education eco-system already in the region.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9724	Bahamas Welcomes the New University But no medical education option. HHMMmmmm?!?!?!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=425	Low-cost Dominican surgeries spark warnings by US Example of demand from patients for medical services.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the elevation of Caribbean economic engines. It describes an eco-system for a structure of autonomous industrial campuses branded Self-Governing Entities (SGE). These are ideal for Medical School campuses, with their exclusive regulation/promotion activities. Imagine bordered campuses – with backup power generations, autonomy for professional standards, building codes, and transportation easements from/to the campuses. The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) details the principles of SGE’s and job multipliers, how certain industries – education and medical deliveries are ideal – are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line (or off-campus) for each direct job on the SGE’s payroll.

One particular Caribbean city, the 2nd City in the Bahamas, Freeport, seems like a good candidate for medical education campuses. They have abandoned infrastructure that can be easily refurbished as educational facilities and student housing solutions.

But for the Bahamas to even contemplate such ventures in educational facilities, they have some heavy-lifting to do; they must first correct societal defects that deter young adults from their markets. Consider:

Immigration policies – Many professors may be foreign-born
Citizenship mandates – Adult students may practice family planning
LGBT Acceptance – “Live and let live” (medical students are adults, not children)

There is an organized movement to promote medical education in the Black community; see the foregoing news article above and the VIDEO about the Student National Medical Association in Appendix B below. Why is this important? It means economic opportunities (jobs and entrepreneurship) and better health deliveries. This is all good!

Yes, medical education – as a delivery, vocation and occupation – can facilitate better overall environments; “it” can help make our homeland a better place to live, work, learn, heal and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———–

Appendix A – List of Caribbean Medical Schools

Country or territory	School	Established	Degree	Regional/offshore	WDMS	CAAM-HP	Other Accreditations
Anguilla(UK)	Saint James School of Medicine	2010[6]	MD	Offshore	Yes[7]	CAAM-HP Probation^[8]
Antigua and Barbuda	American University of Antigua	2004	MD	Offshore	Yes[9]	CAAM-HP^[8]	NYSED,^[10]
	Metropolitan University College Of Medicine	2018	MD	Offshore	Yes
	University of Health Sciences Antigua School of Medicine	1983	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
Aruba (NL)	American University School of Medicine Aruba	2011	MD	Offshore	Yes		Aruba Ministry of Education
	Aureus University School of Medicine	2004	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
	Xavier University School of Medicine	2004	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]	ACCM^[11]
Barbados	American University of Barbados School of Medicine	2011	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP Initial Provisional^[8]
	American University of Integrative Sciences	1999	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
	Bridgetown International University	2017	MD	Offshore	Yes
	Victoria University of Barbados	2017	MD	Offshore	Yes
	Ross University School of Medicine	1978	MD	Offshore	Yes[12]	CAAM-HP^[8]	NYSED,^[10] Medical Board of Dominica
	Washington University of Barbados	2015	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
	University of the West Indies Faculty of Medicine (Cave Hill)	1967	MBBS	Regional	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]
Belize	Central America Health Sciences University Belize Medical College	1996	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Belize Ministry of Education
Belize	Washington University of Health & Science	2005	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Belize Ministry of Education
Cayman Islands (UK)	St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine	2002	MD	Offshore	Yes[13]	No	NYSED,^[10] ACCM^[11]
Cuba	Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina	1999	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Ciego de Avila	2000	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Cienfuegos	1990	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Granma	1982	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Holguin	1976	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Las Tunas	1986	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Matanzas	1969	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Pinar del Rio	1976	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Sancti Spiritus	1994	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Instituto Superior de Ciencias Medicas de La Habana	1976	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Instituto Superior de Ciencias Medicas de Santiago de Cuba	1962	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Instituto Superior de Ciencias Medicas de Villa Clara	1966	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de Camaguey	1968	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
	Universidad de Ciencias Medicas de Guantanamo	1982	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Cuban Ministry of Higher Education
Curacao(NL)	Avalon University School of Medicine	2003	MD	Offshore	Yes[14]	CAAM-HP No^[8]	Government of Curacao
	Caribbean Medical University School of Medicine	2007	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP Denied^[8]
	John F. Kennedy University School of Medicine	2014	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Government of Curacao
	St. Martinus University Faculty of Medicine	2000	MD	No	Yes
Dominica	All Saints University School of Medicine	2006	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
Dominican Republic	Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo Escuela de Medicina	1972	MD	Regional	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra Departamento de Medicina	1976	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo Departamento de Medicina	1538	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Católica Nordestana Facultad de Ciencias Medicas	1978	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Católica Tecnológica del Cibao Escuela de Medicina	1983	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Central del Este Escuela de Medicina	1970	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) Escuela de Medicina	1982	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña Escuela de Medicina	1966	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago Escuela de Medicina, Santiago de Los Caballeros	1979	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Secretary of State for Higher Education, Science and Technology
	Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago Escuela de Medicina, Santo Domingo	1981	MD	Regional	Yes	No	Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
France	University of the French West Indies	2015	MD	Regional	Yes[15]	No
Grenada	St. George’s University School of Medicine	1977	MD	Offshore	Yes[16]	CAAM-HP^[8]	Grenada Ministry of Health, NYSED,^[10]
Guyana	University of Guyana	1985	MBBS	Regional	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]
	American International School of Medicine	1999	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	World Health Organization; Ministry of Education and Health (Guyana); NAC (National Accreditation Council) of Guyana[17]
	Georgetown American University	2013	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	NAC (National Accreditation Council) of Guyana[17]
	Lincoln American University	2016	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	NAC (National Accreditation Council) of Guyana,^[18]World Directory of Medical School,^[19] Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research,^[20] Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)^[20]
	Texila American University	2010	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP Denied^[8]	NAC (National Accreditation Council) of Guyana,[17] World Directory of Medical School
	Alexander American University	2015	MD	Offshore	No	No
Haiti	Université d’Etat d’Haïti Faculté de Médecine	1867	MD	Regional	Yes	No
	GreenHeart Medical University	2007	MD	Offshore	No	No	World Health Organization; Ministry of Education and Health (Guyana); NAC (National Accreditation Council) of Guyana[17]
	Université Lumière Faculté de Médecine	2006	MD	No		No
	Université Notre Dame d’HaïtiFaculté de Médecine	1997	MD	Regional	Yes	No
	Université Quisqueya Faculté des Sciences de la Santé	2002	MD	Yes		No
	Université Joseph Lafortune Faculté de Médecine	2005	MD	Regional	Yes[21]	No
Jamaica	All American Institute of Medical Sciences	2011	MD	Offshore	Yes[22]	CAAM-HP Withdrawn^[8]
Jamaica	University of the West Indies Faculty of Medicine (Mona)	1948	MBBS	Regional	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]
Montserrat(UK)	Seoul Central College of Medicine	2003	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
Montserrat(UK)	University of Science, Arts and Technology Faculty of Medicine	2003	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP No^[8]
Saba (NL)	Saba University School of Medicine	1994	MD	Offshore	Yes[23]	No	NYSED,^[10] NVAO^[24]
Saint Kitts and Nevis	International University of the Health Sciences (IUHS)	1998	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Accreditation Board of Saint Kitts and Nevis[17]
	University of Medicine and Health Sciences	2008	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Accreditation Board of Saint Kitts and Nevis^[17] ACCM^[11]
	Medical University of the Americas	1998	MD	Offshore	Yes[25]	No	ACCM,^[11] NYSED^[10]
	Windsor University School of Medicine	2000	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP No^[8]	Accreditation Board of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean^[17]
Saint Lucia	American International Medical University	2007	MD	Offshore	No	CAAM-HP Denied^[8]
	Atlantic University School Of Medicine (AUSOM)	2010	MD	Offshore	No[26]	No
	College of Medicine and Health Sciences/aka Destiny University	2001	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	Provisional Accreditation from the Government of Saint Lucia
	International American University College of Medicine	2003	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]	Ministry of Education, Saint Lucia
	Spartan Health Sciences University	1980	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]	Ministry of Education, Saint Lucia
	Washington Medical Sciences Institute	2011	MD	Offshore	Yes	No
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	All Saints University School of Medicine	2011	MD	Offshore	Yes[27]	CAAM-HP No^[8]	Recognized by Canadian Government of Designated Educational Institutions,^[28] Considered a qualified Institution by the General Medical Council (UK),^[29]recognized by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,^[30] IMED
	American University of St Vincent School of Medicine	2012	MD	Offshore	Yes	No	National Accreditation Board (NAB) of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines[31]
	Saint James School of Medicine	2014[6]	MD	Offshore	Yes[32]	CAAM-HP Probation^[8]	National Accreditation Board (NAB) of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines[33] WCFMG.
	Trinity School of Medicine	2008	MD	Offshore	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]	National Accreditation Board (NAB) of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines[34]
Sint Maarten(NL)	American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine	1978	MD	Offshore	Yes[35]	No	NYSED,^[10] ACCM^[11]
Trinidad and Tobago	University of the West Indies Faculty of Medicine (St. Augustine)	1967	MBBS	Regional	Yes	CAAM-HP^[8]

Source: Retrieved March 1, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medical_schools_in_the_Caribbean

———-

Appendix B VIDEO – Student National Medical Assoc 2016 “Rep Your Region” – https://youtu.be/jsHys6jEOUo

SNMA Region III

Published on Aug 7, 2016

Category: People & Blogs

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Bahamas, Civil Rights, College, Jobs, Model, Transform

Barbados Ready for ‘Free Movement’

Posted on February 18, 2019 in Economics, Locations, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Free Movement of People” is one aspect of the Single Market concept that is strongly urged by this commentary. Even though this view is not unanimous in its appeal – in the Caribbean especially – many advanced economies do have Free Movement:

US – Yes
European Union – Yes

These two markets are Number 1 and Number 2 accordingly in the world’s GDP rankings. There truly is merit to this strategy, as people can freely go where they are needed and job openings can be freely filled by people – from near or far.

This means neighboring communities get to share in the opportunities and challenges of any one destination.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean (Page 5) drew reference to neighborly collaboration, cooperation and confederation by detailing the lyrics of a 1972 song, as follows:

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me – Song: Lean On Me by Bill Withers

One country gets it …

An Economic Affairs Minister for Barbados has declared that his country needs to be more welcoming of workers from other Caribbean communities. In fact, he indicated that the demographic trends in Barbados is all bad; their population is getting older as there are now fewer and fewer young people. The “load” of rebooting the Caribbean can be shared among the region – Caribbean Community or CariCom. See the news article here relating this thesis:

Title: Barbados opening jobs to CARICOM nationals
By: George Alleyne

Responding to a growing demographics imbalance in which the retired and close to retirement members of the population are growing while the number of working-age nationals is dwindling, Barbados will soon open its doors to skilled labour, especially persons from the Caribbean Community.

This situation caused Minister of Home Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, to say recently, “I as minister of immigration am firmly of the view that we have too small a population for Barbados to sustain and grow this economy and we will have ‘managed migration’ into this country especially among our fellow Caribbean people who are productive, who will make a mark.”

He said that the island, however, will not be open to “those who are going to be a drain on our economy or public purse,” but will be welcoming “those who are productive, who have skills”.

“We need more young people in this country in their most productive age.”

Hinkson’s revelation of the island’s intent found support in fellow government minister, Marsha Caddle, who has said, “we’ve realised that the population base of the country is not sufficient to generate the revenue that we need to be able to contribute to the standard of living that we want to have.”

The junior economic affairs minister said that 20 to 25 years ago the population group between ages 20 and 29 was the largest, however, “that same cohort is now still the largest, but it is 50 years old. And the 20 to 29 [age group is] now is much smaller.”

With Barbados restructuring its flagging economy to make it welcoming to investors, and a number of major construction projects set to begin this year, she said, “it is not just a question of diversifying the economy and having a revenue-positive policy …but it is also a question of making sure you have the population base to support it.”

This unevenness in the island’s population was the reason that Ronald Jones, a minister in the former government, had pleaded with Barbadians to make more babies to counter the lowering birth rate, which in turn leads to a reduced workforce.

“A declining population will have an impact on what we do to support older generations and national development as a whole,” Jones had said.

But Hinkson dismissed that as the solution for Barbados’ immediate need for a larger workforce.

“We’re not going to do like what the then minister of education said two or three years ago that people must get more children because they will take 20 years plus nine months before a child might become productive if conceived today,” the home affairs minister said.

Barbados’s soon-to-be implemented programme of ‘managed migration’ should provide pointers to sister CARICOM nations on how to implement the grouping’s policy of the right of skilled nationals to work in most of the 15 countries in this body.

Source: Posted February 15, 2019 retrieved February 17, 2019 from: https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2019/2/2019-02-15-ga-barbados-jobs-caricom-nationals-cl.html

According to this foregoing article, there is the need for Barbados to fill its job openings from CariCom countries nearby. The original plan for the now-stalled Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) called for such “Free Movement of People”. Too bad, this scheme was never fully incorporated; many societal defects could have been averted.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean addressed CSME from the beginning; starting with this opening assessment of the State of Caribbean Integration. The book detailed CSME on Page 15 as follows:

What is the CSME?
The initials refer to the Caribbean Single Market & Economy, the attempted integrated development strategy envisioned at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community which took place in July 1989 in Grand Anse, Grenada. The Grand Anse Declaration had three key features:

Deepening economic integration by advancing beyond a common market towards a Single Market and Economy.

Widening the membership and thereby expanding the economic mass of the Caribbean Community (e.g. Suriname and Haiti were admitted as full members in 1995 and 2002 respectively).

Progressive insertion of the region into the global trading and economic system by strengthening trading links with non-traditional partners.

What was the hope for CSME?
Whereas CariCom started as a Common Market and Customs Union, to facilitate more intra-region trade, the CSME was intended to effect more integration of the economies of the member states. But this turned out to be mere talk, fanciful murmurings of politicians during their bi-annual Heads of Government meetings. No deployment plans ever emerged, even though up to 15 member-states signed on to the accord; (and 10 more as “Observers” only).
…

The recommendation of the movement behind the Go Lean book is to confederate now, as this would expand the labor pool and job market. This is the purpose of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to help reform and transform the economic engines of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

The Go Lean roadmap is designed to elevate the Caribbean region, to be better destinations to live, work and play. The roadmap asserts that in addition to the ease of travel and transport for touristic purposes – the primary industry in the region – Caribbean communities get to benefit from Free Movement of Labor under controlled employment rules-conditions. This is why the CU Trade Federation is a graduation from the CSME – something better. We accomplish Free Trade and Free Movement of People for Domestic (Intra-region) Tourism, but controlled Freedom of Movement for jobs … based on a Labor Certification process. Here is how the Go Lean book describes the Certification process as regulated by one of the CU agencies:

CU Labor Relations Board
This agency coordinates the activities of labor certifications, labor unions and other organizational dimensions in the region. This effort will be collaborated and in cooperation with member-state Labor Relations agencies. The CU‘s focus will be towards interstate activities and enterprises, as opposed to intra-state.

Labor Certification is an important role for this agency as it requires monitoring the labor needs of the region to ascertain where skills are needed and where and who can supply the skills. The certification role involves rating the level of expertise needed for job and rating workers skill sets. (Consider a 10-point grading system for positions and personnel, where “apprentice” level ranges from 1 – 3, “journeyman” level ranges from 4 – 6, and “master” ranges from 7 – 10). This certification role is vital to the strategy of preserving Caribbean human capital in the region, even if this involves some movement among the member-states. [When a high skilled job becomes available, it has to be rated so that if no local talents are available, workers with qualifying ratings in other CU member-states can apply and be engaged].

Embracing the tenants of a Single Market have been elaborated upon in previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15245	Righting a Wrong: Re-thinking CSME
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14954	Overseas Workers – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13319	Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Freedom of Movement
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8377	Fallacy of Minimum Wage
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8351	Brexit reality tied to Free Movement of People.

Considering Barbados’s move in the foregoing, it is a good start for embracing the concept of a Single Market. They are not the first country in the region to lean-in to this initiative – and should not be the last. Consider the VIDEO here, relating the CARICOM Skilled Nationals Act in Guyana:

VIDEO – Gov’t to amend CARICOM Skilled Nationals Act – https://youtu.be/IduFS86PGpM

CapitolNewsGY
Published on Feb 5, 2014

http://www.capitolnewsonline.com | http://www.capitolnewsgy.com
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Category: News & Politics

Listen up you other countries: Follow suit!

All Caribbean stakeholders – leaders, citizens, businesses, employers, Union workers and professionals – need to embrace the strategy of a Single Market. The movement behind the Go Lean book invites everyone in the Caribbean to lean-in for the empowerments described here-in. We must do better than in the past; we cannot sustain our society with our current population dimensions. We must come together so that we can finally make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Barbados, Jobs, Transform

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Good Governance: Getting ‘Out of the Way’ of Local Economic Empowerment

Posted on October 29, 2018 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

“I am from the Government and I am here to help” – Ronald Reagan tongue-in-cheek Campaign Attack against excessive government regulation; 1980.

When it comes to government regulations, there could be too much … and too little.

Good Government is the art-and-science of finding the “just right” balance – remember Goldilocks. In some countries this is a big challenge as there are so many different levels of government; think the US where there is the federal government (plus regulations), State, County (a subset of the State) and local city. In the Caribbean, on the other hand, for many member-states, there is only one level of administration, the National government.

All in all, finding the right mix of stewardship is a reflection of best-practices. This is because of one basic fact:

Smart people have a tendency to think that they are the only smart people. – Dunning-Kruger Effect – See Appendix A

If only we can weed-out this bad trend and assume that local people may bring some value to the governing equations for their communities. This conclusion is hard-wrought, a product of research and study by noted economists; who actually won a Nobel Prize for this effort. This is relayed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean within the advocacy of Better Managing Natural Resources. The book (Page 183) states:

The Bottom Line on Common Pool Resources
The 2009 Nobel Prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom (1933 – 2012), a Political Science Professor at Indiana University, received the award for her landmark work on the management of common pool resources. Her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons, showed how groups work together to manage common resources such as water supplies, fish and lobster stocks, and pastures through collective property rights. She showed that common pool resources can be effectively managed collectively, even without government or private control, as long as those using the resource are physically close to it and have a relationship with each other. Because outsiders and government agencies don’t understand local conditions or norms, and lack relationships with the community, they may manage common resources poorly. By contrast, insiders who are given a say in resource management will self-police to insure that all participants follow the community’s rules.

So outsiders and remote government agencies may not fully understand local conditions or norms so their oversight may be prone to error. This may not reflect Good Governance. We have seen this manifested many times. Remember overseas masters making decisions about local conditions – think tropical hurricane building standards in the Caribbean being decided by stakeholders in Northern Europe. That was the dreaded history of colonialism!

It is obvious and self-evident that Good Governance must reflect shepherding and oversight with an eye towards local needs. Imagine the imagery of a “Watchman in a high tower in an medieval walled city”, scanning and monitoring the threats that face his community. While such a concern may be security-minded, the other spheres of society – think economics – must also be addressed for local versus national deliberations:

Can economic empowerment efforts be spurred locally, or must they always originate in the Capitol?
Should Direct Foreign Investors all be vetted by the Foreign Affairs Office (State Department, etc.)?
Can a local farmer increase his yield by plowing addition plots of land?
Can a local fisherman add additional boats and “hands on deck”?
Can a local chicken farmer add additional coops?

These are important questions, as communities struggle with the challenge of growth. This brings to mind the strategy of whether growth must be Top-Down or can it be Bottoms-up.

Pull yourself up by the bootstrap…
Give me a job … or create my own job …

This is not just an academic discussion; there are real world implications. In one drama, in the Bahamas, friends and enemies are choosing sides right now, as a local project by the global media and hospitality conglomerate Walt Disney Company (Disney Cruise Lines) is being debated.

Actually, the debate is over, but the fall-out and “weeping-gnashing of teeth” continues. See the full news story and VIDEO in the Appendices B & C below.

This commentary continues this discussion on Good Governance. If Good Governance is to be the norm in Caribbean society, we must decide – in advance – how we want to grow our economies and what role local economic empowerment will have in the equation to transform society. In the foregoing Bahamian drama, the locals want the job multipliers from the Disney project while the opposition, remote people in metropolitan Nassau, do not want any projects that may impact the environment.

This is a familiar consideration for the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The book asserts that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state to assuage alone; so there must be cooperation, collaboration and confederation. But does this mean that we must confer on everything, big and small? No! Just the opposite.

Surely, everyone can be expected “to take care of their own business” … first.

This is a mark of maturity, that we can provide for our own basic needs: food, clothing and shelter.

In fact, the Go Lean movement posits that for reform to succeed in the region, we must start by transforming neighborhoods, then elevate cities, then for whole member-states and lastly for the entire region. In fact, the book asserts the tactic of a Separation-of-Powers, in which certain duties-responsibilities are expected to be addressed locally while others will be within scope for a federal government.

The purpose of the Go Lean book is the introduction and implementation of that federal government, the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book serves as a roadmap for a new technocratic regime for Good Governance. Notice these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 10 – 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.

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.

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

This commentary is the fourth of this 5-part series – 4 of 5 – from the movement behind the Go Lean book in consideration of the Good Governance needs for a new Caribbean regime. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Good Governance: … Versus Partisan Politics
Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
Good Governance: The Kind of Society We Want
Good Governance: Getting ‘Out of the Way’ of Local Economic Empowerment
Good Governance: Good Corporate Compliance

No doubt there is the need for Good Governance for the Caribbean; we need better stewardship and shepherding of the 30 member-states to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. We need to value independence, resiliency and vigilance, not stymie progress because it may not have originated in some Capitol. This is the lesson from the opening anecdote about Common Pool Resources.

The best chance for success is for those who work with a local resource to participate in managing the local resource. So at times, we may need national government – or even federal governments – to get ‘Out of the Way’ and allow local economic empowerments.

In fact, the Go Lean roadmap introduces the concept of Self-Government Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for a job-creation engine, with its exclusive federal regulation/promotion activities. Imagine bordered campuses – exclusive resorts, industrial labs, educational facilities, R&D parks – with separate (local) arrangements to provision basic needs. This local empowerment accelerates the job multiplier factor – how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line (off-campus) for each direct job on the SGE’s payroll.

This is how the Go Lean roadmap seeks to reform or transform the societal engines for all the Caribbean. This is our quest, our prime directive, as related in the following statements:

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

Good Governance based on best-practices, especially as recognized by a Nobel Prize, is a good starting point to transform a society. This is why Common Pool Resources are so frequently highlighted in the Go Lean book. Within the 370-pages of the book are details of Common Pool Resource management, urged for adoption within the new Caribbean regime. Here is a sample of the references to Common Pool Resources and how it relates to Good Governance through-out the book:

Tactical – Separation of Powers F – Interior Department The CU initiates its charter with a petition to the United Nations for a designation of an Exclusive Economic Zone for the spaces (seas) between the islands. This Department manages the oversight of this “common” territory. In addition, this Agency will have to work with foreign entities in the management of common pool resources, like water rights, river ecosystems in Guyana, Suriname and Belize where they are bordered by other (bigger) countries.	Page 82
Tactical – Separation of Powers J – Agriculture and Fisheries Department This Department in the Executive Branch coordinates the region efforts in agriculture, agri-business and fisheries. … this office is to be managed like a Project Management Office, coordinating one region-wide project after another. This department will also oversee the common pool resources for the region. This will include fish stock and common grazing lands. This effort will have to be coordinated and collaborated with the Department of the Interior agencies and resources.	Page 88
Advocacy – 10 Lessons from the American West # 5 – Common Pool Resources: Water / Public Works There were many environmental deterrents to conquering the West. There is actually a continental divide in North America in which minimal rain falls west of that divide; the western states were not sustainable for large populations. Over the years, the US Army Corps of Engineers created canals, dams, reservoirs, irrigation, water pipelines and other measures, in multi-state compacts. The CU must also engineer multi-state public works projects to improve economies.	Page 142
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources # 2 – Lean in for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) treaty. This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby integrating to a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and GDP of over $800 Billion in (2010). The region needs joint management of the common pool of natural resources, and this one of the foremost reasons for confederating the CU. First it garners international support for the UN petition for an Exclusive Economic Zone in and near the Caribbean Seas. The CU’s representation of a single market allows for effective negotiations with foreign parties – the islands will no longer be viewed as inconsequential. The CU’s separation of powers mandate is germane for managing the local needs of the region’s common resources; it allows for closer oversight of local regulators, but with CU principles.	Page 183
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Fisheries # 3 – *Common Pool Resources (Lobster, Conch, Grouper, Flying Fish)* Though the waters between the islands may be uninhabited, their resources can still be depleted. The CU will govern the common pool resources to promote the sustainability of fish stock. Fishing for lobster, conch, grouper, “flying fish” and other species must be controlled, with limited harvesting seasons, otherwise there will be none for future generations.	Page 210
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Rural Living # 3 – Common Pool Resources Oversight and Management The CU will exercise eminent domain to buy a lot of “crown” land, and the Exclusive Economic Zone, to promote as common pool resources (farming, fishing, and mining). This ownership allows for the implementation of proper oversight rules, with local coordination, and best practices. This is the “golden rule” – the one with the “gold”, makes the rule!	Page 235
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact The Guianas # 1 – Lean in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states for 42 million, including the independent states of Guyana and Suriname. Other territories that made up The Guianas region include French Guiana, Spanish Guiana (today, the Guayana Region comprises three of the federal States of Venezuela: Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), and Portuguese Guiana (Brazil’s State of Amapa). On the CU roadmap, annexations will be explored in Year 5; French Guiana is ideal candidate, but not the Venezuelan and Brazilian regions. But there is the immediate need for foreign policy synchronizations with these other states for common pool resources and regional threats.	Page 241

Consider how this vision of a rebooted economic landscape – with the technocratic management of Common Pool Resources – have been portrayed in these previous blog-commentaries; see this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15359	Industrial Reboot – Fisheries 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15907	Industrial Reboot – Navy Pier 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14911	Would Less People Mean More Resources For the Remnant? No!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12724	Lessons from Colorado: Water Management Arts & Sciences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1092	Managing the Airwaves as a Common Pool Resource

The Go Lean book was very clear in its conclusion, the problem with the Caribbean is not the land/sea – it is the greatest address on the planet – it is not the people – we have a unique mix of African, Amer-Indian, Asian and European cultures, it is the stewardship. We must abandon bad ineffectual governing practices and embrace best-practices anew. We need to employ good ideas, even if they do not come from the Capitol. So we must be willing to accept local economic empowerment initiatives.

Our past roads are littered with failure; let’s do better going forward. Let’s embrace Good Governance. Let’s start aright with the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies as prescribed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We urge everyone to lean-in to this roadmap. This is how we can make our homeland better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

—————-

Appendix A – What Is the Dunning-Kruger Effect?

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. …

The term lends a scientific name and explanation to a problem that many people immediately recognize—that fools are blind to their own foolishness. …

An Overview of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

This phenomenon is something you have likely experienced in real life, perhaps around the dinner table at a holiday family gathering. Throughout the course of the meal, a member of your extended family begins spouting off on a topic at length, boldly proclaiming that he is correct and that everyone else’s opinion is stupid, uninformed, and just plain wrong. It may be plainly evident to everyone in the room that this person has no idea what he is talking about, yet he prattles on, blithely oblivious to his own ignorance.

The effect is named after researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the two social psychologists who first described it. …

A Little Knowledge Can Lead to Overconfidence

Another contributing factor is that sometimes a tiny bit of knowledge on a subject can lead people to mistakenly believe that they know all there is to know about it. As the old saying goes, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. A person might have the slimmest bit of awareness about a subject, yet thanks to the Dunning-Kruger effect, believe that he or she is an expert. …

See the remaining article here …

Source: Posted April 9, 2018; retrieved October 29, 2018 from: https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740

—————–

Appendix B – Title: Disney’s Lighthouse Point: Bahamian Government Approves Sale of Lighthouse Point to Disney Cruise Line

Disney is one step closer to calling Lighthouse Point, Disney’s Lighthouse Point after Bahamian Prime Minister announced the government is choosing The Walt Disney Company’s proposal. Today’s approval gives Disney Cruise Line a green light to move ahead plans to purchase the 700 to 800-acre Lighthouse Point property at the tip of South Eleuthera for a second private cruise destination. EyeWitness News reported the decision just before the 3 o’clock hour.

Below is a copy of the press statement issued by The Bahamas Cabinet:

Press Statement
Cabinet Office
19 October 2018

The Lighthouse Point Development has been the subject of considerable public discussion, particularly in recent months.

The National Economic Council considered the matter today, 19 October, and approved the proposal submitted by Disney Cruise Line Island Development Ltd.

Negotiations will now begin on a Heads of Agreement, which will detail the scope of the project, the obligations of the Disney Cruise Lines Island Development Ltd. and the obligations of the Government of The Bahamas.

The negotiation of the Heads of Agreement will commence immediately. When concluded, it will be presented to Parliament in keeping with the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

The Cabinet Office wishes to emphasize that the land which is the subject of the proposal is privately owned. It has been on the real estate market for a long period.

The land is not Crown Land and is not owned by the Government of The Bahamas.

The Disney Cruise Lines Development Ltd. has a sales agreement with the land owner to purchase the land.

The Cabinet Office notes that both the Disney Cruise Lines Island Development Ltd. and the One Eleuthera Foundation and its partners have been publicly noting their plans for the development of Lighthouse Point.

It is also noted that recent polling revealed that more than 60 percent of Bahamians “very much” or “somewhat” support Disney’s proposal for Lighthouse Point, Eleuthera.

The Cabinet Office is also aware of meetings held in the communities of Central and South Eleuthera by respective groups, and live radio broadcasts, which have allowed individuals to express their views.

During one of his regular town hall meetings, this one held at the Green Castle Primary School on 10 October 2018, the Prime Minister informed the people of Central and South Eleuthera of the Government’s plans for the nation and listened to their concerns.

During this meeting overwhelming support was expressed for the Disney Cruise Lines Development Ltd. proposal.

The Cabinet Office notes that prior to that town meeting, the One Eleuthera Foundation and its partners held several community meetings in Central and South Eleuthera to promote their proposal.

This included meetings at Wemyss Bight on 27 July, Deep Creek on 10 August, Tarpum Bay on 17 August, Rock Sound on 31 August and Bannerman Town on 7 September 2018.

Some of the core elements of the Disney Cruise Lines Island Development Ltd. proposal which are of fundamental importance and to which Disney is committed, include: low density development and sustainable design, public access, and the restoration of various historical and cultural sites.

The development will create approximately 150 new jobs and an array of entrepreneurial opportunities for residents of Eleuthera and Bahamians in general.

Disney will convey approximately 190 acres of the land purchased from the private seller to the Government of The Bahamas for conservation and a national park.

Other elements of the project include: the integration of Bahamian cultural and artistic expression into the design of the site and experiences offered, and partnership with the community to develop training and professional development programs.

The Disney Cruise Lines began its cruises to The Bahamas in 1998.

Since that time, the economic impact on the Bahamian economy has been significant. With the development of the Eleuthera project an increase in port calls to Nassau is also projected.

The Government notes Disney’s record of environmental stewardship and will ensure that the project is implemented in a manner which safeguards our environment and the interests of the people of The Bahamas.

The Government of The Bahamas having taken into consideration the views of the majority of the people of Central and South Eleuthera is satisfied that it has made the best decision in the interest of the Bahamian people, a sustainable future for the people of Central and South Eleuthera and the economic development of the country.

I think one of the key factors in the Cabinet’s decision aside from the revenue stream that will be generated by Disney Cruise Line is that the Lighthouse Point property is privately owned. The property has been on the market for a long period. The land is not Crown Land, therefore, is not owned by the Government of The Bahamas. Disney Cruise Line has a sales agreement with the land owner to purchase the land.

What’s next? Disney and The Bahamas will negotiate a Heads of Agreement that will then be presented to Parliament. One Eleuthera’s press release claims there will not be an economic impact until at least 2023.

“We are excited to reach this important milestone and look forward to working with Government and the people of The Bahamas to create new economic opportunities while preserving the natural beauty of Lighthouse Point. We are grateful for the warm welcome and support we have received from so many in Eleuthera and look forward to further developing relationships that will endure for many years to come. In the short term, we are focused on reaching an agreement that is mutually beneficial for The Bahamas and our company, as well as moving forward with an environmental impact assessment and environmental management plan. Our team also looks forward to working with local artists, historians and others as we ensure that the stories and culture of The Bahamas shine through when Disney guests and Bahamians alike visit this special place.” — Jeff Vahle

Disney Cruise Line’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Kim Prunty, told Tribune 242 an environmental impact study (EIA) could take months which Disney will work with the government on this effort. The Bahamas Planning and Subdivisions Act from 2010 requires complete EIA for proposed projects such as Disney’s Lighthouse Point development. The required EIA would be submitted to the Department of Physical Planning as part of the proposed development which is either likely to give rise to significant affects on the environment, of national importance, proposed for sensitive lands, significant in terms of size or complexity, of a nature that may have potentially adverse environmental effects or is considered a development of regional impact.

For more, here is a look at Disney Cruise Line’s proposal and plans for Disney’s Lighthouse Point.

Source: Posted on October 19, 2018; retrieved October 28, 2018 from:

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/2018/10/disneys-lighthouse-point-bahamian-government-approves-sale-of-lighthouse-point-to-disney-cruise-line/

——————

Appendix C VIDEO – DISNEYS PROPOSAL FOR LIGHTHOUSE POINT APPROVED – https://youtu.be/xHlA-AM9HGY

ZNSNetwork

Published on Oct 19, 2018 – Local Bahamas Nightly Newscast

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Crony-Capitalism, Jobs, Model, Transform

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Industrial Reboot – Navy Pier 101

Posted on October 9, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

From small investments (seedlings) come big harvests. Remember the “mustard seed” …

“… like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” — Matthew 13:31–32, World English Bible

Imagine an industrial reboot that can take a small investment – seed money – but grow into huge returns for the community.

Yes, we can!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean related a community investment that should be made in each Caribbean member-state, that of Navy Piers, and described how BIG returns can be gathered from the resultant infrastructure. The book describes that such an implementation can impact many of the societal engines – think: economy, security and governance.

What is a Navy Pier?

In short, it’s a dock … and “then some”. The most famous one, and name sake is in Chicago, Illinois; see historic details here:

Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot-long (1,010 m) pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The Navy Pier currently encompasses more than fifty acres of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, family attractions and exhibition facilities and is the top leisure destination in the Midwestern United States (“Midwest”), drawing nearly nine million visitors annually.^[2] It is one of the most visited attractions in the entire Midwest and is Chicago’s number one tourist attraction.^[3]…
The Navy Pier opened to the public on July 15, 1916.^[4] … Its original purpose was to serve as a dock for freights, passenger traffic, and indoor and outdoor recreation; events like expositions and pageants were held there.

In the summer of 1918 the pier was also used as a jail for draft dodgers. In 1927, the pier was renamed Navy Pier to honor the naval veterans who served in World War I.

In 1941, during World War II, the pier became a training center for the U.S. Navy; about 10,000 people worked, trained, and lived there. The pier contained a 2,500-seat theater, gym, 12-chair barber shop, tailor, cobbler shops, soda fountain and a vast kitchen and hospital.^[6]…
In 1989, the City of Chicago had the Urban Land Institute (ULI) reimagine uses for the pier. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) was created; its responsibility was to manage and operate Navy Pier as well as McCormick Place. The MPEA undertook the redevelopment, incorporating some of ULI’s recommendations.^[8]

In 1995, Navy Pier was redesigned and introduced to the public as a mixed-use venue incorporating retail, dining, entertainment, and cultural spaces.

Starting in 2014, the redevelopment plan called The Centennial Vision was implemented. The purpose of this plan is to fulfill the mission to keep Navy Pier as a world-class public space and to renovate the pier so it will have more evening and year-round entertainment and more compelling landscape and design features.^[9] The Centennial Vision was completed in summer 2016.
Source: Retrieved October 8, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Pier

VIDEO – Navy Pier Ferris Wheel in Chicago – https://youtu.be/YVFx0FIb82g

Published on Nov 15, 2016 – Navy Pier’s ferris wheel, an iconic part of Chicago’s skyline, received a makeover this year for the pier’s 100th anniversary. Soaring nearly 200-feet high, the ferris wheel offers 360-degree views of the Windy City and is now taller and faster than ever.

The upgrades to the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel, AKA the Centennial Wheel, are part of a larger project to revitalize the pier, giving it a more modern, sophisticated feel. …

The new wheel is 50 feet taller than its predecessor. Each ride lasts about 13 minutes and rotates three times. A ride on the old ferris wheel was only seven minutes and rotated once. DAY/NIGHT; SUMMER/WINTER The new gondolas have air conditioning and heating systems. This improvement allows you to comfortably ride the Centennial Wheel in Chicago’s painfully cold winters and hot summers. The wheel operates during the day at after dark, offering two distinct experiences.

Category: Travel & Events

So where there is a coastline, there is an opportunity for a connecting pier. There are 3 types of piers that are common in the modern world: Working piers, Pleasure piers and Fishing piers. These do not need a lot of land; they are normally created as land-less structures into bodies of water. See this encyclopedic definition here:

A pier is a raised structure in a body of water, typically supported by well-spaced piles or pillars. Bridges, buildings, and walkways may all be supported by piers. Their open structure allows tides and currents to flow relatively unhindered, whereas the more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a wharf can act as a breakwater, and are consequently more liable to silting. Piers can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure to major structures extended over 1600 metres.

Coastlines abound throughout the Caribbean, as each of the 30 member-states is either an island or a coastal state (Belize, Guyana or Suriname). So this concept of a Navy Pier will be both a strategic and tactical implementation for the roadmap presented by the Go Lean book for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). Consider the prime directives of the roadmap and how a Navy Pier can impact those directives:

Economics – The CU seeks to optimize the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and to create 2.2 million new jobs. Piers can be structured as event-entertainment destinations, even amusement parks abound. So a pier strategy can greatly impact tourism and recreation spending. Imagine new cruise ports-of-call.
Security – Navy Piers were originally designed for the Navy, an entity for national defense. Within the Go Lean roadmap, there is the plan for a comprehensive Homeland Security and Emergency Management apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. Imagine the quick roll-out of a floating pier after a hurricane for relief, recovery and restoration.
Governance – The CU seeks to improve Caribbean governance to support the above engines. This include a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies. Since ships can also be tendered at Navy Piers, many deliveries of the Social Contract can be built on these structures – imagine ferry access ramps, “pop-up” medical clinics, agencies for special administrative processing and kiosks. The CU plan for Self-Governing Entities allows for the piers themselves and any aligning easements to be a separate federal territory.

The Caribbean’s industrial landscape is in crisis. It must reboot! A Navy Pier can help … in every member-state. In fact the CU/Go Lean roadmap calls for a CU federal agency to build and operate – serve as landlord – the piers. Accordingly, the CU will facilitate this eco-system as Self-Governing Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for ports and piers, with its exclusive federal regulation/promotion activities. Imagine the construction equipment – dam walls, earth-moving machinery, dredging barges, etc – being used again and again as new Navy Piers are deployed through the region. Imagine the jobs …

Within the 370-pages of the Go Lean book are details of the job multiplier principle; this is how certain industries and infrastructures are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll.

Here is a sample of references to the eco-system of piers through-out the Go Lean book:

Implementation – 10 Ways to Re-boot [Sample City] Freeport # 7 – Cruise Ship Pier in Lucaya or Smith Point Currently, cruise ships have to dock at the Freeport Harbor and the passengers transported to more amiable destinations, quite often the destination was the International Bazaar in the middle of a pine forest. By establishing a docking pier in the Port Lucaya vicinity, the cruise ship tourist destination will be all-encompassing in one geographic area and more value can be offered to the visitors. Cultural festivities (Gombay, Junkanoo, rake-n-scrape bands, etc.) can be a daily highlight; This would be modeling Walt Disney World’s 4 Parks and their afternoon character parades.	Page 112
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Public Works # 2 – Union Atlantic Turnpike The Union Atlantic Turnpike is a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. There are many transportation arteries and facilities envisioned for the Turnpike: Toll Roads, Railroads, Ferry Piers, and Navy Piers. …	Page 175
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Homeland Security # 4 – Naval Authority Since any defense of the island and coastal states must be naval first, the Homeland Security efforts must work in conjunction with Naval operations. … The CU will build separate Navy Piers in the appropriate markets, aside from Cruise Ship docks.	Page 180
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Promote Fairgrounds # 9 – Transit Consideration – Turnpike – Navy Piers The Union Atlantic Turnpike initiative fits ideally into the fairgrounds business plan, as passengers and cargo can move efficiently from island to island along rail lines, toll highways, tunnels & causeways and over-the-seas ferries. The CU facilitation of Navy Piers can accommodate naval vessel shore leaves and even cruise ship traffic. …	Page 192
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Fisheries # 2 – Cooperatives Fishery cooperatives allow fishermen and industry players to pool their resources in certain (non-competitive) areas of activity. This strategy is vital for sharing the cost and expense of installing piers/docks, locating systems (Loran-C & GPS), canaries, refrigerated warehouses and transportation solutions.	Page 210

This is the vision of an industrial reboot! A transformation for how and where a new societal eco-system can be introduced and engineered.

This Go Lean book projects the roll-out of the Union Atlantic Turnpike and accompanying Navy Piers as Day One / Step One of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. Over the 5-year implementation for this roadmap, more and more of the features of piers will be deployed and their effect on the region will be undeniable: they will help to make the whole Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming Caribbean engines must be a regional pursuit. These piers need to be installed everywhere, every member-state, island and coastal state. But this effort is truly too big for any one member-state alone. This rationale, the need for interdependence, is the reason for the Caribbean Union. This interdependence was an early motivation for this roadmap; see these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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.

Installing Navy Piers will mean rebooting the industrial landscape of the Caribbean. This is not a new subject for this Go Lean roadmap; this commentary has previously identified a number of industrial initiatives to launch a reboot in the region. See the list of previous submissions on Industrial Reboots here:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published July 20, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published July 23, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published July 24, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published July 25, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Reinsurance Sidecars 101 – Published October 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Navy Piers 101 – Published Today – October 9, 2018

In summary, our Caribbean region needs a better industrial landscape to improve our economics, security and governance. We can make small investments – think mustard seeds – that can yield huge returns. This is too appealing to ignore.

Let’s get going!

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap for industrial reboots, to make our region better islands and coastal states to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Industrial Reboot – Reinsurance 101

Posted on October 2, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Continuity of Business (CoB) …

It’s a simple concept; it asserts that if there are any extraordinary events – i.e. emergencies and natural disasters – that the tools and techniques are in place to pick-up and continue for business-as-usual. For some companies, this field is so formalized that they have stakeholders (team) with the responsibilities to ensure that “no stone is left un-turned”. These companies have a C-level executive with this responsibility, i.e. …

VP of Risk [Management]
Director of Disaster Recovery

One popular risk mitigation strategy is to buy “insurance“. Yet the Caribbean is in crisis! Due to Climate Change realities, there are fewer and fewer “Property & Casualty” insurance products available to Caribbean stakeholders.

This is Sad!

Yes, it is that simple: insurance is a protection to ensure the continuation of business operations, and is expected for all modern business operations. This theme was addressed in a previous blog-commentary by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean, in relation to the need to ensure the continuation of a community in the wake of Caribbean natural disasters. That submission presents this quotation:

… an insurance strategy could be even smarter for rainy days or catastrophes; it allows the hedging of risks by leveraging across a wider pool; more people – savers – put-in and only a few … or just one withdraws. This is also the approach of the thoughtful Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Fund (CCRIF).

It is very sad when communities are not able to save or insure a “Rainy Day” fund for when it rains, especially in the tropical region where it doesn’t just rain, but pours and storms.

What is sadder is when the heavy-lifting of “savings” or insurance is done, but the dollar amount is not enough; because a “penny saved is only just a penny”.

The Caribbean’s industrial landscape is in crisis. It must reboot; we do not have adequate “Property & Casualty” offerings. The identified CCRIF Catastrophe Fund, though it’s too-little-too-late, is for member-states governments, by the member-states governments. Individuals and companies need not apply; yet still, there is the need. Individuals, institutions and enterprises need the protection of a viable CoB solution. This glaring need is so obvious, right now on the heels of Tropical Storm Kirk. Though not a major storm, it brought major destruction to one particular business. See the full story here:

Title: Poultry farmer loses 2000 chickens during storm

Poultry farmer Linus Bernadine suffered a major setback Thursday night, when high winds associated with Tropical Storm Kirk destroyed his chicken houses at Babonneau.

Bernadine told St Lucia Times it resulted in the loss of 2000 broiler chicks.

He explained that the loss has impacted significantly on his livelihood.

“This is what I am expecting to put bread on my table,” Bernadine stated.

He estimated that his losses are in the region of some $90,000.

Bernadine said he does not know how he will recover from the calamity.

“Right now I am just on the farm demolishing things,” he said.

“What happened is that these birds, I just got them on Wednesday last week and the storm was Thursday night,” Bernadine disclosed.

The poultry farmer recalled having left his home for Vieux Fort to pick up the chicks.

“I got back home about ten past nine in the night, I put the birds down and that was it,” he stated.

“Friday morning I had no choice but to bury them,” he told St Lucia Times, adding that both of the chicken pens on his property had been destroyed by the storm and the chicks that were in them died.

“I am flat down – everything is just gone,” Bernadine lamented.

“I have a capacity of about 7000 birds and all of that is flat down,” he said.

Source: St Lucia Times Daily Newspaper – Posted September 30th, 2018; retrieved October 2, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/09/30/poultry-farmer-loses-2000-chickens-during-storm/

Needless to say, the underlying problem in the foregoing story is “money”, the lack of money in Caribbean communities for restoring business operations in the wake of disasters.

The lack of money is the root of all evil” – Pejorative Pun credited to “Rev. Ike”

There is not enough money in the St. Lucia pool. The Go Lean book simply declares that there needs to be a Bigger pool, one that individuals, institutions and enterprises can participate in. The Go Lean book proposed the solution of Reinsurance Sidecars, related in the book on Page 101 as follows:

Hurricane Insurance Fund
The risk pool for a 42-million population is so much lower than each member-state’s sole mitigation efforts. The CU will establish (contract with a service provider) reinsurance funds (& sidecars) from Day One, and glean the excess premiums-over-claims as profit.

So this is the solution that is proposed in the Go Lean book, to allow for Reinsurance Sidecars in the regional Capital Markets. This way more liquidity will be brought to the marketplace and investors can share in the risk … and profit. See a fuller definition of Sidecars here:

Reinsurance Sidecars, conventionally referred to as “sidecars”, are financial structures that are created to allow investors to take on the risk and return of a group of insurance policies (a “book of business”) written by an insurer or reinsurer (henceforth re/insurer) and earn the risk and return that arises from that business. A re/insurer will only pay (“cede”) the premiums associated with a book of business to such an entity if the investors place sufficient funds in the vehicle to ensure that it can meet claims if they arise. Typically, the liability of investors is limited to these funds. These structures have become quite prominent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a vehicle for re/insurers to add risk-bearing capacity, and for investors to participate in the potential profits resulting from sharp price increases in re/insurance over the four quarters following Katrina. An earlier and smaller generation of sidecars were created after 9/11 for the same purpose. …
Source: Retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_sidecar

The introduction of Reinsurance Sidecars will reboot the entire industrial landscape in the Caribbean. With this product, businesses will have the Property & Casualty insurance products to provide some assurances; also banks will be able to compel their loan clients to maintain these coverages. This is the whole definition of “Escrows”, that of banks requiring Property & Casualty insurance for their loan customers:

In layman’s terms, this means an escrow service is basically a middleman between a buyer and a seller, or in the case of a mortgage, a middleman between a homeowner and the county (for property taxes), insurance companies, and anyone else who the homeowner designates to pay with funds from the escrow account.

1. Imagine the effect of sidecars on bank escrow processing departments.

2. Imagine the effect of sidecars on the insurance retail and wholesale markets.

3. Imagine the effect of business insurance on businesses.

4. Imagine the effect of business continuity on community continuity.

5. Imagine the effect of an industrial reboot on Caribbean life and our day-to-day reality.

So the goal here is to better explore the industrialization of Reinsurance Sidecar products and escrow processing. We must pursue this reboot of our industrial landscape; we need to foster the many new opportunities (jobs, entrepreneurism and industrial development). This is the declaration of the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); this is a confederation of all 30 member-states – the larger pool – to execute a reboot of the Caribbean economic eco-system. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean economic engines must be a regional pursuit – always remember the reality of a larger pool. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):

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

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

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

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.

This is the vision of an industrial reboot! This transformation is where and how the economic eco-system is reinforced, re-engaged and re-engineered. With this reboot in the Caribbean, new jobs can be created, companies started and industries optimized.

Despite the references to “industrial”, there are benefits to individuals as well.

Mortgages and houses will have protections, this means the Caribbean home will be more secure. This fits the quest of the Go Lean movement, to make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play.

The foregoing news article related the agri-business of a Chicken Farm. Have you eaten chicken lately?

Probably! For some people it’s everyday!

So the out-workings of this industrial reboot will also have an effect on consumer goods. That’s food and shelter, part of the pantheon of basic needs: food, clothing and shelter.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. One advocacy in rebooting the industrial landscape is to work to improve the delivery systems for our food supply. All Caribbean islands and coastal states should have chicken farms. It is unconscionable that ALL CHICKENS may be imported from abroad. Surely, we can provide the industrial landscape so that every community have their own chicken farms.

Surely …

This will mean that we will have to manage and mitigate the risks of storms and natural disasters; remember Climate Change.

Consider these specific excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 162 entitled:

10 Ways to Better Manage Food Consumption

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion – the CU will take the lead in facilitating the food supply and distribution systems to ensure the region can feed itself, more from local production and less from trade. Though the cost savings of imports should never be ignored, some CU countries (Greater Antilles, Belize, Guyana & Suriname) have a low opportunity cost for increasing food production for the regional market. Thus a mission of the CU is to streamline the systems, processes, logistics, funding, training, and market promotions so that the Caribbean can fulfill this basic need.
2	Public Health Dynamics – Produce Deserts & Farmers *Market*
3	“Nouvelle” Caribbean Cuisine
4	Agri-Business Many of the member-states get 90% (or more) of their food supplies from imports; even fish is imported from Alaska, despite the 1,063,000 square miles of harvestable waters of the Caribbean Sea. The CU will implement agri-business (and aqua-culture) investments to generate more regional options for food production: cooperatives (co-ops), farm credit, common grazing lands, fisheries oversight, canaries, aqua-culture endeavors, etc.
5	Logistics for the Food Supply
6	Fresh Frozen
7	Food Labeling
8	Export – Help Regional Businesses Find Foreign Markets
9	Media Industrial Complex
10	Food Tourism

Rebooting the industrial landscape of the Caribbean is not a new subject for this Go Lean roadmap. In fact, this commentary has previously identified a number of different industries that can be rebooted under this roadmap. See the list of previous submissions on Industrial Reboots here:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published – July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published – July 20, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published – July 23, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published – July 24, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published – July 25, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published – July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Published – July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Reinsurance Sidecars 101 – Published Today – October 2, 2018

Reinsurance Sidecars – remember the name. While these, and other derivative products, are not commonly known in the Caribbean today, they will be. They are too important for our future.

Don’t ever forget, as this fact often gets overlooked, they are also vastly profitable investment products. See the VIDEO‘s in the Appendices for more details on Reinsurance Sidecar derivatives as investment products.

In summary, our Caribbean region needs a better industrial landscape so as to make our homeland better. In fact, one of the reasons why so many Caribbean citizens have emigrated away from the homeland is the lack of the ability to quickly recover after natural disasters. This is why Homeland Security – preparation and response of emergencies – is coupled with economic policies for rebooting the societal engines in the region. So creating a new economic landscape will require rebooting the industrial landscape.

So as an enterprise, an institution or an individual, we need good insurance options – a Continuity of Business. A bigger-better regional risk pool is paramount for a better Caribbean. This is how we can make our region a better homeland to live, work and play. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap for industrial reboots, security enhancements and economic empowerments. 🙂

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

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

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Appendix A VIDEO – What is REINSURANCE? What does REINSURANCE mean? REINSURANCE meaning, definition & explanation – https://youtu.be/7Qe4-Ei2PHY

The Audiopedia

Published on May 17, 2017 – What is REINSURANCE? What doe REINSURANCE mean? REINSURANCE meaning – REINSURANCE pronunciation – REINSURANCE definition – REINSURANCE explanation – How to pronounce REINSURANCE?
Source: Wikipedia.org article, adapted under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/… license.

Category: Education
License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)

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Appendix B VIDEO – What Is Financial Reinsurance? – https://youtu.be/W45REh7Pt7I

ehowfinance

Published on May 25, 2015 – What Is Financial Reinsurance?. Part of the series: Small Business Tips. Financial reinsurance is a key component to any successful business. Learn about financial reinsurance with help from a business consultant and marketing expert in this free video clip. Read more: http://www.ehow.com/video_12214988_fi…

Category: Howto & Style

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Appendix C VIDEO – Reinsurance the perfect Hedge Fund Strategy to Diversify a Portfolio – https://youtu.be/rfp2gRsFD2M

BGN – Blockchain Global News

Published on Mar 2, 2016 – Jane King interviews Don Steinbrugge, Managing Director, Agecroft Partners. For more information please visit http://www.agecroftpartners.com

Category: People & Blogs

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Message to Federal Workforce for Labor Day: “No, on that raise” – ENCORE

Posted on August 31, 2018 in Economics, Government, Social

In the US, today kicks-off Labor Day holiday weekend. The head of the Federal Government, President Donald Trump, sends out a message to the millions of federal employees:

Remember that raise you were approved for?

Nevermind!

This is true! This is happening! Actually, this is “Not happening”! See the story & VIDEO here as reported by the American news outlet CNN:

Title: Trump cancels pay raises for federal employees
Washington (CNN) – President Donald Trump told lawmakers on Thursday he wants to scrap a pay raise for civilian federal workers, saying the nation’s budget couldn’t support it.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump described the pay increase as “inappropriate.”

“We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases,” the President wrote. An across-the-board 2.1% pay increase for federal workers was slated to take effect in January. In addition, a yearly adjustment of paychecks based on the region of the country where a worker is posted — the “locality pay increase” — was due to take effect.

Trump said both increases should no longer happen.

See the full article, posted and retrieved August 31, 2018 here: https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/index.html

This is just a reminder to all Caribbean people who want to emigrate to the US looking for better labor opportunities. The reminder: “The Grass is Not Greener on the American side“. Let’s work to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

Labor Day is a day set aside to honor workers. It is not just an American tradition. No, many countries have an equivalent of Labor Day. Many of the historicity of these movements were tied to labor unions.

More than 80 countries celebrate International Workers’ Day on May 1 – the ancient European holiday of May Day.

Consider this Encore of the blog-commentary from June 18, 2015, discussing the trends in the labor markets, which depict a decline of collective bargaining:

==================

Title: Economic Principle: Wage-Seeking – Market Forces -vs- Collective Bargaining

Go Lean Commentary

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 21^st 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:

Encyclopedia Reference #1: Wage-Seeking
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage)

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).

———-

Encyclopedia Reference #2: Collective Bargaining
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_bargaining)

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 Encyclopedic Article # 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:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4240	Immigration Policy Exacerbates Worker Productivity Crisis
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3694	Jamaica-Canada employment programme pumps millions into local economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3473	Haiti to Receive $70 Million Grant to Expand Caracol Industrial Park to Create Jobs and Benefit from Globalization
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3446	Forecast for higher unemployment in Caribbean in 2015
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3164	Michigan Unemployment Model – Then and Now
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Where the Jobs Are – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2800	The Geography of Joblessness
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World’s example of Self Governing Entities and Economic Impacts of 70,000 jobs; 847,000+ Puerto Ricans now live in the vicinity.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2025	Where the Jobs Are – Attitudes & Images of the Caribbean Diaspora in US
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Where the Jobs Are – Ship-breaking under the SGE Structure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	Where the Jobs Are – STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1683	Where the Jobs Were – British public sector now strike over ‘poverty pay’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1214	Where the Jobs Are – Fairgrounds as SGE & Landlords for Sports Leagues
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	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. 🙂

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

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Appendix – List of European countries by average wage (USA & Japan added for comparison)

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage)

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

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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.

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Industrial Reboot – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – ENCORE

Posted on July 30, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries, Social, Strategy

“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”

Tourism in the Caribbean has been impacted by the disrupting eco-system of Cruise ships. More and more visitors shift from stay-overs – flying in on a jet and taking it slow at a resort hotel – to consuming the Caribbean ports-of-call on cruise ships. This is not all good; there are some dire consequences. The economic engines are all in shambles because of this shift. The result is less economic impact to the local markets.

When a cruise ship arrives in port, over 4,000 passengers disembark – they are the 800-pound Gorilla – their presence is felt; the ship cannot be ignored and cannot be dismissed …

… we cannot beat this industrial giant, so we have to join them [… then beat them].

This “joining-beating” refers to an Industrial Reboot. Yes, as a region, we must first stop the bleeding, then reboot our industrial landscape so as to explore the opportunities associated with Cruise Tourism.

What? How? Why?

Rebooting the industrial landscape means understanding the macro-economic factors affecting a community and then applying changes to assuage negative developments and to exploit the positives. This 800-pound Gorilla is hard to “beat” alone, each Caribbean country will have to collectively-bargain with the Cruise industry – along with the other Caribbean countries – to have any hope of negotiating for changes to this industrial landscape.

This thought is what was related in a previous blog-commentary, from May 6, 2015, by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean:

The book … opens with the thesis (Page 3) that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state to tackle alone. Some of the most popular cruise destinations include the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Saint Martin. Alone, these port cities/member states cannot effect change on this cruise line industry. But together, as one unified front, the chances for success improves exponentially. The unified front is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The term Union is more than a coincidence; it was branded as such by design. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU.

The vision of this integration movement is for the region to function as a Single Market. …

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that we cannot just maintain the status quo – 1.0 – with Cruise Tourism. The port-city merchants are not happy; the rest of the tourism landscape is not happy; the passengers are not happy; and the cruise line employees are not happy. The book relates:

The Bottom Line for the Caribbean Cruise Industry
The Caribbean is the number one (1) destination for the cruise line industry, with some 10 million passengers a year and an annual growth of 7.4% since 1980. But each cruise line serves multiple ports and so can play one market against the other. They are the “800 pound gorilla that can sleep wherever it chooses”. The cruise line industry “squeezes every bit of copper out of a penny”, challenging their stakeholders to optimize their business model more and more every year – they maximize revenues from the marketplace and minimize their spending. And yet, without the Caribbean as a whole, their product is far less appealing. – Page 193

The only people that are happy with cruise operations are the shareholders of the cruise lines. (It is doubtful that many of these one would be Caribbean stakeholders). The Cruise Tourism 1.0 business model needs to transform to 2.0.

This Go Lean book presents a roadmap to elevate the economic engines in Caribbean society; it details new strategies, tactics and implementations to reboot the Cruise Tourism eco-system. One tactic is to deploy a scheme for Passenger Payment Cards (smartcards or smart-phone applications) that function on the ships and at the port cities. This scheme will also employ NFC technology (Near Field Communications) – so as to glean the additional security benefits of shielding private financial data of the guest and passengers.

Another tactic is to double-down on Culture! We would want to overwhelm cruise passengers with our unique culture. Under 1.0, these passengers only consume a port-city for portions of 1 day. So we need to fill the port-side harbors, courtyards and verandas with so much locally-produced cultural expressions; think: art, parades, dance, song, storytelling, souvenirs …

… modeling Walt Disney World’s 4 Parks and their afternoon character parades …

… we must overload our guests-passengers so that they feel underserved by the cruise experience, and would prefer a fuller experience. Cruises should be likened to Movie Trailers: “Previews of Coming Attractions”.

This new technological, cultural and economic scheme will usher in change for Cruise Commerce. The Go Lean book projects that 800 new direct jobs can be created just with the proposed Cruise Passenger Payment Card. (Even more indirect jobs – 3.75-to-1 multiplier rate – can be created). This is how the industrial landscape of the Caribbean region can be rebooted, by starting with this mandatory smartcard/chip-card for every cruise passenger.

For this month of July 2018, the phraseology “reboot” has been a consistent theme. This commentary has previously identified a number of different industries that can be rebooted under this Go Lean roadmap. See the list of previous submissions on Industrial Reboots here:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published July 20, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published July 23, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published July 24, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published July 25, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Published Today – July 30, 2018

This 14th (and final) submission to the commentary considers the basics of economic stewardship (financial payments, collective bargaining and labor relations) for the Cruise Tourism industry and how it can harness many jobs if we reboot our industrial landscape to optimize the industry. There is no need for a new commentary; this subject had already been elaborated upon previously. See here the highlights of these two Encores of Go Lean commentaries:

“RBC EZPay – Ready for Change” from January 23, 2015
“Cruise Ship Commerce – Getting Ready for Change” from May 6, 2015

See the Encores here:

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1. Go Lean Commentary – RBC EZPay – Ready for Change

It’s time to introduce the Caribbean Dollar (C$) as a regional currency. Though there will be coins and notes, the primary focus will be on electronic transactions. This is the future!

Electronic Payments schemes (card-based & internet) are very important in the strategy to elevate the Caribbean economy, bring change and empower people, process and profits.

According to the subsequent news article, the regional banks – in this case the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) – are ready for this change.
…

This Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap looks to employ electronic payments schemes to impact the growth of the regional economy. There are two CU schemes that relate to this foregoing news story, as they require the demonstrated POS terminals:

Cruise Passenger Smartcards – The Go Lean roadmap posits that the cruise industry needs the Caribbean more than the Caribbean needs the industry. But the cruise lines have embedded rules/regulations designed to maximize their revenues at the expense of the port-side establishments. The CU solution is to deploy a scheme for smartcards that function on the ships and at the port cities.
e-Commerce Facilitation – The Go Lean roadmap defines that the Caribbean Dollar (C$) will be mostly cashless, an accounting currency. So the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) will settle all C$ electronic transactions (MasterCard-Visa style or ACH style) and charge interchange/clearance fees. This scheme allows for the emergence of full-throttle e-Commerce activities.

The focus of these schemes is not technology, its economics. These electronic payments provide the impetus for M1, the economic measurement of currency/money in circulation (M0) plus overnight bank deposits. As M1 values increase, there is a dynamic to create money “from thin-air”, called the money multiplier. The more money in the system, the more liquidity for investment and industrial expansion opportunities.
…
See the full blog-commentary here.

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2. Go Lean Commentary – Cruise Ship Commerce – Getting Ready for Change

…

This is the focus of this commentary and advocacy. There are strict divisions of labor on cruise ships – wait staff and cabin stewards are reserved for citizens from Third World countries like the Caribbean and Asia – with terrible pay scales – while the officers/leadership roles are reserved for Europeans-only – Scandinavians proliferate. We appreciate the fact they set aside jobs for people of the Caribbean, but it is unacceptable that job advancements are unattainable. The resultant discrimination is real. Cruise ships, and other maritime vessels in general, are the last bastion of segregation. Descriptors like “modern-day-slavery”, “sweatships” and “extreme poverty” are far too common. Case in point, many ship-domestic staff are “tip earners”, paid only about US$50 a month and expected to survive on the generosity of the passengers’ gratuity.
…
This is a human resource matter and thusly will be within the sphere of influence for the new HR executive at [Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines or] RCL. While many ships are only governed by maritime laws, injustice is injustice. Good shepherding of Caribbean economic eco-system requires some focus to these bad practices.
…
The confederacy goal entails accepting that there is interdependence among the Caribbean member-states. Implementation-wise, this shifts the responsibility for cruise line negotiations to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy that can result in greater production and greater accountability.

An advocacy, in this case collective bargaining, on behalf of the oppressed workers in Caribbean waters is a just and honorable cause. The quest of this Go Lean movement is to make the Caribbean region better to live, work and play. Labor practices on cruise ships are therefore within scope of the CU.

This is the change … that now confronts the new RCL HR executive. But the CU quest to elevate Caribbean society should not run afoul of this or any cruise line’s modus operandii. The CU sets out to be their trading partner, not adversarial opponent. This should be win-win.
…
See the full blog-commentary here.

————-

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

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

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Industrial Reboot – Tourism 2.0

Posted on July 27, 2018 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“I would rather have 1 percent of 100 people than 100 percent of one person” – Famous Quotation

Think about this famous quotation; according to arithmetic, 100 X 1 = 1 X 100. The two sides of this equation amount to the same total. But strategy-wise, it is better for the “1 percent of 100 people”.

Why?

It is far easier to get people to elevate from 1 percent to contribute more – think 2 percent – but impossible to get a person to give more than 100 percent. So with a little effort, our formula can total to 200 (100 X 2). Maybe even more …

This is the strategy being proposed to reboot the industrial landscape of tourism for the Caribbean. The strategy employed by the 30 member-states is that they want “High Net Worth” tourists. The price point during the peak season are easily $500 per night at resort hotels. The flaw of this strategy is that the target population who can consume those prices is limited. This is Caribbean Tourism 1.0.

Caribbean Tourism 2.0 assumes that we can offer a great visitor experience to more people – middle class and working class – for lower prices. (See Appendix VIDEO). Imagine 5 beds rented for $100 per night. While the grand totals may be the same (1 X $500 = 5 X $100), the 2.0 approach creates a lot more economic spin-off opportunities than the 1.0 approach. 5 people, for example, eat more than 1 person; drink more rum; smoke more cigars; acquire more souvenirs; take more tours, etc.

We have many successful role models to consider. Think:

Orlando, Florida who hosts Disney World and Universal Studios – enjoys 75 million tourists each year.
The tiny town of Sturgis, South Dakota annually hosts an 10-day event with over 500,000 attendees.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean industrial landscape must be reformed and transformed. Our Caribbean economic landscape is in shambles! Tourism is currently our primary economic driver in the region, and it is under assault; more and more visitors shift from stay-overs to cruise arrivals. Cruise packages are much cheaper than stay-overs – see photos here:

——————– Hotel Options ——————

———- Cruise Options (same dates) ———–

While cruises may be easier on the wallet, they are harder on our Caribbean economy. Having less tourist-stay-overs means less economic impact to the local markets – hotels, restaurants, taxis, souvenir retail sales, etc.. Jobs are at stake!

This cannot be ignored! As a region, we must reboot our industrial landscape and add more job-creating options.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); this is a confederation of all 30 member-states to execute a reboot of the Caribbean economic eco-system. The quest is to introduce best-practices so as to optimize the economic engines in the local communities.

On the surface, a strategy to trade services based on the Caribbean’s assets of sun, sand, surf and sea is not a BAD approach. The problem was embedded when the stakeholders developed a lazy attitude towards the delivery of such services. The stewards of the tourism product preferred to cater to the few “High Net Worth” individuals rather than the masses. They opted to get $100 from 1 person, rather than $1 from 100 people.

Unfair criticism?

Just notice the bad practices with air travel out of Caribbean airports – the taxes are more than the airfare.

This is the wrong community ethos; defined as:

“the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period” – Go Lean book Page 20

A change to the community ethos is the first advocacy of this new Reboot Tourism 2.0 endeavor. This “High Net Worth” first strategy is simply not working! The economic returns of the tourism status quo is simply not there!

Our cupboards are bare!

There are many more advocacies … depicted in the CU/Go Lean roadmap! In fact, the 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 ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

Rather than lazy; it is time for heavy-lifting. The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming Caribbean tourism and the relevant local economic engines may be Too Big a burden for just one member-state alone; it must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):

iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.

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.

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 like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

This is what this CU/Go Lean roadmap has presented, a plan to …

foster the development of new industries
invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism

In fact, this commentary has previously identified a number of different industries that can be rebooted under this Go Lean roadmap. See the list of previous submissions on Industrial Reboots here:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published – July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published – July 20, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published – July 23, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published – July 24, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published – July 25, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published Today – July 27, 2018

There is the need for an Industrial Reboot and we can apply this even in our Tourism offerings.

Do what we have always done; get what we have always got.

This is the urging of the movement behind the Go Lean book: Do something different! Apply different strategies, tactics and implementations to impact change to the tourism eco-system. We do not want to go backwards; forward only. So we want resort hotels to continue their business model and even improve upon it. But, we want to do more; to stand on the shoulders of all the current accomplishments – consider the possibility of doubling-down in our outreach to the Snowbirds market in the Appendix below – and reach ever greater heights.

How … do we accomplish this?

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society, including All-Things-Economic. There is a lot of consideration in the book for optimizing tourism, travel and transport across the Caribbean region. Notice these treatments from the book, in order of appearance:

10 Ways to Improve Sharing (Page 35)
#9 – Bed & Breakfast (B&B) – Online & Mobile Reservations
The B&B industry has emerged from family sharing their homes with strangers to near-high end resort facilities. All in all, it is basically residences sharing their hospitality with guests. The CU will facilitate the mobile eco-systems for more Caribbean homes to share “beds and meals”, especially during the peaks of event tourism (festivals, carnivals, fairs).
10 Ways to Improve Trade (Page 128)
#8 – Tourism Enhancers
A mission of the CU is to enhance the tourism prospects for the region. The CU will deploy the resources to attract back the Diaspora to repatriate to the islands. This includes the health delivery systems. This opens more opportunity for new markets; retirement/snowbirds, medical tourists, event tourists, High-End (One Percent) & Celebrity marketing, etc..
10 Ways to Enhance Tourism in the Caribbean Region (Page 190)
#1 – Special Festival Events
Promote multi-day events in the style of Sturgis (Appendix J on Page 288), Coachella, and Milwaukee’s SummerFest. The CU will liberalize the loitering laws, allow for camping & car/van sleeping, public showers, food trucks, open canister for alcohol, etc. (Jamaica’s SunFest is a start). To facilitate traffic, jurisdictional governments should grant temporary motorcycle licenses and arranged for optimal shipping logistics.
10 Ways to Impact Events (Page 191)
#2 – Fairgrounds – Venues with Permanent and Temporary Facilities
The CU will operate Fairgrounds with the charter of promoting and facilitating events year round and harvesting the economic benefits, civic pride and personal self-actualization. The fairgrounds can host existing events, if local authorities need bigger-better facilities – though the CU will not solicit such events so as not to undermine the historical significance. The CU holds law enforcement jurisdiction over the fairgrounds and will deputize “Rangers” for security.
10 Ways to Promote Fairgrounds (Page 192)
#2 – Self-Governing Entities (SGE)
The vision of CU fairgrounds entail SGE’s for their administration. With the zoning and jurisdictional independence, similar to Disney World in Florida, direct foreign investments would be incentivized. Similar to industrial parks, these fair parks will be able to contemplate public works projects as long as the business model (future income) is viable. Funding can be provided by means of the regional capital markets: municipal bonds and stock issuance.
10 Ways to Market Southern California (Page 194)
#4 – Los Angeles County is one of the Richest Municipalities in the World
Some cities are magnets for ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals, and the cities with the most of this wealthy class average approximately one in 3,075 people. Los Angeles is second on the list for UHNW; Wall Street-infused New York City is first. In addition to the entertainment industry and media moguls, the city is also a shipping/trade hub. The CU member-states and the region as a whole should target tourism marketing to go where the money is.
10 Ways to Improve Transportation (Page 205)
#3 – Turnpike: Ferries
For the most part, the CU member-states are islands thereby allowing for a viable means of transportation via sea navigation. By deploying ferries, the CU facilitates passenger travel for business and leisure, (see model – Appendix IC on Page 280)

The Go Lean book asserts (Page 257) that many jobs can be forged, if we adopt a different community ethos – spirit of a culture that informs the beliefs, customs and practices – and seek to produce, not just consume. The book details this count:

Tourism – New markets, opening new opportunities and new traffic; sharing: 30,000

Events – Festivals and other event staff at CU Fairgrounds: 9,000

Fairgrounds – Direct maintenance/support jobs at CU Fairgrounds: 10,000

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) prepares the Caribbean region for this new business model for Tourism 2.0. In addition to these new 49,000 industry jobs; there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add another 183,750 jobs.

This constitutes an industrial reboot … on an old economic engine.

The thought of new twists to enhance tourism is not new for this Go Lean roadmap; there have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that referenced economic opportunities embedded in the new industrial footprint of hosting, catering and facilitating visitors to our region. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13700	Increasing Tourism Market Share
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12668	Lessons from Colorado: Common Sense of Eco-Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11287	Creating a Sports Tourism Legacy in Pro-Surfing
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11033	The Prospects of Medical Tourism – Dangers and Opportunities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	The Demand for New Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4145	The Prospects of Art-Monument-Heritage Tourism

In summary, our Caribbean tourism eco-system needs a reboot – we need to create more jobs and derive more value from our industrial investments. A better job-creation ability would help us to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. Failures in this endeavor is one of the reasons why so many Caribbean citizens have abandoned their beloved homeland, to seek refuge some where else.

Imagine the shame of greeting a clerk or maid with a strong Caribbean accent at a hotel in some foreign country – they left to go work a tourism-based job abroad. So sad! We must create a new economic landscape by rebooting our old industrial landscape.

Yes, we can … reboot our tourism landscape to 2.0, and create new jobs – and other economic opportunities.

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap for economic empowerment. This vision – of a brighter tourism landscape – is conceivable, believable and achievable. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix – The Bottom Line on Snowbirds

A snowbird is someone from the U.S. Northeast, U.S. Midwest, Pacific Northwest, or Canada who spends a large portion of winter in warmer locales such as California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, or elsewhere along the Sun Belt region of the southern and southwest United States, Mexico, and areas of the Caribbean.

Snowbirds are typically retirees, and business owners who have a second home in a warmer location or whose business can be easily moved from place to place, such as flea market and swap meet vendors. Some snowbirds carry their homes with them, as [RV’s or] campers (mounted on bus or truck frames) or as boats following the east coast Intracoastal waterway. In the past snowbirds were frequently wealthy with independent income who maintained several seasonal residences and shifted residence with the seasons to avail themselves of the best time to be at each location; this custom has declined considerably due to changing patterns of taxation and the relative ease of long-distance travel compared with earlier times.

Many of these “snowbirds” also use their vacation time to declare permanent residency in low- or no-tax income tax states (where the tax bases are augmented by high tourism taxes), and claim lower non-resident income taxes in their home states. Canadian snowbirds usually make sure they retain residency in Canada in order to retain health benefits.
Source: Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 190.

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Appendix VIDEO – How to Travel to the Caribbean CHEAP – https://youtu.be/xHCoBZw1Qt0

IrixGuy’s Adventure Channel
Published on Jun 25, 2016 – How to travel to the Caribbean affordably. This is how to travel to the Caribbean on a budget. I hope that you enjoy this video and please share with others! Be sure to check out my other Caribbean travel advice videos too! #Caribbean #travel #how-to

Filmed with http://goo.gl/AXHBdZ camera. Edited with the following equipment http://goo.gl/63pfsh. Contains royalty-free music from YouTube Content Creator Audio Library.

Category: Howto & Style

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Jobs, Tourism, Transform

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Industrial Reboot – Culture 101

Posted on July 25, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Every Caribbean member-state has a Cabinet-level official that spearheads the tourism effort:

Minister of Tourism
Secretary of Tourism
Executive Director, Tourism Agency/Company

There is no doubt that Tourism Stewards are Revenue Officers, as tourism is the primary economic activity in the Caribbean region. This is also true for other countries in other regions. Paris, France is a case in point, as that city enjoys 25 million tourists annually.

Why do people visit Paris?

Not for sun, sand or surf. No, the answer is culture. Parisian culture is responsible for Parisian economic engines.

“Economy and culture: it’s the same fight!” – Jack Lang, 2-time Minister of Culture (1988 – 1992; 1981 – 1986), Republic of France; (under President François Mitterrand)

In some Caribbean countries, “Tourism and Culture” are administered by the same agency, i.e. Ministry of Tourism Sports and Culture in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; (see photo here). Now the BIG country of China is embarking on the same model, as reported in this recent news article:

Title: China Creates Ministry of Culture and Tourism
The Chinese government has officially inaugurated the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which will help to boost the work culture in China and also helps to increase the work efficiency.

Former Chinese minister of culture Luo Shugang was elected as the new Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Li Jinzao was appointed Vice Minister.

It is as part of a widespread institutional reshuffle, China forms this new department to boost the cultural part in the country.

Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the inauguration ceremony.

While addressing a symposium Sunday, Huang Kunming said that the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism would strengthen the Communist Party of China’s overall leadership over the work of culture and tourism. This is a new move by the Government of China to promote the country’s culture in international hemisphere.

Huang Kunming called on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to hold the new era, assume new missions, and have more confidence in the Chinese culture. Huang also asked the ministry to realize the policies and decisions made by the CPC Central Committee.
Source: Posted April 10, 2018; retrieved July 24, 2018 from: https://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com/en/noticia/china-creates-ministry-culture-and-tourism

There are benefits to be derived for the Caribbean member-states to prioritize their culture as a revenue product. This would mean providing a structure for the world to enjoy our culture, through the visitations and explorations of tourism and/or through media productions. So the goal here is to better explore the industrialization of culture.

This is the urging of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean; the book asserts (Page 218) that Caribbean culture must be preserved and protected. While we want to be a member of global society, we strongly want to maintain what makes our cultural influences special and unique. The book supports the notion that the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet, not just because of the terrain, fauna and flora; but also for the culture, festivals, food, music, dance, rum, cigars and our unique history. We have a fusion of African, Amer-Indian, European and Asian influences that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet; see Appendix VIDEO.

Plus, we have 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in our neighborhood. 🙂

Despite these synergies, our societal engines (economics, security and governance) are dysfunctional. The Go Lean book posits that the unique cultural dynamism of the region has not being fully explored; especially not regionally. Instead of competing in tourism and culture, this book urges that all regional member-states coordinate, collaborate, cooperate and confederate. Our whole, will be more than the sum of our parts. This is the dynamic of regional leverage.

We must reboot the industrial landscape, around our cultural dynamism, in order to create new economic opportunities, like jobs. We need such a new economic landscape because the current one is in shambles! This is due to the primary driver in the region – Tourism – being under assault. For example, more and more visitors shift from stay-overs to cruise arrivals. In addition to these visitors not having much time to embrace the local culture, the communities also suffer an economic blow to the local markets, as less spending is noticed.

So as a region, we must reboot our industrial landscape around our culture so as to add more cultural explorations, which will also mean more participation from all relevant stakeholders. The Go Lean book explains that doubling-down on the different areas of culture – events, music, arts, historic heritage sites – can result in more jobs. See here:

Direct jobs for Festivals and other event staff at Fairgrounds: 9,000

Direct jobs for managing music industry and media consumption: 2,900

Direct jobs (production, cast & crew) for film, TV and internet streaming: 2,000

Direct jobs for managing artist/exhibition & media consumption: 700

Direct jobs for managing, promoting UNESCO World Heritage Sites: 1,000

The Go Lean book prepares the business model for these expressions of culture in the Caribbean region. Yes, business model refers to jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, trade transactions, etc. In addition to these 15,600 industry jobs; there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add another 58,750 jobs.

This constitutes an industrial reboot! The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); this is a confederation of all 30 member-states to execute a reboot of the Caribbean economic eco-system. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean economic engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13 – 14):

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 like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

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.

This is the vision of an industrial reboot! This transformation is where and how new jobs can be created in the Caribbean. Accordingly, the CU will also facilitate an eco-system for Self-Governing Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for artist colonies, educational institutions and entertainment zones with the exclusive federal regulation/promotion activities. Imagine bordered campuses or urban districts – with theaters, film sound-stages, artists studios and exhibition halls.

The focus for the Go Lean roadmap is to recognize the economic benefits of fostering the arts. See here, how this subject is further elaborated on in the Go Lean book (Page 218) with the French example (debate) of Cultural Mandates -vs- Free Market Adherences:

The Bottom Line on French Cultural Mandates

The French cultural endeavors are effectively managed by the government’s Ministry of Culture; which is in charge of national museums & monuments; managing the national archives and regional culture centers, and promoting & protecting the arts (visual, plastic, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual & cinematographic) in France and abroad. The Ministry is also charged with maintaining the French identity. The cabinet post was created by President Charles de Gaulle in 1959 with the goal of realizing the right to culture, incorporated in the French constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). De Gaulle’s aim was to democratize access to culture and elevate the “grandeur” of post-war France.

Under President François Mitterrand the Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, showed himself to be far more open to popular cultural production, including jazz, rock and roll, rap music, graffiti art, cartoons, comic books, fashion and food. His famous phrase “economy and culture: it’s the same fight” is representative of his commitment to cultural democracy and to active national sponsorship and participation in cultural production. Under Minister Jacques Toubon (1993 – ‘95), a number of laws were enacted for the preservation of the French language, both in advertisements and on the radio (80% of songs in French), ostensibly in reaction to the presence of English. – Wikipedia

… versus …

Allowing the Free Market
As digital multimedia evolves and emerges as both a business and creative opportunity, France’s culture of subsidy guarantees that it will always be more important for the artistes to be French first and creative second. As industrial policies go, that is hardly a recipe for success. For example, France has actually had a deputy cultural minister in charge of funding development of French rock ‘n’ roll. But American Top 40 radio stations never had to worry about a French Invasion.Also, the French had poured billions of francs into Groupe Bull – the state-supported computer company – in a desperate bid to keep France in the forefront of digital hardware and software systems. While Bull did OK in France; in the rest of the world – in the global marketplace – it failed miserably.

Why do the French think the results will be any better with their cultural policy? The answer is simple: arrogance and a total misunderstanding of market forces. What really galls the French elite, of course, is that while the bourgeoisie and proletariat always choose with their ballots to preserve French culture, they always overwhelmingly vote for American pop culture with their francs. American television shows consistently kick the stuffing out of French shows in terms of popularity. Steven Spielberg does better box office than Jean-Jacques Beneix. – Wired Magazine May, 1994

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) details the principles of SGE’s and job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line (or off-campus) for each direct job on the SGE’s payroll. The arts hold the same promise. Plus with the beauty of the arts, it is time, talent and treasuries well-spent just in the execution of this business model.

Any time spent singing and dancing … is not a waste!

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. One advocacy in rebooting the industrial landscape is to work to preserve the cultural heritage of the regional member-states; consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 206 entitled:

10 Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. The CU will assume the primary coordination for the region’s economy and image, because “economy and culture is the same fight”. Despite the legacies of 4 European cultures and the ubiquity of the American neighborhood, a CU mission is to preserve Caribbean heritage and culture.
2	Media Priorities (See *Appendix W on Page 311: “Mediating as French Culture and Economics Collide“)* Like the French, this region may have to impose a system of quotas and subsidies for domestic production – in order to preserve “diversity” and an important Caribbean industry. As France is insisting on excluding such subsidies from a proposed EU-USA free-trade agreement, the CU may need to follow suit with such a policy to ensure local programs.
3	Mitigate Human Flight As the “Dodo” bird became extinct, cultural extinction occurs too. Many aboriginal cultures have vanished from the New World, like the Aztec and Caribe tribes; (though some Taino influence remains). Human flight has the negative impact of assimilating a people in their new homelands. A CU mission is to mitigate this threat, and spur repatriation.
4	Legacies – Less Caribbean
5	Festivals
6	Music
7	Art – Public Places
8	Properties – Historical Preservation
9	Turn-around Strategies
10	Natural Resources (Fish, Animal Species)

Cultural preservation is not a new subject for this Go Lean roadmap; there have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that referenced the economic opportunities embedded in the exposé of Caribbean culture. These submissions have highlighted what an industrial expression of culture can achieve:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14211	Enjoy Carnival and Be Safe!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12304	Caribbean Festival of the Arts – Past, Present and Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9860	Forging Change Thru Arts & Artists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9712	Forging Change Thru Panem et Circenses (Food & Festivals)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7685	Joy. Pain. Sunshine. Rain. – A Message of Happiness
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City …’ on Art, Music and Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Bob Marley: A Caribbean Cultural Legend Lives On!

In summary, our Caribbean region needs a better job-creation capability to make our homeland better. In fact, one of the reasons why so many Caribbean citizens have emigrated away from the homeland is the job-creation dysfunction. Creating a new economic landscape will require rebooting the industrial landscape.

Yes, we can … do this! We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap for economic empowerment. We urge everyone to explore and exploit our great Caribbean culture; this could help to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – Here’s how the Caribbean became the most Racially Diverse Region in the World – https://youtu.be/fAZBLzWCUbU

Masaman

Published on May 1, 2017 – This is how the Caribbean became the most racially diverse region on the planet, after having it’s ancestry and genetics permanently altered through European colonialism and migration.

In this video, I’m going to give the rundown for several Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, along with many others. We will look at the demographic history, and just what spawned the drastic fluctuations in the racial makeup of the region.

We’re also going to touch on many of the surrounding areas such as Central America, the Gullah coast, as well as the Guianas of South America.

Please let me know your thoughts on my analysis, especially if you live in, or have ancestry from the region. Videos over the latter regions will be released soon. Thanks for watching!

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Industrial Reboot – Shipbuilding 101 – ENCORE

Posted on July 20, 2018 in Economics, Industries, Strategy

Rebooting the industrial landscape means understanding the macro-economic factors affecting a community and then applying changes to assuage negative developments and to exploit the positives.

Understanding the macro factors means embracing the Laws of Economics 101: Supply-and-Demand.

As related in a previous blog-commentary by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean:

The ‘Law of Supply-and-Demand’ is almost as natural as the ‘Law of Gravity’. Leave it alone and it will pre-determine what will happen in the marketplace. But just like Gravity could be defied – consider airplanes & rockets – so too the Law of Supply-and-Demand could be defied supplemented and exacerbated – consider Crony-Capitalism and protectionism – with the industrial prodding of shipbuilding.

The shipbuilding industry has become a favorite for government leaders to manipulate the supply and demand dynamics for – consider the Jones Act in the US – because this industry creates so many …

Jobs

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the business model of shipbuilding can harness a lot of jobs. This book presents a roadmap to elevate the economic engines in Caribbean society and projects that 15,000 new direct jobs can be created with strategic endeavors for the shipbuilding industry. (Even more indirect jobs – 3.75-to-1 multiplier rate – can be created). This is how the industrial landscape of the Caribbean region can be rebooted, by doubling-down on the effort to foster a shipbuilding industry.

We need a new economic landscape in our region. The current one is in shambles! This is due to the primary driver in the region – Tourism – being under assault; more and more visitors shift from stay-overs to cruise arrivals. So this means less economic impact to the local markets. As a region, we must reboot our industrial landscape and add more job-creating options.

How?

This commentary has previously identified a number of different industries that can be rebooted under this Go Lean roadmap. See the list of previous submissions on Industrial Reboots here:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published Today – July 20, 2018

This commentary considers the basics of the shipbuilding industry and how it can harness many jobs if we reboot our industrial landscape to foster the industry. There is no need for a new commentary; this subject had already been elaborated upon in that previous Go Lean commentary. That submission is hereby Encored here:

——————–

Go Lean Commentary – Commerce of the Seas – Shipbuilding Model of Ingalls

The ‘Law of Supply-and-Demand’ is almost as natural as the ‘Law of Gravity’; leave it alone and it will pre-determine what will happen … in the marketplace. But just like the ‘Law of Gravity’ can bend and be defied (think airplanes and rockets), so too the ‘Law of Supply-and-Demand’ can bend and be defied. A great example of defying ‘Supply-and-Demand’ is the Crony-Capitalism (subsidies and protectionist schemes) in the highly-protected Ship-Building industry. (See the Appendix below regarding OECD Ship-Building Industry monitoring efforts).

Look at the numbers in the 2 photos above. It is apparent that the US distorts the Supply-and-Demand factors for Ship-Building in its market; their protectionist laws prevent the international market from supplying domestic shipping needs. This is bad! Though there is the need for some government-aid, to protect jobs and defense options, the US model of Crony-Capitalism is a blatant distortion – Source: https://youtu.be/GpwzoDGDGAQ.

Ship-Building can be a strategic industry! The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that 15,000 new direct jobs can be created with strategic endeavors for the Ship-Building industry in the region. (Even more indirect jobs applies – multiplier rate of 3-to-1). The Go Lean book calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, positing that governmental entities must stimulate and incubate this industry. The book surveyed the world looking for industrial opportunities that could be fully explored in the Caribbean region where the natural resources of the region could be considered; the region is known for sun, sand and sea.

Tourism is a natural assumption for utilizing these “sun, sand and sea“ resources, but with the recent inadequacies of this industry, there needs to be more diversity in our commercial offerings; ship-building – which needs the sea – was identified as an ideal supplement and alternative for regional commerce. This reference to “regional commerce” refers to the economic interest that the 30 member-states in the Caribbean have to consider to provide job and entrepreneurial opportunities for its people. So this Ship-Building focus prioritizes the “Commerce of the Seas” concept. This commentary is 3 of 4 in a series considering the Lessons in Economic History related to “Commerce of the Seas”, the Crony-Capitalism in laws and practices around the maritime eco-system in the United States … and other countries. The full series is as follows:

Commerce of the Seas – Stupidity of the Jones Act
Commerce of the Seas – Book Review: ‘Sea Power’
Commerce of the Seas – Shipbuilding Model of Ingalls
Commerce of the Seas – Lessons from Alang (India)

There are many Lessons in Economic History for the Caribbean to glean by considering the actuality of this industry. Let’s consider the role model of just one American shipbuilding entity: Ingalls Shipbuilding Company in Pascagoula, Mississippi. See the reference source here, describing the business model for building ships to ‘Supply’ any open ‘Demand’ in the commercial market:

Title: Ingalls Shipbuilding

Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and is now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and at 12,500 employees, the largest private employer in Mississippi.

History

In 1938, Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation was founded by Robert Ingersoll Ingalls, Sr. (1882–1951) of Birmingham, Alabama, on the East Bank of the PascagoulaRiver in Mississippi.^[1] Ingalls was located where the Pascagoula River runs into the Gulf of Mexico. It started out building commercial ships including the USS George Clymer (APA-27), which took part in Liberty Fleet Day 27 September 1941. In the 1950s Ingalls started bidding on Navy work, winning a contract in 1957 to build 12 nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Litton Industries acquired Ingalls in 1961, and in 1968 expanded its facilities to the other side of the river. Ingalls reached a high point of employment in 1977, with 27,280 workers. In April 2001, Litton was acquired by the Northrop Grumman Corporation.^[2]

On August 29, 2005, Ingalls facilities were damaged by Hurricane Katrina; most of the ships in dock and construction escaped serious harm. While shipbuilding was halted for a while due to the destruction of many buildings, most vehicles, and the large overhead cranes, the facility continues to operate today.

On March 31, 2011, Northrop Grumman spun off its shipbuilding sector (including Ingalls Shipbuilding) into a new corporation, Huntington Ingalls Industries.

In 2015, Ingalls Shipbuilding Company signed a contract with US Navy for new destroyers, littoral combat ships and new landing craft. USS John Finn (DDG-113) was one of the first destroyers was launched on March 28. Company also is building Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), Paul Ignatius (DDG 117) and Delbert D. Black (DDG 119).

On March 21, 2015, the new San Antonio LPD 17-class amphibious ship John P. Murtha (LPD 26) was ceremonially christened. The vessel having been launched on October 30 and scheduled to be delivered in 2016.

On March 27, 2015, the shipyard received construction contracts for their next destroyers. Ingalls Shipbuilding Company was awarded a $604.3 million contract modification to build the yet-to-be-named DDG 121.

On March 31, 2015, the shipyard also received another contract with a $500 million fixed price to build the eighth National Security Cutter (NSC) for the US Coast Guard. Most of them will be under construction until 2019. The cutters are the most advanced ships ever built for the Coast Guard. ^[3]

On June 30, 2016, Ingalls Shipbuilding signed a contract with US Navy to build the U.S. Navy’s next large-deck amphibious assault warship. The contract included planning, advanced engineering and procurement of long-lead material, is just over $272 million. If options are exercised, the cumulative value of the contract would be $3.1 billion.^[4]…
Ships built

2.1.1 Submarines

2.1.2 Destroyers

2.1.3 Cruisers

2.1.4 Cutters

2.1.5 Amphibious transport dock

2.1.6 Amphibious assault ship

2.1.7 Attack transport

2.1.8 Corvette

2.1.9 Tankers

2.1.10 Cruise ships and ocean liners
i.e. Pride of America (partially built in Mississippi, then towed to Germany for outfitting)
This ship was built in the United States and is operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines. Inaugurated during the 2005/2006 cruise season as the first new US-flagged cruise ship in nearly fifty years,^[5] Pride of America was designed to pay homage to the spirit of the United States, from the patriotic artwork on the hull to the American-themed public spaces.

2.1.11 Ships refitted

Source: Retrieved 06-11-2017 from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingalls_Shipbuilding

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VIDEO – Ingalls Shipbuilding Promotional Video – https://youtu.be/EFl8Tl0ImJo

Published on Jan 10, 2017 – Ingalls Shipbuilding is located in Pascagoula, Mississippi on 800 acres of the most important real estate in America. With 11,000 employees, Ingalls is the largest manufacturing employer in Mississippi and a major contributor to the economic growth of both Mississippi and Alabama. Our 77-year legacy has continuously proven we have the talent, experience and facilities to simultaneously build more classes of ships than any other shipyard in America.

We are the builder-of-record for 35 Aegis DDG 51 class guided missile destroyers, LHA 6 class large deck amphibious ships, National Security Cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard and the sole builder of the Navy’s fleet of San Antonio (LPD 17) class amphibious assault ships. Ingalls Shipbuilding has what it takes to build the capital ships that keep America and our allies safe.

Category: Science & Technology

License: Standard YouTube License

Additional VIDEO consideration: https://youtu.be/0pak_gKglqo – Ingalls shows ‘Shipyard of the Future’.

Considering that 90% of all trade transports by water, there is natural demand for shipbuilding. There is a lot of supply as well.

Ingalls Shipbuilding Company is a definite beneficiary of government-aided commerce in the US; most of their shipbuilding engagements are government contracts. They are a leading producer of ships for the US Navy or Coast Guard, and at 12,500 employees, the largest private employer in Mississippi. As related in the first commentary in this series, the Jones Act has protected maritime commerce and shipbuilding for American stakeholders like Ingalls.

It is ‘high tide’ for the Caribbean to engage some protectionism strategies. Considering that the Caribbean region is the #1 market for the Cruise Line industry, collective bargaining should be prioritized to direct some shipbuilding business to local entities in this industry. The book Go Lean… Caribbean posits that as a unified region – a Single Market – the power of collective bargaining is possible. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate jobs in the region. We should explore the benefits of the shipbuilding (and ship-breaking) industry. This aligns with 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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Early in the Go Lean book, this responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with this pronouncement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):

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…. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

Accordingly, the CU will facilitate the eco-system for Self-Governing Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for shipyards, with its exclusive federal regulation/promotion activities.

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) also details the principle of job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll. In a previous blog-commentary, it was related that the shipbuilding industry has a job-multiplier rate of 3.0. So once the job-multiplier rate is applied to the 15,000 direct shipbuilding jobs, generating 45,000 indirect jobs, the full economic impact is 60,000. This is transforming!

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to reform and transform the Caribbean, starting first with how to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to transform the maritime commerce to benefit Caribbean society. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines from this sample on Page 209 related to Ship-Building:

10 Ways to Develop Ship-Building

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration The CU will allow for the unification of the region into one market, creating an economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and 2010 GDP over $800 Billion. All of the member-states are either islands or coastal, therefore there are lots of coastline and harbors. Boats, yachts and ships are therefore plentiful in the region. Consistent with the CU’s mission for globalization, the region cannot just consume these vessels; we must create and build as well. There is a history of boat-building in the islands (slopes, schooners, clippers), but what had been missing to forge a formidable industry is the capital and the community “will”. The CU will now fill those gaps. The CU will tap the capital markets to secure long-term funding (stocks/bonds), prepare the labor force for advanced skill-sets, and negotiate treaties with “mature” EU states (i.e. Holland, Ireland) for master-apprentice labor-coaching. Boats, yachts and ships are considered durable goods, the opposite of planned obsolescence. …
2	*Cooperatives Movement – “Many hands make heavy job light”*
3	Ferry Operations – Demand & Supply The CU envisions a fleet of ferries, to service the individual islands, in a scheme dubbed “Union Atlantic Turnpike”. The proliferation of scheduled ferries, synchronized with trains and trucks will depict a continuous logistic network. This constitutes the demand for ferries. The CU will henceforth award the contracts for building and maintaining the ferries to local industry players – this constitutes the supply. The CU will therefore foster a ship-building “incubator”.
4	Spin-off Strategy – Low-risk Contracts The CU vision is to deploy a “spin-off” strategy for ship-owning patrons. The CU region needs ships. Therefore, the CU will incentivize patrons to “go local” with their ship-building/maintenance needs. A domestic ship-building industry is a great source of skilled/high-wage jobs. So there are many ways to exploit the cost-benefit equation for a win-win.
5	Cruise Ship Dry-Dock – *Let’s Make-A-Deal* The Caribbean region is the Number One market for the Cruise Line industry. Big expenses for Cruise Lines are port charges and landing fees. The CU will offer rebates and incentives for the Cruise Lines to use local dry-docks for retro-fittings and refurbishing.
6	Yacht Development – *Catering to a Special Market*
7	Sailboats – For Every Man The history of Caribbean boat building is rich with sailing crafts; cruise ships evolved from local Banana-Boats. The CU will channel that history, passion and ethos for the region to design/develop best-inbred sailboats, big and small.
8	Boat Shows and Open Houses – Show and Tell
9	Regattas – More than Just Winning a Race The history of the region has highlighted ships, boats and boat building. There is the tradition of Regattas, used to showcase the islands boat building prowess. [199] The CU now intends to feature Regattas in the same manner that automakers feature auto racing (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula-One), as a demonstration platform for their art and science.
10	Maritime Emergencies – *Professional Response* The CU will deploy the necessary equipment and training for the ship-building industry to respond to maritime emergencies in the region. Therefore a disabled cruise ship will have the rapid response of “support-barges”, tug boats, dredging equipment, portable generators. This effort will be marshaled by the CU Emergency Management Agency.

The CU will foster shipbuilding as an industrial supplement and alternative to tourism. We have the resources (waterscapes, ports and harbors), the skills and the passionate work-force. We only need the Commerce of the Seas. The Caribbean people are now ready for this industrial empowerment. But we need to be cautious as to which role model we emulate. The US does provide material support and subsidies to their shipbuilding industry, but their protection laws – i.e. the Jones Act – have nullifies the positive effects of a Free Market. While other countries build and launch hundreds of ships every year, the US model only produce 2. That’s a lot of missing jobs, and artificially induced high prices.

In the Caribbean, we must do better. Fortunately, we do not have the Crony-Capitalism of the Jones Act to deter us. We can follow other – better – models to progress our societal investments in this industry. This is the assertion of the Go Lean roadmap.

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to foster this industrial development, so that our region can be a better homeland and seas to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

———–
Appendix – The OECD Council Working Party on Shipbuilding

(OECD = Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)

The OECD Council Working Party on Shipbuilding (WP6) seeks to progressively establish normal competitive conditions in the industry. It encourages transparency through data collection and analysis, and seeks to expand policy dialogue with non-OECD economies that have significant shipbuilding industries. WP6 is the only international body that can influence and guide government policies by identifying and, where possible, eliminating factors that distort the shipbuilding market.

The Working Party is chaired by Ambassador Elin Østebø Johansen, Permanent Representative of Norway to the OECD. Participating OECD members are: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey. Croatia and Romania are full participants in the Working Party, and the Russian Federation participates as an observer. The European Commission, representing the European Union, also participates in WP6 meetings.

What does the Working Party on Shipbuilding do?
The WP6 has placed a high priority on encouraging policy dialogues, and on establishing close working relationships with non-OECD economies. In particular, these economies were invited to participate on an equal footing with OECD members in the negotiations on a shipbuilding agreement that ran from 2002 until 2005, and Brazil, China, Croatia, the Philippines, Romania, the Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei and Ukraine participated in those negotiations. Although the negotiations were eventually halted, a close working relationship has continued with all of these economies.

The WP6 organizes regular workshops aimed at facilitating the exchange of information on policy and industry developments, and as well as the economies already mentioned, other participants have come from India, and Indonesia, amongst others.

The WP6 has also worked closely with industry groups representing shipbuilders, ship owners, ship operators and trade union interests, so that a wide range of perspectives can be taken into account by WP6 members during their formulation of policy responses to address issues and challenges faced by the global shipbuilding sector.

What is the relevance of the Working Party to non-OECD economies and industry?

While the world’s shipbuilding industry has been through a period of record production, it was severely affected by the 2008 global financial crisis, and recent years have seen very low levels of new orders received by virtually all shipyards. The global industry now faces a number of challenges, most notably global excess capacity, which will place the economic viability of the industry under pressure in some parts of the world.

Persistent worldwide overcapacity may encourage governments to provide support through subsidies and other measures, as well as spur other market distorting practices, which can create major structural problems even in the most efficient shipbuilding industries. But potential market distortions can be addressed through close co-operation among economies with significant shipbuilding sectors and the active involvement of industry.

———-

INVENTORY OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT MEASURES

The Inventory of Government Subsidies and Other Support Measures is a regular exercise for the WP6. The main aim of this exercise is to provide transparency and continuity of data on support measures for the shipbuilding industry. As well as WP6 participants, the Inventory provides some information on the support measures in Partner economies.

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