Model – Page 32 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: Model

ENCORE: The Requirement for Better Security – ‘Must Love Dogs’

Posted on October 2, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Implementation

One Minute Las Vegas Was Rocking; the Next It Was ‘World War III’ – Report of October 1, 2017 attack at a Country Music Festival

It is obvious that tourism and terrorism do not “make good dance partners”. Las Vegas enjoys 47 million tourists year, but with last night’s terrorist attack, there may be the need for some security enhancements at tourist and festival venues.

This is the similar awareness after the May 2017 attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England …

… and the June 2016 Pulse Night Club shooting in Orlando, Florida.

The advocacy from the lessons-learned from all of these events is “Want Better Security? Must Love Dogs“. There are opportunities for bomb-sniffing and gun-sniffing dogs at venues and surrounding areas. This is the exact theme of a previous blog-commentary. Here is an ENCORE of that commentary:

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Go Lean Commentary – Want Better Security? Must Love Dogs

So you want to secure your homeland against terror and other threats? Here’s a key requirement:

‘Must Love Dogs’

This is so true; man’s best friend can also be our best partner for mitigating threats of terroristic acts in public places. This is common sense … now that we have seen how devious the terrorists can be, exploiting soft targets right outside any hard target zones.

This is a fresh concern as there was a terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England last night (May 22, 2017). The attacker was an ISIS-backed suicide bomber who positioned himself among the exiting concert-goers for a show at the Arena. (The artist is American teen pop-sensation Ariana Grande, a fan-favorite among teenage girls and boys). He detonated his “Improvised Explosive Device” (IED) right outside the security zone while people were exiting to leave. So far, the death toll is 22, with 59 injuries. See full details on the story, aftermath and investigation here:

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Manchester Concert Attack; 22 Dead

Manchester Arena – Situation Normal

Manchester Arena – Monday Night May 22, 2017

Expect more revelations of the motives and bitter consequences of this attack against “innocence”.

This is a matter of serious concern for planners of a new Caribbean. This is Terrorism 101; this is affecting the whole world and our world. Though this attack was far away from the Caribbean islands, it was not far away from Caribbean people, as related in a previous blog-commentary from the promoters of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, there is a large Caribbean Diaspora in Manchester.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The book asserts that the needed security apparatus to better defend against the modern threats of terrorism is too much for any one Caribbean member-state alone. There must be a regional integrated and confederated solution. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

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

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. …

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.

Is there anything more that could have been done to prevent this Manchester Terrorist Attack? Let the post-trauma analysis begin! For one, the planners of the new Caribbean security apparatus have always presented this ingredient to the recipe for security success:

Must love dogs!

In a previous blog-commentary, it was related how specially-trained canines can help to better secure the Caribbean homeland. Consider this quotation:

The subject of animals and animal companionship is also pivotal in the roadmap for elevating Caribbean society, especially for the security engines. The Go Lean book posits (Page 185) that better command of Animal Husbandry can facilitate better security around the region’s economic engines. Dogs feel a lot less intrusive and less intimidating than formal security screening, or personnel patrolling with AK47 automatic rifles. Imagine a beautiful Caribbean beach scene with a plain clothes “officer” walking along with specialty dogs, or more exactly:

Drug Sniffing Dogs

Bomb [and Gun] Sniffing Dogs

Service/Therapy Dogs

This is one implementation that could have been deployed to mitigate the terrorism threat in Manchester … and everyday here in the Caribbean. Yes, this is in hindsight; this is “Monday Morning Quarterbacking“. This is not fair to the 22 lives lost in Manchester, but this is most importantly a pledge, not to let those lives die in vain. Let’s apply the lessons-learned.

This implementation with service dogs is just one “how”. 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 better ensure homeland security in the Caribbean region.

Consider this one chapter (and Case Study) … where the Go Lean book fully detailed the advocacy of Animal Husbandry; see these headlines from Page 185:

Case Study: Trikos K9 Warriors
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon [in April 2013], highly trained dogs were rushed to the scene to search for more explosives. Boston Police have said dogs swept the streets in the morning and a second time just an hour before the first marathoners crossed the finish line. It’s considered likely that the bombers planted their devices well after the dogs finished sweeping the area. Since 9/11, dogs have been used more than ever because nothing has proven more effective against hidden bombs than the nose of a working dog. The best of them serve with U.S. Special Operations, so much of what they do is classified, but by looking at the trainers, Trikos K9 Warriors (www.trikos.com) – on a 20-acre ranch in rural Cooper, Texas – one gets a rare glimpse inside the secretive world of these elite dogs. Most of them are from one breed, Belgian Malinois.
Dogs and their handlers work as a team, train as a team, and they go through so much together their bond is as strong as a band of brothers. In Afghanistan, they led their units and protected them in battlefields littered with hidden bombs. Per former Navy SEAL and Trikos Founder Mike Ritland: “same thing that they do for [the troops] overseas, detect explosives, they can do on American streets; plus they can run faster than 30 miles an hour so they can help take down suspects”.
See Appendix below for VIDEO from CBS News Magazine “60 Minutes”.

10 Ways to Improve Animal Husbandry

1	Lean-in for Caribbean Integration The CU treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market, thereby impaneling a federal layer for oversight of the economy and security of the 30 member-states and 42 million people. One CU mission is to facilitate better security around the region’s economic engines. Another mission is to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. In considering the needs of the 42-million population, there must be some consideration for their animals. Beyond the CU overseeing food-supply regulations and spearheading the security benefits of employing specially trained service animals, the CU will spur philanthropy for more animal husbandry efforts, such as foundations advocating Spay/Neuter goals for dogs/cats. Lastly, the CU will coalesce with local authorities to ensure “dog parks” in urban/suburban areas.
2	Plantations for Bomb Sniffing Dogs The CU assumes the responsibility to assuage systemic risks and economic crimes. This includes marshaling defensive support for events/festivals, against terrorism and cross border gangs. The US model of Trikos K9 Warriors will be adopted with Belgian Malinois dogs, to breed them on plantations and train them to detect and interdict explosives.
3	Cadaver Dogs / Drug Sniffing Dogs / Drug Sniffing Pigs The CU will install plantations for dogs and pigs (Vietnamese Potbellies are especially acute) to train them to detect drugs/contraband and cadavers. The CU will maintain animals on-the-ready for acquisition by local and federal police.
4	Police K9 Units Each member-state may currently have a platoon of K9 police dogs, but their average service life is less than 10 years. So there is always a constant need for service animals. These needs will henceforth be fulfilled locally within the region.
5	Horses for Mounted Police Many polices forces have a Mounted Police Squad. These are especially critical for patrols at events and crowded locales. The CU will facilitate the acquisition and training of horses for the region’s Mounted Police units. These breeding and training plantations are ideal for rural area development, thus spurning an economic benefit.
6	Water Focus – Seals and Dolphins Service animals are not only the land variety. There are aquatic mammals as well: seals and dolphins. These species are excellent for securing maritime and naval operations – the CU are all islands and coastal states. The best practice is to mount mobile cameras on these mammals and have them patrol a specified grid. The economies of scale of the CU will allow for the deployment of these creative solutions while any one member-state alone cannot justify the investment. These deployments should not be secretive, but rather exposed to local/foreign media for image promotion.
7	Service Dogs for the Blind / Disabled – Domestic and Tourists
8	Comfort Animals for Therapies and Treatment
9	Bio-Medical Farms (Pigs, Baboons)
10	Agricultural Considerations – Animals for Foods

The Go Lean movement (book and preceding blog-commentaries) relate that security is not automatic, innate nor natural – Freedom is not Free. There is heavy-lifting involved in protecting the homeland for Caribbean stakeholders: residents and visitors. This point was detailed in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11332	Boston Bombing Anniversary – Learning Lessons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10959	See Something, Say Something … Do Something
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on Terrorism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103	Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5307	8th Violent Crime Warning to Bahamas Tourists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965	America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean Regional Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1832	American Drug-arrested inmates to be deported – Look-out Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554	Status of Forces Agreement for Regional Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487	Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica received World Bank funds to help in crime fight

The quest of the Go Lean roadmap is to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. This means measurable reduction (mitigating and remediation) of crime, interpersonal violence and systemic threats in the region. The Go Lean book presents a regional solution to remediate and mitigate crime and terrorism in the Caribbean, featuring details of strategies, tactics and implementations designed based on best-practices from around the world. The book’s vision is quite simple:

If we fail to plan, then we plan to fail.

The premise in the Go Lean book is that “bad actors” will always emerge, from internal and external origins. We must be prepared and on-guard to defend our homeland against all threats, foreign and domestic, including terrorism and interpersonal violence. Plus, we must accomplish this goal with maximum transparency, accountability, and commitment to due-process and the rule-of-law. Thusly, there is a place for many tools and techniques, think: closed-circuit TV (CCTV), dashboard and body cameras.

The title on this commentary – ‘Must Love Dogs’ – puns the title of the 2005 Movie of the same name. That movie was not about Terrorism nor about dogs. (It was about a couple who met through an internet dating site that matched their dog-loving profiles).

See a review of the movie here: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/must-love-dogs-2005.

Yes, we can – with our “love for dogs” – make our homeland a better-safer 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.

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Appendix VIDEO – Sniffing Out Bombs: America’s most elite dogs – https://youtu.be/FsnPAQ137fY

Published on Apr 21, 2013 – Lara Logan gets a rare look into the secretive world of working dogs — some of whose capabilities are military secrets — and their handlers.

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

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Events, Model, Security, Terrorism, Tourism

Amazon Opens Search for HQ2

Posted on September 27, 2017 in Economics, Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Amazon is not just a giant on the internet, in the areas of electronic commerce. No they are emerging as a giant in the real world as well. The company has over 380,000 employees worldwide and 40,000+ at their Seattle, Washington USA headquarters. That is a BIG corporate presence. In fact, economic analysts had tabulated Amazon’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution to Seattle at $US 38 Billion. Wow!

Now, the company has decided to open a new supplemental headquarters facility – with the promise of another 50,000 job opportunities. Where will they place this second HQ facility – HQ2? They are open to offers.

Let the bidding begin …

See the Press Release in the Appendix below and the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – American cities vie to be site of Amazon’s second headquarters – https://www.today.com/video/american-cities-vie-to-be-site-of-amazon-s-second-headquarters-1055053379904

Many U.S cities are competing fiercely to show Amazon why they should become home to the online giant’s second headquarters. NBC business correspondent Jo Ling Kent reports for TODAY from one of them: Los Angeles.

As related in this VIDEO, Amazon HQ2 would be a “serious jolt to any local economy”. Consider these prospective cities that are lining up:

Atlanta	El Paso, TX	Nashville, TN
Baltimore	Gary, Indiana	Pittsburgh, PA
Birmingham, AL	Houston, TX	Phoenix, AZ
Boston, MA	Las Vegas, NV	Portland, OR
Chicago	Los Angeles	St Louis, MO
Cincinnati, OH	Miami, FL	Toronto, Canada
Denver, CO	Minneapolis, MN	Tucson, AZ

The Caribbean is not represented on that list; notwithstanding the frontier city of Miami. (Miami thrives due to the presence of the Caribbean Diaspora).

But that’s OK…this time. We have our own plans.

As related in previous blog-commentaries by the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, Amazon is a model for the Caribbean’s own venture into electronic commerce. We have the design for www.myCaribbean.gov web-portal and the Caribbean Postal Union to perform a lot of the same functionality that Amazon does in the USA.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU). These entities are designed to address the “Agents of Change“ in modern society, but for a Caribbean scope only. The “Agents of Change” at play in the foregoing news source are as follows:

Technology
Globalization

As related in the foregoing VIDEO, the business dynamics of Amazon will have a huge impact on some local community. That American city that lands HQ2 will have a lot to celebrate, as their societal engines will be elevated. An enterprise that can create that many high-paying direct jobs – 50,000 – will have a stimulating effect on the rest of the economy. This too is a feature of Amazon that “we” want to model in the Caribbean. The Go Lean/CU roadmap is designed to elevate the Caribbean’s societal engines starting first with economics (jobs, industrial development and entrepreneurial opportunities). In fact, the following 3 statements are identified as the prime directives of the CU:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these other engines. Governance will not grow the economy, commerce will.

One addition feature of Amazon that bears disclosing is their effect on stimulating other businesses. According to these words from the Press Release below, the home community of Amazon’s current headquarters – Seattle, Washington – has incubated many other Fortune 500 companies in the wake of Amazon’s rise and dominance:

Increase in Fortune 500 companies with engineering/R&D centers in Seattle: From 7 in 2010 to 31 in 2017

Incubation is a primary tactic addressed in the Go Lean book. It is explained (Page 28) as follows:

The Bottom Line on Incubators
Business incubators are programs designed to support the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management. Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a startup company will stay in business for the long term: studies found 87% of incubator graduates stayed in business, in contrast to 44% of all firms. [Incubators are common in the US, Canada and Europe]. In 2005 alone, North American incubation programs assisted more than 27,000 firms that provided employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenues of $17 billion.

Incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Incubators also differ from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers in that they serve only selected clients. Most common incubators provide these services:

1. Help with business basics

2. Networking activities

3. Marketing assistance

4. Help with accounting/financial management

5. Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs

6. Help with presentation skills

7. Links to higher education resources

8. Links to strategic partners

9. Access to angel investors or venture capital

10. Advisory boards and mentors

11. Technology commercialization assistance

12. Help with regulatory compliance

13. Intellectual property management.

Amazon’s modus operandi is not to be an incubator, though they have invested in many other tech-related companies. No, the Seattle incubation resulted from more community synergy than direct planning. This is what is defined in the Go Lean book as “community ethos”:

1. 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.

2. The character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.

We need this community ethos in the Caribbean!

Overall, in its 370-pages, the Go Lean book stresses the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reform and transform the economic engines of Caribbean society. The required technocratic stewardship for the region’s economic engines was presented early in the book with these opening pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 and 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.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The points of effective, technocratic stewardship were further elaborated upon in previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291	Amazon – The Retailers’ Enemy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	Lessons from China – WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3187	Robots help Amazon tackle Cyber Monday
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2488	Model of an E-Commerce Fulfillment Company: Alibaba
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Model of an E-Commerce Fulfillment Company: Amazon
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528	Facebook’s advances for e-Commerce payments

Congratulation to the selected city – whoever is selected – for Amazon’s HQ2.

For the Caribbean, let’s pay attention to this bidding process. Let’s lean-in and learn how the economic incentives were structured by the winning city to attract this “whale” of a corporate investor – Amazon commits to spending $5 Billion to enhance local infrastructure in the selected city. This chosen city will make great progress in their attempts to elevate their city … to live, work and play.

The lessons learned can help the Caribbean in our solicitations of Direct Foreign Investors. We can learn so much from this process, since it is also our desire to make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Appendix Title: Amazon Opens Search for Amazon HQ2 A Second Headquarters City in North America

New headquarters will be a full equal to Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, and is expected to grow to 50,000 employees as part of the company’s ongoing job creation

Amazon plans to invest over $5 billion in construction and operation of Amazon HQ2

In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs in construction and related industries, and generate tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the city where Amazon HQ2 is located

SEATTLE — (BUSINESS WIRE)

(NASDAQ: AMZN) — Amazon today announced plans to open Amazon HQ2, a second company headquarters in North America. Amazon expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community. Amazon is opening the Amazon HQ2 Request for Proposal (“RFP”) now, and local and state government leaders interested in learning more about how they can bring Amazon to their community can visit www.amazon.com/amazonHQ2.

Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy – every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional 1.4 dollars for the city’s economy overall.

Details of Amazon’s Seattle Headquarters:

Direct¹ Number of buildings 33

Square feet 8.1 million

Local retail within Amazon headquarters 24 restaurants/cafes + 8 other services

Amazon employees 40,000+

Capital investment (buildings & infrastructure) $3.7 billion

Operational expenditures (utilities & maintenance) $1.4 billion

Compensation to employees $25.7 billion

Number of annual hotel nights by visiting Amazonians and guests 233,000 (2016)

Amount paid into the city’s public transportation system as employees’ transportation benefit $43 million

Indirect² Additional jobs created in the city as a result of Amazon’s direct investments 53,000

Additional investments in the local economy as a result of Amazon’s direct investments $38 billion

Increase in personal income by non-Amazon employees as a result of Amazon’s direct investments $17 billion

Other Increase in Fortune 500 companies with engineering/R&D centers in Seattle From 7 in 2010 to 31 in 2017

¹ From 2010 (when Amazon moved its headquarters to downtown Seattle) to June 2017.

² From 2010-2016. Calculated using Input-Output methodology and multipliers developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

With more than 380,000 employees worldwide, Amazon ranks #1 on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, #2 on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, #1 on The Harris Poll’s Corporate Reputation survey, and #2 on LinkedIn’s U.S. most desirable companies list. Amazon was also recently included in the Military Times’ Best for Vets list of companies committed to providing opportunities for military veterans.

“We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We’re excited to find a second home.”

In choosing the location for HQ2, Amazon has a preference for:

Metropolitan areas with more than one million people
A stable and business-friendly environment
Urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent
Communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options

HQ2 could be, but does not have to be:

An urban or downtown campus
A similar layout to Amazon’s Seattle campus
A development-prepped site. We want to encourage states and communities to think creatively for viable real estate options, while not negatively affecting our preferred timeline.

Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon – not a satellite office. Amazon expects to hire new teams and executives in HQ2, and will also let existing senior leaders across the company decide whether to locate their teams in HQ1, HQ2 or both. The company expects that employees who are currently working in HQ1 can choose to continue working there, or they could have an opportunity to move if they would prefer to be located in HQ2.

To learn more about Amazon’s current Seattle headquarters, plans for Amazon HQ2, and to submit a proposal, visit www.amazon.com/amazonHQ2.

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About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are inherently difficult to predict. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons, including, in addition to the factors discussed above, the amount that Amazon.com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, the mix of products and services sold to customers, the mix of net sales derived from products as compared with services, the extent to which we owe income taxes, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international growth and expansion, the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment, sortation, delivery, and data center optimization, risks of inventory management, seasonality, the degree to which the Company enters into, maintains, and develops commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, payments risks, and risks of fulfillment throughput and productivity. Other risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to new products, services, and technologies, system interruptions, government regulation and taxation, and fraud. In addition, the current global economic climate amplifies many of these risks. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170907005717/en/

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr

Copyright Business Wire 2017

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Source: Posted September 7, 2017; retrieved September 26, 2017 from: http://www.nbc-2.com/story/36308962/amazon-opens-search-for-amazon-hq2-a-second-headquarters-city-in-north-america

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Gender Equity without a ‘Battle of the Sexes’

Posted on September 22, 2017 in Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

A lot of societal reforms – human and civil rights – only come about as a result of advocates fighting for change.

Some battles are so important that they must be fought, even if the proponents were to lose. These proponents must not tire in these battles; but they must accept that change will only come as a result of a struggle.

This commentary has previously asserted that despite the fact that his advocacy was 150 years ago, African-American Abolitionist Frederick Douglass is a role model for the Caribbean today; he is quoted as saying:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

So “change is gonna come“; it would be wiser for opponents to just concede that fact. This is a lesson for the Caribbean to learn from military strategies: if combatants know that the end result of a fight would be imminent defeat, they should not fight; rather they should just concede and negotiate favorable terms of surrender.

Let’s consider gender equality …

… there have actually been real ‘Battles of the Sexes’, where the end results have benefited women – to the victor goes the spoils. Consider these American experiences:

World War I waged between 1918 and 1918, bringing monumental change to society. Women pressed hard in this era and secured the right to vote, starting in 1920, but most women’s careers still only revolved around the home and family.
World War II waged between 1939 and 1945 bringing even more changes to society; as men went off to war, many jobs were assumed by women. After this war, they did not relinquish those advances. More opportunities were forged in the industrial and educational arena.
Title IX, the 1972 landmark federal gender legislation that emerged after the 1960’s Civil Rights era force educational institutions that receive federal monies to mandate equal opportunities for women. The law states (in part) that:

Ah, the 1970’s; in addition, there was another ‘Battle of the Sexes’ that dominated American consciousness. This was the media spectacle of the tennis match featuring female star – and Wimbledon Champion – Billie Jean King versus male star – and Wimbledon Champion – Bobby Riggs. This is a big week for the memories of that 1973 ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match as a new movie is being released on Friday (September 29, 2017) to chronicle the drama of those events. See this Profile VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Billie Jean King’s victories, on and off the court – https://youtu.be/MgcfWTGcnNY

“If you’re old enough to remember it, in 1973, you probably watched it: Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs — man vs. woman — a spectacle that captivated the nation.
More than 30,000 attended the match held in the Houston Astrodome. …”

Lee Cowan catches up with the tennis legend and advocate for gender equality, whose 1973 exhibition match against Bobby Riggs was promoted as the “Battle of the Sexes” (and is now dramatized in a new movie starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell).

See the full transcript of the VIDEO here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/billie-jean-king-battle-of-the-sexes/

Also see the Movie Trailer in the Appendix below.

As related in the movie, this 1973 event in Houston, Texas USA sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. As the USA goes, so does the rest of the world … eventually. The American Hegemony – the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others – is real for its impact on Caribbean life. Each one of these advances in Women’s Rights in the US had a parallel effect on Caribbean member-states … eventually. In a previous Go Lean commentary, the Caribbean’s journey in Gender Equality was detailed and presented as a needed advocacy to reform and transform our society.

Yes, in the Caribbean, we can have Gender Equity without a ‘Battle of the Sexes’. Notice, we want equity, more so than equality! We recognize that there is and will always be differences between men and women – think maternity. Each gender have different needs, the solution is not the “same” for everyone, but rather the relevant empowerments, so that everyone can “be all they can be”.

Since the Caribbean needs … all the help we can get, we need more women in government, local administration and regional stewardship. That previous blog-commentary related …

… this is not just a case for feminism. The issues relate to policy-making participation and optimization, more than they relate to feminism. This story is being brought into focus in a consideration of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the societal elevation in the region. This roadmap calls for a fuller participation from women as stakeholders. …

With 50% of the population, there is the need for 50% of the representation; (this is the target). …

Among the crises that the region contends with is human flight, the brain drain or abandonment of the highly educated citizenry. Why do they leave? For “push-and-pull” reasons!

“Push” refers to deficient conditions at home that makes people want to flee. “Pull” refers to better conditions abroad that appeals to Caribbean residents. They want that better life.

[So] an underlying mission of the CU is to dissuade this human flight.

The title ‘Battle of the Sexes’ refers to a movie, yes, but an advocacy as well. (Any discussion about Billie Jean King must also consider her advocacy for LGBT rights; we need those empowerments in the Caribbean too; we need our local opposition to concede – without a battle – that they cannot win in abusing others). This is why we need movies; as an art form, they can be a powerful source of messaging to impress new theories, doctrines and practices on the masses of people. This is what is meant by “life imitating art”. In a previous blog-commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …

“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.

This is the assertion of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, that different artistic endeavors can be used for effective messaging to forge change – elevate the community – in the Caribbean’s societal engines. The book – available to download for free –presents the prime directives of the Go Lean roadmap:

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.

The Caribbean region needs to include more women in leadership roles in business, government and all security institutions. We need to do this without a Battle.

You Caribbean men, just concede:

We need the full participation of all able-bodied women for the successful outworking of our communities.

This theme was pronounced early in the Go Lean book with this Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 14), with these opening statements:

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

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

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

The subject of fostering gender equity, equal access and equal protections for women have been directly addressed and further elaborated upon in previous blog/commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12035	Lean-in for ‘Wonder Woman Day’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8306	Women Get Ready for New Lean-In Campaign
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8155	Bahamas Referendum Outcome: Impact on the ‘Brain Drain’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7490	Push Factor: Interpersonal Violence / Domestic
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6937	Women in Politics – Yes, They Can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6836	Role Model – #FatGirlsCan – Empowering Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6434	‘Good Hair’ and the Strong Black Woman
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6422	Getting More Women Interested in Science/Technology Careers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2709	Caribbean Study: 58% Of Boys Agree to Female ‘Discipline’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2201	Students developing nail polish to detect date rape drugs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809	Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=695	Help for Abused Women Depicts Societal Defects

The Go Lean book posits that every woman has a right to work towards making her community a better place to live, work and play. This should be the default thinking, without a battle … especially here in the Caribbean where we need their participation. So the 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 help women to impact the homeland.

This quest to elevate our regional society requires heavy-lifting! It is a battle. But this quest, this goal is conceivable, believable and achievable. With the right commitment of time, talent and treasuries from women – and the men that support them – we can succeed in making the Caribbean region 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 – Battle of the Sexes I Official Trailer – https://youtu.be/o5ykcuAS1F4

The electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) was billed as THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES and became one of the most watched televised sports events of all time. The match caught the zeitgeist and sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. Trapped in the media glare, King and Riggs were on opposite sides of a binary argument, but off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles. With a supportive husband urging her to fight the Establishment for equal pay, the fiercely private King was also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, while Riggs gambled his legacy and reputation in a bid to relive the glories of his past. Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis courts and animated the discussions between men and women in bedrooms and boardrooms around the world.

Visit THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES on our WEBSITE: www.battleofthesexes-movie.com

Like THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/BattleoftheS…

Follow THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/billievsbobby

Follow THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES on INSTAGRAM:

https://www.instagram.com/battleofthe… #BattleoftheSexes

Connect with Fox Searchlight Online

Visit the Fox Searchlight WEBSITE: http://foxsearchlight.com/

Like Fox Searchlight on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/foxsearchlight

Follow Fox Searchlight on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/foxsearchlight

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Category: Film & Animation
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Civil Rights, Gender, Model

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After Irma, the Science of ‘Power Restoration’

Posted on September 17, 2017 in Government, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

The problem with hurricanes – and there are many – is that it takes a long time for the storm preparation and response (relief, recovery and rebuilding). On average, the storm’s preparation takes 3 days; this includes provisioning, installing protective shutters, hoarding water and gasoline. The response on the other hand can take days, weeks, months and dread-to-say, years.

The most uncomfortable part of the storm response is undeniable waiting for electrical power to be restored.

In general, the good-bad-ugly scale of memories of previous storms tend to be tied to the length of time it took for power to be restored. The peak of the hurricane season is the very hot months of August/September; there is the need for air-conditioning.

The Caribbean is in crisis now; our region has just been devastated by Hurricane Irma; it has wreaked catastrophic havoc in certain destinations: Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Florida. Consider the encyclopedic details in Appendix A below and these questions:

How long did/will it take for power to be restored now after Hurricane Irma?
How can we reform and transform our Caribbean communities to ensure the efficiency of ‘Power Restoration’?

There is an art and science to the subject of ‘Power Restoration’; actually mostly science. The ‘art’ applies to the efficient deliveries of the management of the restoration process. The science considerations are extensive, starting with the entire eco-system of energy deliveries. As related in a previous blog-commentary …

… no one doubts that the inventory of basic needs include “food, clothing and shelter”. But modernity has forced us to add another entry: “energy”. In fact, the availability and affordability of energy can impact the deliveries of these order basic needs.

… In our region, energy costs are among the highest in the world. The book Go Lean… Caribbean relates (Page 100) how the Caribbean has among the most expensive energy costs in the world, despite having abundant alternative energy natural resources (solar, wind, tidal, geo-thermal). The Caribbean eco-system focuses on imported petroleum to provide energy options and as a result retail electricity rates in the Caribbean average US$0.35/kWh, when instead it could be down to US$0.088/kWh. …

With such a 75% savings … there is definitely the need to adapt some of the scientific best practices for energy generation and consumption. In a previous blog-commentary, it was confessed that one of the reasons why people flee the Caribbean region, is the discomforts during the summer months … hot weather, and the lack of infrastructure to mitigate and remediate the discomfort, is identified as one of the reasons for the brain drain/societal abandonment.

One motivation of the movement behind the book Go Lean… Caribbean – available to download for free – is to facilitate a turn-around of economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region to do better with power generation, distribution and consumption. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This commentary continues the 4-part series – this is 3 of 4 – on the Aftermath of Hurricane Irma. There are a lot of mitigation and remediation efforts that can be done to lessen the impact of this and future storms. There are lessons that we must consider; there are reforms we must make; there are problems we must solve. The full list of the 4 entries of this series are detailed as follows:

Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – America Should Scrap the ‘Jones Act’
Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – The Science of Power Restoration
Aftermath of Hurricane Irma – Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection

Despite the manifested threats of Climate Change-fueled hurricanes, we want to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. This is going to take some heavy-lifting to accomplish, but we can be successful. Yes, we can. This quest is detailed early on in the Go Lean book’s Declaration of Interdependence, as follows (Page 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.

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.

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

The Go Lean book asserts that Caribbean stakeholders must find a Way Forward; they must institute better systems, processes and utilities to deliver electrical power (energy) despite the reality of hurricanes. Though power will go off – electricity and water is a bad combination – ‘Power Restoration’ must be a priority. Therefore Caribbean communities must adopt different community ethos, plus execute key – and different – strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reform and transform.

This Way Forward must therefore fulfill these 2 requirements:

Flood Management and Control

According to a previous blog-commentary: “there is a thesis that flooding could be prevented. Yes, indeed! This is the experience and historicity of the Dutch people, the European country of the Netherlands or Holland.”
Even in the low-lying American city of New Orleans, Louisiana there is the practice of pumping out excess water to mitigate and remediate flooding; see this depicted in the VIDEO in Appendix B below.
Implementation of a Caribbean Regional Power Grid

Power distribution is important for any mitigation-remediation plan. The problem with hurricane toppling trees and power lines is unavoidable – it is what it is – a better solution is to deliver electricity underground or underwater, as illustrated in the above photo. The Go Lean roadmap calls for an extensive smart Power Grid and a region-wide Utility Cooperative. This would allow for alternate power generation and electrical distribution. See sample of an underground/underwater “Power Cable” product depicted in the VIDEO in Appendix C below.

Many other communities have done a good job of optimizing their electrical utility grid. They execute strategies, tactics and implementations to mitigate the risk of power outages; then remediate any crises with technocratic deliveries to facilitate ‘Power Restoration’.

There will be heavy-lifting for our Caribbean region to have this disposition. The Go Lean roadmap details that heavy-lift, describing the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster progress for Caribbean energy distribution, our own Regional Power Grid. The following list of entries in the Go Lean book highlights this theme:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
Anecdote – Pipeline Transport – Strategies, Tactics & Implementations	Page 43
Strategy – Harness the power of the sun/winds	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 82
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Energy Commission	Page 82
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Energy Permits	Page 93
Implementation – Regional Grid as Economies-of-Scale benefit	Page 97
Anecdote – Caribbean Energy Grid Implementation	Page 100
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ	Page 104
Implementation – Ways to Develop Pipeline Industry	Page 107
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage	Page 113
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works	Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Monopolies	Page 202
Appendix – Underwater High Intensity Power Lines	Page 282

The experience of enduring hurricanes is never pleasant. As such, we do not invite people to fly down from northern locations to pass storms with us. In fact, when there is a Hurricane Watch, the practice is to evacuate tourists and visitors. We evacuate our high-risk residents as well; (kidney dialysis patients, senior citizens, anyone that cannot endure the loss of electronic-based health instruments). This is a best-practice.

Why do we only evacuate just a limited group from the islands?

We assume that everyone else can endure.

Hah, lol …

But actually, with such high post-hurricane abandonment rates, as reported previously, it is obvious that everyone loses patience. So any improvement in the ‘Power Restoration’ experience would be a win-win; it would improve our communities’ endurance and make our Caribbean 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 – Hurricane Irma Devastation

In Barbuda, Hurricane Irma caused catastrophic damage on the island; it damaged or destroyed 95% of the island’s buildings and infrastructure, leaving Barbuda “barely habitable” according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne. Everyone on the island was evacuated to Antigua, leaving Barbuda uninhabited for the first time in modern history.^[3]
In St. Martin, on 6 and 7 September 2017 the island was hit by Hurricane Irma (Category 5 at landfall), which caused widespread and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. A total of 11 deaths had been reported as of 8 September 2017.^[12][13] France’s Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, said on 8 September 2017 that most of the schools were destroyed on the French half of the island. In addition to damage caused by high winds, there were reports of serious flood damage to businesses in the village of Marigot. Looting was also a serious problem. Both France and the Netherlands sent aid as well as additional police and emergency personnel to the island.^[14][15][16] The Washington Post reported that 95% of the structures on the French side and 75% of the structures on the Dutch side were damaged or destroyed.^[17][18] Some days after the storm had abated, a survey by the Dutch Red Cross estimated that nearly a third of the buildings in Sint Maarten had been destroyed and that over 90 percent of structures on the island had been damaged.^[19] Princess Juliana Airport was extensively damaged but reopened on a partial basis in two days to allow incoming relief flights and for flights that would take evacuees to other islands.^[20]
In Anguila, the eye of the storm pass over it on September 6. Many homes and schools were destroyed, and the island’s only hospital was badly damaged.^[163] The devastation was particularly severe in East End, where the winds uprooted scores of trees and power poles and demolished a number of houses. … One death was reported on the island.^[163] According to [sources], Anguilla’s economy could suffer at least $190 million in losses from the hurricane.^[129]
Puerto Rico avoided a direct hit by the Category 5 Hurricane Irma on September 8, 2017, but high winds caused a loss of electrical power to some one million residents. Almost 50% of hospitals were operating with power provided by generators.^[133]
Damage in the British Virgin Islands was extensive. Numerous buildings and roads were destroyed on the island of Tortola, which bore the brunt of the hurricane’s core.^[172] Irma’s effects in the U.S. Virgin Islands were most profound on Saint Thomas. Due to its normal reliance on electricity from Saint Thomas, the island [of St. John] was left without power.
In the Florida Keys, the hurricane caused major damage to buildings, trailer parks, boats, roads, the electricity supply, mobile phone coverage, internet access, sanitation, the water supply and the fuel supply. … As of 6:41 p.m. EDT on September 10 over 2.6 million homes in Florida were without power.^[232]

———–

Appendix B VIDEO – Here’s how the pumps in New Orleans move water out during heavy rainfall – https://youtu.be/hZvGVUZi9FU

Published on Mar 30, 2017 – WDSU News: Pumps Work During Thursday’s Flooding

———–

Appendix C VIDEO – ABB launches world´s most powerful extruded HVDC cable system –

Published on Aug 21, 2014

ABB Power Grids

525 kV voltage (previous highest installed 320 kV) sets world record more than doubling power flow to 2600 MW (from 1000 MW) and extending range to 1500 km for more cost effective, efficient and reliable underground and subsea transmission while keeping losses to below 5 percent. Major breakthrough for applications like underground HVDC transmission, sub-sea interconnections, offshore wind integration etc. More information: http://new.abb.com/systems/high-volta…

Category: Science & Technology
License: Standard YouTube License

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Green Energy, Model, Transform

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ENCORE on Charity Management: Grow Up Already!

Posted on September 13, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Social, Strategy

One year later, have we grown up anymore in that time?

Unfortunately, no!

There is still the need to Grow Up and manage our own affairs. This was detailed in a comprehensive commentary exactly one year ago today. Let’s Encore it here-now:

————————————————–

Go Lean Commentary – Charity Management: Grow Up Already!

“Don’t be a stock on the shelf” – Bob Marley: Pimpers Paradise – Album: Uprising – 1980.

What does the lyrics of this song mean? (See VIDEO here). The analysis is that it is poetic and prophetic. The song has a personal indictment and a community indictment. The lyrics directly address a young girl who stumbles into a party lifestyle; being victimized by abusers or “pimps”. The warning is that she would be considered nothing more than a commodity – to be counted on for illicit profits – rather than a real human with hopes and dreams. As for the community indictment, this submission on SongMeanings.com conveys an insightful point:

General Comment
I’ve always had the impression that this song is about Jamaica, Bob’s mother-country, and its contradictions, described through the technique of personification. If this were the case, most of the girl’s attributes and actions would refer to the whole community of Jamaicans and not to a single person, as it first appears. What makes this song so beautiful is the sadness, tenderness and pride of Marley’s lyrics and voice, as he describes his people’s use and abuse of drugs, its innate tendency to smile, have fun and carry on in spite of the poverty, violence and harshness which characterizes life in that country, and above all its vulnerability to the lies, deception and empty promises of politicians and elites in general, a vulnerability which forces most people into a lifelong submission and which gives this song its title.
By: dettawalker on April 19, 2015

There is a vulnerability to lies, deception and empty promises in the Caribbean. Other people have raised money under the guise of helping our region, but then only kept the monies for themselves … mostly. There is the need for philanthropy, charitable donations and community development, but we need to take the lead for this ourselves, rather than the potential of being victimized by others.

This is not a theory; this is a fact! Remember the $500 million raised by the American Red Cross to benefit Haiti after the 2010 Earthquake; the money mostly disappeared with little manifestation in Haiti. 🙁

Perhaps this is a by-product of the attitude of depending on “other peoples money”; this is so familiar in the Caribbean. For the past 50 years of Caribbean integration movements (West Indies Federation, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and Caribbean Community or CariCom), the focus had been on soliciting aid – begging – from the richer North American and European nations.

Today, our message to Caribbean stakeholders is: Grow Up Already!

Truly, at what point is it expected that we would mature and take care of our own responsibilities?

Answer: Now! Half-pass now!

This point was eloquently conveyed in a previous blog-commentary, where it related how Caribbean member-states use “development funds” (International Aid) for budgetary support for the governments to fulfill their responsibilities in the Social Contract. As a reminder, this implied Social Contract refers to the arrangement where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. This contract authorizes the State to raise revenues from taxes and fees, but “one cannot get blood from a stone”. The 30 Caribbean member-states are mostly all Third World countries; they hover near the poverty line.

Yet still, the book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts it is high-time for this region to grow up and adapt best-practices to elevate our society. We can improve all societal engines: economics, security and governance. This theme is weaved throughout the Go Lean book which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This Go Lean/CU roadmap has the vision of elevating Caribbean society by optimizing these engines. Observe the prime directives as published in the book:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant engines and mitigate internal and external “bad actors”.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the CU federal government and the member-states.

The Bible states …

… “anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” – Matthew 11:15; New Living Translation.

This does not mean that gleaning the wisdom of the fallacy of other people taking the lead for our development will eliminate our poverty. No; we are still a region of Third Word countries; that same Bible translation continues that “you will always have the poor among you” – Matthew 26:11. We simply need to take the lead ourselves of soliciting aid, collecting the aid and managing the distribution of that aid and the resultant accountability. This is no “rocket science”; in fact, it is no science at all. It is mostly an art, and there are competent role models who perform these functions well; we only need to adapt their best-practices.

Consider this company Brewco Marketing; they consider themselves “the marketing vehicle for America’s most trusted brands”. This is a fitting analysis as this company currently conducts marketing campaigns to raise money to benefit impoverished people in several Caribbean countries, the Dominican Republic for example.

Brewco Marketing Group – see Appendix VIDEO below – is a leading experiential marketing company specializing in strategy, design, in-house fabrication, activation and program management. They provide these marketing services for other companies: for-profit corporations and not-for-profit charities. One such client is Compassion International, a Christian child sponsorship organization dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world. They are headquartered in the US city of Colorado Springs, Colorado; but they function in 26 countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti, Kenya, India and the Dominican Republic. According to the Wikipedia page on this charity, (retrieved September 12, 2016), this organization provides aid to more than 1,700,000 children.

Bravo Compassion International! See an example here of the type of faith-based advocacy Compassion International is conducting in our Caribbean region; in this case, the Dominican Republic: http://changetour.compassion.com/experience-dominican-republic/

But, consider that Compassion International outsources to a for-profit marketing firm – Brewco – to solicit funding. What is Brewco’s motivation? Simple: Profit.

While not impugning any bad motives to Brewco or Compassion International, this commentary asserts for self-sufficiency, that “charity begins at home”. This is a basic prerequisite for a mature society.

This consideration aligns with the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The declaration is that the Caribbean must be front-and-center in providing for our own solutions. The alternative of someone else taking the lead for our solution, despite how altruistic the motives, seems to be lacking…every time! Consider this encyclopedia detail on criticism of “Child Sponsorship” charities:

Critics have argued that child sponsorship could alienate the relatively privileged sponsored children from their peers and may perpetuate harmful stereotypes about third-world citizens being helpless. They also claim that child sponsorship causes cultural confusion and unrealistic aspirations on the part of the recipient, and that child sponsorship is expensive to administer.^[8][9] This latter problem has led some charities to offer information about a “typical” child to sponsors rather than one specifically supported by the sponsor. In some cases charities have been caught sending forged updates from deceased children.^[10]

The Effective Altruism community – social movement that applies evidence and reason to determining the most effective ways to improve the world – generally opposes child sponsorship as a type of donor illusion. Givewell – American non-profit charity evaluator – describes sponsorship thusly:^[11]

Illusion: through an organization such as “Save the Children“, your money supports a specific child.

Reality: as “Save the Children” now discloses: “Your sponsorship contributions are not given directly to a child. Instead, your contributions are pooled with those of other sponsors to provide community-based programming for all eligible children in the area.”

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sponsorship retrieved September 12, 2016

This – reality of Big Charity – is just another example of Crony-Capitalism. See the running inventory list of all the Crony-Capitalism models that proliferate in the US, here at https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5529.

Considering this reality, we exclaim to the Caribbean: Grow up already!

The Go Lean book declares (Page 115) that:

“Haiti [in particular and the Caribbean in general] – should not be a perennial beggar; the Caribbean should not be perennial beggars, but we do need capital/money, especially to get started”.

The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) posits that the Caribbean must not be vulnerable to these American Crony-Capitalistic forces.

We do not need some external entity fleecing the public in our name – under the guise of charities but retain vast majorities of the funding as administrative costs – executive salary and bonuses – rather than the intended benefactors.

The Caribbean must do better!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean pursues the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through economic, security and governing empowerments. This includes oversight and guidance for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) in the region. The Go Lean/CU roadmap provides for better stewardship for the Caribbean homeland; and it describes NGO’s as additional Caribbean stakeholders. Governance to this vital area is part of the maturity our region must show; it is not about independence, but rather it conveys the community ethos of interdependence. This point was pronounced early in the Go Lean book, in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 & 14) with these acknowledgements and statements:

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

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

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of [other] communities.

This is the quest of CU/Go Lean roadmap: to provide new guards for a more competent Caribbean administration … by governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. Under this roadmap, NGO’s would be promoted, audited and overseen by CU administrators. The CU would be legally authorized as “deputies” of the member-state governments.

The Go Lean book stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean governance. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Intelligence Gathering	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Emergency Response	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for the eventuality of natural disasters	Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Post WW II European Marshall Plan/Recovery Model	Page 68
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance	Page 71
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Treasury Department – Shared Property Recording Systems	Page 74
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – State Department – Liaison/Oversight for NGO’s	Page 80
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Interior Department – Housing & Urban Authority	Page 83
Implementation – Assemble All Regionally-focus Organizations of All Caribbean Communities	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid	Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cuba & Haiti Marshall Plans	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Governance and the Social Contract	Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing – Optimizing Property Registration Process	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters – Enhanced local response and recovery	Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry – One solution ideal for Slums	Page 207
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Dominican Republic	Page 237
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti	Page 238

These subjects – Charity Management, Philanthropy and International Aid – have been a source of consistent concern for the Go Lean movement. Consider the details from these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8243	Facebook Founder’s Philanthropy Project Makes First Major Investment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7989	‘Getting over’ with ‘free money’ for societal transformations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896	The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6129	Innovative Partnership Aids Farm Workers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3432	OECS diplomat has dire warning for Caribbean countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1763	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Philanthropy Efforts

So the Caribbean experience with Charity Management in the past and at present is not ideal. How do we apply this insight to impact our future executions?

The primary strategy for improving Charity Management is to keep the administration local; this includes the fund development and the decision-making.

Looking at the great models and samples from Compassion International and Brewco Marketing, can we deploy mobile trailers and immersive exhibits? Can we deploy smart phone apps or tablets with walk-along narration to convey the desperate need for international aid in the Caribbean? Can we foster an eco-system with monthly billing, credit card transactions, or text-message billing?

Yes, we can …

… and this is the “grown up” thing to do, after being burned so often by outsiders.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. – 1 Corinthians 13:11 – New Living Translation

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines. We have a lot to do, the Go Lean book describes it as heavy-lifting. We see the American Crony-Capitalism in action. We do not want to follow their lead. We want to learn from their good and bad examples and models. (It is out-of-scope for the Go Lean movement to fix America). We simply want to fix our Caribbean society to be more self-reliant, both proactively and reactively.

Our quest is simple, a regional effort to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Brewco Marketing Group – https://vimeo.com/101107626

The company’s offerings: from long-term experiential brand strategy to overall program execution and management. Engaging audiences where they work, live and play.

———–

Appendix VIDEO – Interactive Tour Immerses Visitors Into Daily Life in a Foreign Country – http://vimeo.com/73958461

Preview of The Compassion Experience from The Compassion Experience on Vimeo.

Retrieved September 12, 2016 – A self-guided tour will immerse visitors in the lives of the children. Through the use of an iPod, a headset and over 1,700 square feet of interactive space, visitors will see the children’s homes, walk through schools and markets, and hear life-changing stories of hope—all from the perspective of a child whose life began in poverty. This free event is appropriate for all ages and is an excellent opportunity for anyone who has never had the chance to travel outside the U.S. to get a small glimpse of what life can be like in developing countries. See more at http://changetour.compassion.com/

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Crony-Capitalism, Model, Power, Transform

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Caribbean Island Honors Joseph Marcell

Posted on September 7, 2017 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – and accompanying blog-commentaries – asserts that movies, music, theater, TV shows and other forms of the arts can greatly impact society; in addition to the entertainment value, there is also image and impression.

People can change their views and perceptions; prejudices can be overridden. There is the media; there is the message and there are the models: people who elevate to ‘role model’ status by their excellent deliveries and contributions. All of this in a barrage of message frequency – think: a weekly TV show – can dilute false precepts.

Caribbean = ‘Less Than‘? Hardly!

This language adequately describes the artist Joseph Marcell. We all know him as the actor that played “Geoffrey” on the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990’s. He is in the news again, as he is being honored by his birth country, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia; see this news article here:

Title: Saint Lucia honours Joseph Marcell
Press Release:–(Thursday, 07 September 2017) (TORONTO, ON) – The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority and the Consulate General of Saint Lucia, in partnership with CaribbeanTales International Film Festival honors Joseph Marcell (best known for his role as “Geoffrey” in Fresh Prince of Belair).

Marcell is in Toronto attending the 12th annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival for the world premiere of a brand-new TV series, BATTLEDREAM CHRONICLES on September 6th at The Royal Cinema with an encore screening on September 7th at the Cineplex Cinemas, Scarborough.

On September 7th Marcell will appear as a guest on the hit TV Show – The Social. He will be talking to the hosts about what he’s been up to since the Fresh Prince, his Saint Lucia connection and love for theatre.

Saint Lucian nationals will have a unique opportunity to meet with Marcell at an exclusive VIP reception in Toronto from 12:30 – 2:30pm on September 8th, 2017. The Consulate General of Saint Lucia in Toronto, co-hosts of the event, will honor Marcell for his contributions to the arts worldwide.

The VIP reception will feature a travel presentation by the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority with product updates from Sunwing Vacations and Royalton Saint Lucia. Autograph signing will take place following the reception.

Source: Retrieved September 7, 3017 from https://stluciatimes.com/2017/09/07/saint-lucia-honours-joseph-marcell

Joseph Marcell is familiar to this commentary. He was among the many Caribbean-bred cast-members of the Fresh Prince show that was featured in the blog submission from February 25, 2017. That blog, encored below, portrayed how the Caribbean image was accentuated by those artists.

The purpose of the Go Lean movement, described as the prime directive, is the optimization of the Caribbean societal engines: economics, security and governance. A secondary directive is clearly an accentuation of the Caribbean image. For that quest, we honor Joseph Marcell …

… we are so proud!

See the original February 25, 2017 blog-commentary here:

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Commentary Tile: Caribbean Roots: Cast of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’

For the generation born between 1980 and 2000 – Millennials – this TV show is an icon of their generation:

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

It was a situation comedy (sit-com) with laughter, hip-hop music, urban cool lifestyle, family values and thought-provoking drama. This show was formative for all demographics of this generation – White and the Black-and-Brown – but most people do not realize that a large number of the cast members had Caribbean roots.

We are so proud!

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean recognizes the significance of this art-form: sit-com television. On a consistent basis, audiences tuned into this show for entertainment and walked away with enlightenment as well – average ratings were 13 – 14 million viewers. They were constantly exposed to an affluent African-American household with an intact family structure: father, mother, and compliant children navigating a changing world. That was a different perspective – see Image Awards details in the Appendix below – compared to the realities of Black America and the pervasive media portrayals.

The show was not a docu-drama of “Black versus White America”, though many times, plotlines covered these dynamics. In general the storylines addressed teenage angst, but many plotlines addressed the family’s affluence versus working class families; this exposes a familiar rift in the Black community with passionate advocates for a Talented Tenth versus a ‘Power to the People’ contingent. See these encyclopedic details and VIDEO of the show here:

Title: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his wealthy aunt and uncle in their Bel Air mansion after getting into a fight on a local basketball court. In the series, his lifestyle often clashes with the lifestyle of his relatives in Bel Air. The series ran for six seasons and aired 148 episodes.^[1][2]

Starring Cast
Will Smith as Will “The Fresh Prince” Smith
James Avery as Philip Banks
Janet Hubert-Whitten as Vivian Banks (1st)
Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
Karyn Parsons as Hilary Banks
Tatyana M. Ali as Ashley Banks
Joseph Marcell as Geoffrey The Butler
Daphne Maxwell Reid as Vivian Banks (2nd)
Ross Bagley as Nicholas “Nicky” Banks (Seasons 5 & 6 only)

Development
In December 1989, NBC approached Will Smith, a popular rapper during the late 1980s.^[3] The pilot episode began taping on May 1, 1990.^[4] Season 1 aired in July 1990 and ended in March 1991. The series finale was taped on Thursday, March 21, 1996.^[5][6]

The theme song was written and performed by Smith under his rap stage name, The Fresh Prince. The music was composed by QDIII (Quincy Jones III), who is credited with Smith at the end of each episode.

The music often used to bridge scenes together during the show is based on a similar chord structure. The full version of the theme song was used unedited in the first three episodes. The full length version, which is 2:52, was included on Will Smith’s Greatest Hits album and attributed to him only, as well as DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in 1998. A 3:23 version was released in the Netherlands in 1992, reaching #3 on the charts.

In the second season, the kitchen and living room sets were rebuilt much larger with a more contemporary style (as opposed to the much more formal style of the first season), and were connected directly by an archway, allowing scenes to be shot continuously between the sets.

Plot
The theme song and opening sequence set the premise of the show. Will Smith is a street-smart teenager, born and raised in West Philadelphia. While playing basketball, Will misses a shot and the ball hits a group of people, causing a confrontation that frightens his mother, who sends him to live with his aunt and uncle in the town of Bel Air, Los Angeles.

He flies from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket in first class. He then whistles for a taxi that has dice in the reflection screen and the word “FRESH” on its vanity plates. Will’s working class background ends up clashing in various humorous ways with the upper class, “bourgeois” world of the Banks family – Will’s uncle Phil and aunt Vivian and their children, Will’s cousins Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley.
Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia – Retrieved February 24, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air

————

VIDEO – The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air Theme Song – https://youtu.be/1nCqRmx3Dnw

Published on Feb 3, 2013 – This was obviously the first episode.

The reference to The Fresh Prince refers to the hip-hop rapper Will Smith; the show revolved around him.

The Go Lean book identifies that music – even hip-hop – and the arts can greatly impact society; in addition to the entertainment value, there is also image and impression. People can override many false precepts with excellent deliveries and contributions from great role models.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU strives to advance Caribbean image and culture in the region and throughout the world, with these 3 prime directives:

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

This roadmap recognizes that a prerequisite for advancing society is a change in the Caribbean “community ethos”; (the underlying attitude/spirit/sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices). Early in the book, the contributions that culture (music, television, film, theater and dance) can make is pronounced as an ethos for the entire region to embrace, (opening Declaration of Interdependence – DOI – Pages 15) with this statement:

xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.

The Go Lean/CU asserts that change has now come to the Caribbean, collectively and for each of the 30 member-states. The people, institutions and governance of the region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for change. We know it is important to highlight the positive contributions of Caribbean people, even their descendants and legacies.

The great role models being considered here are the many cast members of this iconic TV show – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – who had Caribbean roots. We learn lessons from these great role models: lessons that are good, bad and ugly.

The cast members for consideration are:

Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks
This American-born actor has displayed many talents, beginning his career at the age of eight but securing his first TV sit-com on the series Silver Spoons at the age of 13; he is also accomplished as a television director, dancer, and show host. He was born in New York City to Trinidadian parents Michael and Joy Ribeiro (née De Leon) of Portuguese, Spanish and Afro-Trinidadian descent from Trinidad and Tobago. His mother was the daughter of Trinidadian Calypsonian the Roaring Lion, Rafael de Leon.^[2][3]
Tatyana M. Ali as Ashley Banks
This artist has excelled in her roles as an actress, model and R&B singer. She was born in New York to a mother of Afro-Panamanian^[2][3] heritage and a father who is Indo-Trinidadian.^[3] She began her acting career at the young age of six, starting as a regular child performer on Sesame Street starting in 1985. She has not stopped working in the entertainment industry, featuring acting and singing roles right up to the present day.
Joseph Marcell as Geoffrey The Butler
This Saint Lucian-born British actor moved to the United Kingdom at the age of nine, grew up in South London, and still lives in that metropolitan area. He studied theatre and science at college, then took courses in speech and dance. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in productions of Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has also appeared often on British television and in feature films.^[2]

These artists have placed their signatures on the entertainment world – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air show delivered 148 episodes – notwithstanding their Caribbean heritage. This is among the ‘Good‘ lessons.

What is ‘Bad and Ugly‘ is how they have excelled in their crafts in the US and the UK as opposed to their ancestral homelands. Their parents left the islands for greater opportunities 50 – 70 years ago and despite the passage of time we still do not have any manifestations that would have allowed their artistic expressions in the Caribbean region.

What is sad is that most of the Caribbean Diaspora left their beloved homelands with some aspirations of returning some day. This is depicted in the Go Lean book with this quotation (Page 118):

The Bottom Line for the Caribbean Diaspora
The Caribbean is the best address in the world. However for over 50 years many Caribbean citizens left their island homes to find greater opportunity in foreign lands: USA, Canada and Europe. Though the “man was taken out of the island, the island was never taken out of the man”, and as such many of the Diaspora live in pockets with other Caribbean expatriates in their foreign homelands (i.e. Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York, USA). What’s more, their children, legacies, are still raised and bred with Caribbean values and culture. Many left initially with the intention of returning someday, but life, loves and livelihoods got in the way of a successful return. Worse, many tried to return and found that they were targets of crime and terrorism, mandating that they abandon all hopes and dreams of a successful repatriation. The CU therefore must allow for the repatriation of peoples of the Diaspora, in all classes of society, “the good, the bad and the ugly”.

We salute these artists from the TV show ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’. Great job; great performances and great portrayals. We accept that these artists are great Americans and Britons; they may never be grouped with Caribbean artists.

This is our loss.

May we do better with our next generation. We can and have done some good in the past; Caribbean people have impacted the art world (music and culture) right from their Caribbean homeland. Consider Caribbean musical icon, Bob Marley; he set a pathway for success for other generations of talented, inspirational and influential artists to follow. More artists of Caribbean heritage are sure to emerge to “impact the world” with their artistry. The planners for a new more opportunistic Caribbean – the Go Lean movement – are preparing for it, as specified in the same DOI – Page 13:

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.

The foregoing three artists should be proud of their executions; we are proud of their heritage and thusly have an affinity for their works. We acknowledge those ones from our past who left their Caribbean homelands for better opportunities in the world of entertainment and we know that there are “new” artists who are just waiting to be fostered throughout the Caribbean member-states. We salute these ones as our future, and pledge to do better. The following list details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster future entertainment options in the Caribbean:

Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – All Artists	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Caribbean Vision	Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patents & Copyrights	Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration	Page 81
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Advocacy – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music	Page 231

These foregoing artists – all good people in their own rite – have been impactful for their communities:

Alfonso Ribeiro has been front-and-center in charitable endeavors, exerting much time and resources in helping with children’s medical needs through his Shriners Hospital association.
Tatyana Ali has been very active politically, campaigning for “hope and change” with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.^[10][11] In 2012, she continued showing her support for the re-election campaign and other Democratic Party causes.^[12]
Joseph Marcell devotes a lot of time, talent and treasuries to educational causes within the theater community.

These examples continue the theme of the impact of good role models in their community. We need, want and deserve more of this in the Caribbean. This thought has been presented many times in this commentary; consider these previous Go Lean blogs that identified other role models, from many cultures, with these submissions:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10114	Esther Rolle – Caribbean Roots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9948	Sammy Davis, Jr. – Caribbean Roots
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8724	Remembering Marcus Garvey: A Role Model; Still Relevant Today
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8619	Clive Campbell – Jamaican Innovation for Hip Hop
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8495	NBA Greatness and Caribbean Roots: Tim Duncan Retires
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8328	YouTube Role Model with Caribbean Roots: ‘Tipsy Bartender’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7682	Frederick Douglass: Role Model for a Single Cause
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6593	Dr. Mobley – Role Model as a Business School Dean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726	Caribbean Role Model – Oscar De La Renta – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2297	The Black Contrast: Booker T Washington versus W.E.B. Du Bois
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1037	Role Model and Humanities Advocate – Maya Angelou – R.I.P.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Caribbean Musical Icon and Role Model: Bob Marley

The world is a better place, arts-wise, because of Caribbean contributions. Thank you to all past, present and future artists.

Just one more thing: Let’s make these contributions at home, from home; let’s prosper where we are planted.

This helps us to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————–

Appendix Title: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s NAACP Image Awards

Outstanding Comedy Series	Nominated		1997
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Won	Alfonso Ribeiro	1996
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Will Smith	1997
Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress	Won	Tatyana M. Ali	1997
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Janet Hubert-Whitten	1991
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Nia Long	1996
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Nominated	Daphne Maxwell Reid	1996

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Arts, Diaspora, Image, Model, Play, St Lucia

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ENCORE: The Logistics of Disaster Relief

Posted on August 31, 2017 in Government, Implementation

There has been a major natural disaster – Hurricane Harvey and subsequent flooding – in the US State of Texas this week. Many individuals and institutions are now scrambling to provide relief to the victims in the area.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – The Golden Rule

This is very neighborly. Those of you who can give, please give of your “time, talent and treasuries”.

But please be logical in your giving. Certain items would really be inappropriate at this time; think: clothes, toys, etc.. In fact, this previous Go Lean commentary detailed the entire discussion of inappropriate disaster relief gifts. Consider here-now, this Encore of that previous commentary:

—————

Go Lean Commentary – The Logistics of Disaster Relief

It is during the worst of times that we see the best in people.

This statement needs to be coupled with the age old proverb: “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions“…

… especially when it comes to disaster relief.

In previous blog-commentaries promoting the book Go Lean…Caribbean, it was established that “bad things happen to good people”; (i.e. ‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?, Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’). Yes, disasters are a reality for modern life. The Go Lean book posits that with the emergence of Climate Change that natural disasters are more common place.

In addition there are earthquakes …

… these natural phenomena may not be associated with Climate Change, but alas, they too are more common and more destructive nowadays. (People with a Christian religious leanings assert that “an increase of earthquakes is a tell-tale sign that we are living in what the Bible calls the “Last Days” – Matthew 24: 7).

The motives of the Go Lean book, and accompanying blogs is not to proselytize, but rather to prepare the Caribbean region for “bad actors”, natural or man-made. The book was written in response to the aftermath and deficient regional response following the great earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010. Many Non-Government Organizations (NGO) embarked on campaigns to shoulder a response, a relief and rebuilding of Haiti. Many people hold the view that those efforts did a lot of harm, along with some good.

In a previous blog-commentary, it was reported how the fundraising campaign by one group, the American Red Cross, raised almost US$500 million and yet only a “piddling” was spent on the victims and communities themselves.

Now we learn too that many good-intentioned people donated tons of relief supplies that many times turned out to be “more harm than help”. See the story here in this news VIDEO; (and/or the Narration Transcript/photos in the Appendix below):

VIDEO – When disaster relief brings anything but relief – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/disaster-relief-donations-that-dont-bring-relief

Posted April 24, 2016 – Many of the well-meaning articles Americans donate in times of disaster turn out to be of no use to those in need. Sometimes, they even get in the way. That’s a message relief organizations very much want “us” to heed. This story is reported by Scott Simon, [on loan from] NPR. (VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).

This commentary asserts that more is needed in the Caribbean to facilitate good disaster relief, in particular a technocratic administration. This consideration is the focus of the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies of the Go Lean…Caribbean book. The declaration is that the Caribbean itself must be agile, lean, and optimized in providing its own solutions for disaster recovery. The alternative, from past experiences like in this foregoing VIDEO, is that others taking the lead for our solution seem to fall short in some way … almost every time!

The Caribbean must now stand up and be counted!

The Go Lean book declares (Page 115) that the “Caribbean should not be perennial beggars, [even though] we do need capital/money to get started”, we need technocratic executions even more.

What is a technocracy?

This is the quest of the Go Lean movement. The movement calls for a treaty to form a technocratic confederation of all the 30 member-states in the Caribbean region. This will form a Single Market of 42 million. The consolidation and integration allows for economies-of-scale and leverage that would not be possible otherwise. “Many hands make a big job … small”. But it is not just size that will define the Caribbean technocracy but quality, efficiency and optimization as well.

According to the Go Lean book (Page 64), the …

“… term technocracy was originally used to designate the application of the scientific method to solving social and economic problems, in counter distinction to the traditional political or philosophic approaches. The CU must start as a technocratic confederation – a Trade Federation – rather than evolving to this eventuality due to some failed-state status or insolvency.”

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to provide better stewardship for the Caribbean homeland. The foregoing VIDEO describes the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in shepherding disaster reliefs. These NGO’s are stakeholders in this Caribbean elevation roadmap. Even though many of the 30 member-states are independent nations, the premise of the Go Lean book is that there must be a resolve for interdependence among the governmental and non-governmental entities. This all relates to governance, the need for this new technocratic stewardship of regional Caribbean society. The need for this resolve was pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 & 14) with these acknowledgements and statements:

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

ii.    Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our lands constitutes some extreme seismic activity, it is our responsibility and ours alone to provide, protect and promote our society to coexist, prepare and recover from the realities of nature’s occurrences.

x.   Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

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.

xxxiii.   Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of [other] communities.

This is the quest of CU/Go Lean roadmap: to provide new guards for a more competent Caribbean administration … by governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. (NGO would also be promoted, audited and overseen by CU administrators). The Caribbean must do better!

Our quest must start “in the calm”, before any storm (or earthquake). We must elevate the societal engines the Caribbean region through economic, security and governance empowerments. In general, the CU will employ better strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and the Caribbean homeland.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Former US President George W. Bush shares this advocacy!

He narrated this VIDEO here describing the efficiencies of the American logistics company, UPS, in delivering disaster relief:

VIDEO – Report Logistics and Haiti: Points of Light and President Bush – https://youtu.be/8-gmh1QyWTU

Uploaded on Mar 30, 2011 – [In 2009], Transportation Manager Chip Chappelle volunteered to help The UPS Foundation coordinate an ocean shipment of emergency tents from Indiana to Honduras. Since then, he has managed the logistics of humanitarian aid from every corner of the world to help the victims of floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and cyclones.

The Go Lean book stresses our own community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary for the Caribbean to deliver, to provide the proactive and reactive public safety/security provisions in the region. See sample list here:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Intelligence Gathering	Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing – Emergency Response	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Prepare for the eventuality of natural disasters	Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Post WW II European Marshall Plan/Recovery Model	Page 68
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance	Page 71
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Homeland Security – Emergency Management	Page 76
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – State Department – Liaison/Oversight for NGO’s	Page 80
Implementation – Assemble All Regionally-focus Organizations of All Caribbean Communities	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid	Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Homeland Security Pact	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Governance and the Social Contract	Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing – Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Fund	Page 161
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters	Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry – One solution ideal for Haiti	Page 207
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti	Page 238

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines to be better prepared for the eventual natural disasters. The good intentions of Americans, as depicted in the foregoing VIDEO, is encouraging … but good intentions alone is not enough. We need good management! We need a technocracy! While it is out-of-scope for this roadmap to impact America, we can – and must – exercise good management in our Caribbean region. So what do we want from Americans in our time of need? See VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Donate Responsibly – https://youtu.be/14h9_9sopRA

Published on Nov 2, 2012 – A series of PSAs released by the Ad Council explain why cash is the best way to help. The campaign was launched on November 5, 2012 by the Ad Council and supported by the coalition — which includes CIDI, the U.S. Agency for International Development, InterAction, the UPS Foundation and National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.

The Go Lean book calls on the Caribbean region to be more technocratic: collectively self-reliant, both proactively and reactively. Because of Climate Change or the Last Days, natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes and earthquakes) will occur again and again. Considering that our American neighbors may Pave our Road to Hell with Good Intentions, we need to prepare the right strategies, tactics and implementations ourselves, to make our region a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——————

Appendix Transcript – When disaster relief brings anything but relief

When Nature grows savage and angry, Americans get generous and kind. That’s admirable. It might also be a problem.

“Generally after a disaster, people with loving intentions donate things that cannot be used in a disaster response, and in fact may actually be harmful,” said Juanita Rilling, director of the Center for International Disaster Information in Washington, D.C. “And they have no idea that they’re doing it.”

Rilling has spent more than a decade trying to tell well-meaning people to think before they give.

In 1998 Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras. More than 11,000 people died. More than a million and a half were left homeless.

And Rilling got a wake-up call: “Got a call from one of our logistics experts who said that a plane full of supplies could not land, because there was clothing on the runway. It’s in boxes and bales. It takes up yards of space. It can’t be moved.’ ‘Whose clothing is it?’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t know whose it is, but there’s a high-heeled shoe, just one, and a bale of winter coats.’ And I thought, winter coats? It’s summer in Honduras.”

Humanitarian workers call the crush of useless, often incomprehensible contributions “the second disaster.”

In 2004, following the Indian Ocean tsunami, a beach in Indonesia was piled with used clothing.

There was no time for disaster workers to sort and clean old clothes. So the contributions just sat and rotted.

“This very quickly went toxic and had to be destroyed,” said Rilling. “And local officials poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. And then it was out to sea.”

“So, rather than clothing somebody, it went up in flames?” asked Simon.

“Correct. The thinking is that these people have lost everything, so they must NEED everything. So people SEND everything. You know, any donation is crazy if it’s not needed. People have donated prom gowns and wigs and tiger costumes and pumpkins, and frostbite cream to Rwanda, and used teabags, ’cause you can always get another cup of tea.”

You may not think that sending bottles of water to devastated people seems crazy. But Rilling points out, “This water, it’s about 100,000 liters, will provide drinking water for 40,000 people for one day. This amount of water to send from the United States, say, to West Africa — and people did this — costs about $300,000. But relief organizations with portable water purification units can produce the same amount, a 100,000 liters of water, for about $300.”

And then there were warm-hearted American women who wanted to send their breast milk to nursing mothers in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

“It sounds wonderful, but in the midst of a crisis it’s actually one of the most challenging things,” said Rebecca Gustafson, a humanitarian aid expert who has worked on the ground after many disasters.

“Breast milk doesn’t stay fresh for very long. And the challenge is, what happens if you do give it to an infant who then gets sick?”

December 2012, Newtown, Connecticut: A gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Almost instantaneously, stuff start arriving.

Chris Kelsey, who worked for Newtown at the time, said they had to get a warehouse to hold all the teddy bears.

Simon asked, “Was there a need for teddy bears?”

“I think it was a nice gesture,” Kelsey replied. “There was a need to do something for the kids. There was a need to make people feel better. I think the wave of stuff we got was a little overwhelming in the end.”

And how many teddy bear came to Newtown? “I think it was about 67,000,” Kelsey said. “Wasn’t limited to teddy bears. There was also thousands of boxes of school supplies, and thousands of boxes of toys, bicycles, sleds, clothes.”

Newtown had been struck by mass murder, not a tsunami. As Kelsey said, “I think a lot of the stuff that came into the warehouse was more for the people that sent it, than it was for the people in Newtown. At least, that’s the way it felt at the end.”

Every child in Newtown got a few bears. The rest had to be sent away, along with the bikes and blankets.

There are times when giving things works. More than 650,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Thousands of people lost everything.

Tammy Shapiro is one of the organizers of Occupy Sandy, which grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“We were able to respond in a way that the big, bureaucratic agencies can’t,” Shapiro said.

When the hurricane struck, they had a network of activists, connected and waiting.

“Very quickly, we just stopped taking clothes,” Shapiro said. Instead, they created a “relief supply wedding registry.”

“We put the items that we needed donated on that registry,” said Shapiro. “And then people who wanted to donate could buy the items that were needed. I mean, a lot of what we had on the wedding registry was diapers. They needed flashlights.”

Simon asked, “How transportable is your experience here, following Hurricane Sandy?”

“For me, the network is key. Who has the knowledge? Where are spaces that goods can live if there’s a disaster? Who’s really well-connected on their blocks?”

Juanita Rilling’s album of disaster images shows shot after shot of good intentions just spoiling in warehouses, or rotting on the landscape.

“It is heartbreaking,” Rilling said. “It’s heartbreaking for the donor, it’s heartbreaking for the relief organizations, and it’s heartbreaking for survivors. This is why cash donations are so much more effective. They buy exactly what people need, when they need it.

“And cash donations enable relief organizations to purchase supplies locally, which ensures that they’re fresh and familiar to survivors, purchased in just the right quantities, and delivered quickly. And those local purchases support the local merchants, which strengthens the local economy for the long run.”

Disaster response worker Rebecca Gustafson says that most people want to donate something that is theirs: “Money sometimes doesn’t feel personal enough for people. They don’t feel enough of their heart and soul is in that donation, that check that they would send.

“The reality is, it’s one of the most compassionate things that people can do.”

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Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’

Posted on August 30, 2017 in Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The reality of Caribbean life: we must contend with natural disasters, not of our making, “again and again”. The situation can be described as “Rinse and Repeat“.

Climate Change is not of our making, but it is our problem. Truth be told, it is not just our problem alone; the whole planet is affected. Right now this moment, the Greater Metropolitan area of Houston, Texas USA is suffering “pangs of distress”; see the VIDEO in the Appendix below.

It is what it is!

Some communities have done a better job than others in preparing for the unavoidable:

“Some communities”? “Better job“? That is not us … in the Caribbean!

As related in a previous Go Lean commentary, our Caribbean region has failed … in our managing this Agent-of-Change:

… we do not have the luxury of “sticking our head in the sand” and pretending that these problems will simply go away. The region has been devastated with this dysfunction and mis-management. Some 70% of Caribbean college-educated citizens have already fled their homelands in an undisputed brain drain. It’s time now to manage change differently than the Caribbean has done as of late. It’s time now to “Go Lean”.

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs. This includes an efficient Emergency Management apparatus to ensure business continuity.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies. We can “move” member-state governments simply through funding, rankings and ratings.

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

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

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

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

10 Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters

1	Emergence of the Caribbean Union Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy initiative as the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. This allows for the unification of the 30 member-states into one market, thereby spreading the risk and premium base across a market of 42 million people. The Caribbean member-states have Hurricane Katrina styled disasters (relatively speaking) every year.
2	Caribbean Emergency Management Agency – Federal Disaster Declarations Modeled after FEMA in the US, this agency will be charged with the preparation, response and reconstruction for the regions for the eventual manifestations of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and other declared disasters, natural and man-made like medical epidemic, drought, pollution, oil spills, terrorism, etc.
3	Support Services for First Responders Training, licensing and standards for Emergency Managers, Paramedics, Firefighters, Search and Rescue resources. For major disasters, some of these resources will come from international origins; they will need the support services (language translation, guides, maps, etc.) and coordination to maximize their results.
4	Animal Partner Training and Development Maintain plantations for the training, development and boarding of “search & rescue” dogs, cadavers dogs and other service animals (horses, mules, pigs, etc.) so that there will be local resources within the region. (We cannot always depend on international responses in light of other regions experiencing their own disasters). These animals need not be owned by any one member-state, they can be on loan from CU resources.
5	Siren Warnings & Notifications The CU will install tornado-style alarms/sirens in all major municipalities. In addition, the CU will implement tsunami warning messaging (emails/text) in coastal areas & seismic meters throughout the region in the affected “fault-line” areas.
6	Airlift & Sealift Authorizations The CU Emergency Management Agency can license, regulate and authorize (air & sea) vessels and vehicles for emergency deployment in a disaster zone, before during and after the disastrous event.
7	JUA-style Insurance Fund The fiduciary management of premiums and claims to allow the immediate response for reconstruction after disasters. These financial services, sidecars traded in markets can be direct or indirect as in reinsurance or insurer-of-last-resort.
8	Economic Crime Enforcement During and After Disasters The CU will police, investigate and prosecute price gouging, insurance red lining and other economic crimes of both the “white collar” and “blue collar” variety. Once a CU-member-state declares a Disaster Emergency, new rules (quasi-Marshall Law) goes into effect. The CU will review and prosecute the actions of civilians and institutions alike.
9	Disaster Declaration Loans Once there’s a Federal Disaster Declaration, the CU will make funds available for low-interest loans for communities to fund reconstructions. With tourism as a major “cash crop” the goal will be to restore the locality as a tourist destination as soon as possible, as even the perception of prolonged disaster damage can affect future bookings and travel plans.
10	Building Codes and Standards Through peer review, the CU will regionalize the standards of building codes to assuage the threat of hurricanes and earthquakes, ensuring a higher survivability rate in the Caribbean islands. Due to economic pressures, when buildings and homes cannot be retrofitted, they will be rated for evacuation during hurricane warnings, or earthquake after-shocks.

The Caribbean must foster a better disaster preparation and response apparatus. We must do it now! Lives are at stake.

Just look at our American neighbors – they are suffering right now in the Greater Metropolitan area of Houston, Texas.

While Climate Change is the underlying Agent-of-Change, it is outside of our control. This does not imply that there is no remediation for Climate Change; there is. In fact …

Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can

We do not have the resources (time, talent and treasuries) to fix Climate Change for the planet ourselves, but we can fix it in our Caribbean region. This is a “Lesson in History” that our community has learned … from back in 1863:

There is an important lesson to learn in considering the history of the American Civil War. The war was fought over the issue of slavery. This was an ugly institution for those condemned as slaves. In the United States, that ugly disposition extended beyond the slaves themselves to the entire Black race. Though individuals could be set free, laws in the country could push them back into slavery without any due process. This was the case with the “Fugitive Slave Act of 1850″. Any Black person could be detained as a runaway slave and returned to any alleged Slave Master in the South; no matter any proof or the truth, or lack there-of. In many jurisdictions, a Black man could not even testify against white people. (This was the basis for the autobiographical book – by Solomon Northup – and movie “12 Years A Slave”).

To be Black in the America of those days, one “could not win, could not break-even and could not get out of the game”. There was no neutral destination in America. The optimal option was the only option, to work towards the end of slavery.

For this reason many Blacks joined the war effort, at great sacrifice to themselves and their community. This was a matter of principle! There is an important lesson for the Caribbean from this history^[1] :

The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the first official African-American units in the United States during the Civil War.

Remediating and mitigating Climate Change will be a battle. We need our own “Voluntary Infantry“ in this fight.

“We have a dog in this fight” – English language slang.

In the Caribbean, we must confederate and implement the institutions to work to remediate and mitigate Climate Change. We must “join in this fight”; we must Go Green and we must Go Blue. We have to be prepared for natural disasters – they will come … assuredly every season, some Caribbean destination will be impacted. We must be prepared to:

Rinse and Repeat.

If we are ready, to quickly respond, offer relief and rebuild – so as to guarantee the business continuity – we would then do a better job in our quest 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 – Historic flooding inundates Texas, hampering rescue efforts – https://youtu.be/Da-VS39gdfQ

PBS NewsHour

Published on Aug 27, 2017 – Houston’s mayor on Sunday urged his constituents in the nation’s fourth-largest city to stay off roadways as the state of Texas continues to contend with unprecedented flooding from Hurricane Harvey, now classified as a tropical storm. Officials said rising waters would reach catastrophic proportions, with more than 2,500 emergency calls made overnight in Houston alone. Hari Sreenivasan has more.

Category: People & Blogs
License: Standard YouTube License

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Hurricane Flooding – ‘Who Knew?’

Posted on August 29, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Just keep living” – Old Wives’ Tale by “my late Mother-in-law”

Those 3 words reflected the wisdom of an 80 year-old woman. It simply meant:

If you do not see the logic, common sense or best-practice of some advice, just keep living and life will eventually convince you.

This sage advice is presented in contrast to the new President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, who in the first 100 days of his administration encountered a failure with trying to introduce new Health Care legislation. His response was:

Who knew “Health Care” was so complicated. – CNN

This is not a commentary about Health Care, but rather Hurricane Flooding preparation, response and mitigation. Once again, the American President has proven that he has not learned that wisdom exhibited by my now-deceased Mother-in-Law. On this occasion of a Category 4 storm – see photos and VIDEO’s of Hurricane Harvey in the Appendix below – drowning Southeast Texas with volumes and volumes of water (surge, rain and river flooding) – he exclaimed that this flooding was “unexpected”:

He told rescue organizers: “This was of epic proportion, nobody has ever seen anything like this.” – Sky News 29AUG17 19:23 GMT

With all due respect Mr. President, it is the same with “Hurricane Flooding” as it was with Health Care:

Who Knew? Everybody – paying attention – knew!

Yes, this is “throwing shade” at President Trump, but this is a fair judgement as he made a cardinal mistake when assessing the seriousness of hurricanes and tropical storms; he is a Climate Change denier. This commentary previously related how this President declared – on June 1: the start of Hurricane Season – that he is withdrawing the US from the one international effort designed to abate Climate Change: the Paris Accord. That blog-commentary warned:

This is a matter of security; perhaps we [(Caribbean)] should not look to the US to take the lead for our own fate. This is so familiar … and a Hot Topic today as European member-states are contemplating how much they can look to the US for leadership for their security needs.

This was the assertion 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), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. The quest is that the Caribbean region convenes, collaborates and confederates to take their own lead – collectively – for their own fate. 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.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The book stresses that American self-interest is not necessarily the Caribbean’s best interest, even though there are two American territories (Puerto Rico & the Virgin Islands) in the Caribbean region. No, we must reform and transform our societal engines on our own. But this charter is too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone; there must be a regional effort. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence(Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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

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

That previous blog-commentary declared:

The issue of Hurricane Season 2017 is bigger than initial appearances – there are BIG issues afoot. …

The Caribbean status quo is unsustainable under the real threats of Climate Change. The region must reboot, reform and transform. We must do the heavy-lifting ourselves; we cannot expect relief and refuge from others, like the American Super-Power. We must find and “sail” under our own power.

The Go Lean book – and this commentary – calls on the region to master the art and science of water management.

We are saddened by all the death and destruction in Houston today; see Appendix. (Flooding is familiar in Houston, though more disastrous as of late). But believe it or not, there is a thesis that flooding could be prevented. Yes, indeed! This is the experience and historicity of the Dutch people, the European country of the Netherlands or Holland. See how their mitigations are portrayed in the news magazine here – an American news magazine:

VIDEO – Sea change: How the Dutch confront the rise of the oceans – https://youtu.be/3J5ZoPFhSGM

Posted August 27, 2017 – Windmills are more than just a traditional part of the Dutch landscape; they have played a key role in the war the Dutch have been waging against the ocean for the past thousand years. Our Cover Story is reported by Martha Teichner. (This story was previously broadcast on May 21, 2017.)

The VIDEO’s transcript could be reviewed here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sea-change-how-the-dutch-confront-the-rise-of-the-oceans-2/

In addition, this commentary has visited the subject of water-flood management on many occasions; consider this sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12834	Hurricane Andrew – 25 Years of Hoopla in Water Management
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12724	Lessons from Colorado: Water Management Arts & Sciences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12230	Managing Beach Erosion and Flooding Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7235	Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale in Water Management
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1656	Blue – Water Management – is the New Green
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense new cycles of flooding & drought
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1516	Floods in Minnesota, Drought in California – Why Not Share?

The United States of America provides so many examples for the Caribbean: good, bad and ugly.

But we must make a separation between American power and American people.

To those of the American people languishing in the communities of Houston, Texas we send you our prayers and compassion and urge you to hold-on; it gets better.

To those American power brokers who continue to deny the obvious, we urge you to just keep living. You will soon realize the undeniable consequences of Climate Change:

Those who fail to plan; plan to fail!

In the Caribbean, we must be better and do better. This is our quest, to better serve the needs of our Caribbean people. Reforming and transforming America is out-of-scope for our efforts; we have our own storms to prepare and respond to. May we never “stick our head in the sand” and deny the obvious. No, rather, let’s always do the heavy-lifting to make our homelands 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 VIDEO – Houston’s Flooding Crisis – https://youtu.be/uKAv_8lfjUw

Posted August 29, 2017 – Emergency responders in Houston have now rescued more than 6,000 people from Hurricane Harvey’s flooding. Harvey is still a tropical storm spinning off the Gulf Coast. It could make a second landfall Wednesday east of Houston. Mark Strassmann reports on rescue efforts.

Subscribe to the “CBS This Morning” Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/1Q0v2hE
Watch “CBS This Morning – hosted by Charlie Rose, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King” HERE: http://bit.ly/1T88yAR

———–

Hurricane Harvey – Houston August 2017 Photos

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Hurricane Andrew – 25 Years of Hoopla

Posted on August 24, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Want to rumble? Want a piece of this?

Surely anyone vying for a leadership role in the Caribbean must be prepared for a fight. A fight with “Mother Nature”.

Expect to lose!

This was the contention from this previous blog-commentary on August 28, 2015, on the 10^th anniversary commemorating 2005’s Hurricane Katrina:

Title: A Lesson in History – ‘Katrina’ is helping today’s crises
Welcome to the Caribbean …

… the greatest address on the planet?!?!

Why would anyone campaign to assume the stewardship of this archipelago of islands?

This is the “siren song” of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The publishers … are petitioning for a leadership role in the economic, security and governing engines of the region. Why?

There is no insanity! This is an expression of love for the homeland. The 30 member-states of the Caribbean are home to 42 million people, and a Diaspora of 10 million; plus 80 million visitors annually.

This is the greatest address on the planet!

Plus, everywhere has natural disasters to contend with. This fact relates to rich countries and poor alike. For example, take the United States; they are the richest Single Market economy in the world and yet their coastal city of New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA) was devastated by Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago … to the day (August 29, 2005). Their riches did not spare their devastation, nor did the riches facilitate best-practices in terms of response, relief and rebuilding. New Orleans is marking the anniversary of Katrina’s devastation and the lessons learned from the aftermath.

Remembering Hurricane Andrew

Now it is the time to remember a different, earlier storm, as it is the 25^th anniversary of August 24, 1992 when Hurricane Andrew devastated the Caribbean region and the Greater Miami area; think almost $30 Billion in damages after 65 fatalities in the region. (This writer endured Andrew as a Miami resident). There are even more lessons to consider, contemplate and correlate to Caribbean stakeholders. As previously detailed, Miami has a pivotal connection with the Caribbean; as our member-states fail more and more, Miami becomes the beneficiary of our human and capital flight:

Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure

The “hoopla“ – historicity and actuality – of storms like Hurricane Andrew and Katrina reminds us …

… that Climate Change cannot be ignored. Even though there are deniers of any man-made causes, the reality of these storms challenge the realities of Caribbean life.

See this theme portrayed here in this current news article from USA Today, an American daily newspaper:

Title: In booming South Florida, another Hurricane Andrew could be a $300 billion catastrophe

MIAMI — Twenty-five years ago this month, Hurricane Andrew unleashed its Category 5 wrath on South Florida, sending a catastrophic reminder about the dangers of living in the heart of “hurricane alley.”

But drive along any coastline in Florida today and you’ll find construction cranes as plentiful as palm trees as developers rush to build high-rises in the most beautiful, and vulnerable, corners of the state.

Florida has improved standards for new construction to prevent the level of damage wrought by hurricanes, but an Andrew-like storm hitting downtown Miami and its ever-growing collection of sparkling skyscrapers could exact a hefty price: $300 billion, according to one insurance underwriter.

“And that number doesn’t include loss of taxes or tourism,” said Monica Ningen, chief property underwriter for the U.S. and Canada for Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurance companies in the world.

In the 25 years since Andrew made landfall on Aug. 24, 1992, nearly 1 in 10 homes built in the United States were built in Florida, according to an analysis of building permits conducted for USA TODAY by the real estate web site Trulia. That’s second only to Texas.

The trend is even more pronounced for larger condo buildings. Florida accounts for 11.5% of new residential buildings with at least five residences over the past 25 years, trailing only Texas’ 12.7%, according to the Trulia analysis.

“We’re like lemmings going to the sea, except that we build condos, hotels, and houses,” said Richard Olson, director of the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University.

The dangers of Florida’s post-Andrew growth is clearly illustrated in a report from Swiss Re that examined Florida’s vulnerability to hurricanes.

Andrew caused $24.5 billion in insured property damage when it hit the working class suburb of Homestead about 20 miles south of downtown Miami, becoming the most expensive catastrophe in U.S. history. Since then, Miami-Dade County’s population has increased by more than a third. Now, if a similar storm hit the same spot, Swiss Re estimates it would cause closer to $60 billion in insured damage.

High-rise condos could be Florida’s weak spot

Part of the reason for those massive numbers is the explosion of high-rise condos throughout the state.

Florida toughened up its building codes after Andrew and saw good results with the spate of four hurricanes that struck the state in 2004. But in 2005, Hurricane Wilma revealed a glaring weakness.

Wilma, as a Category 2 hurricane, was far weaker than Andrew when it crossed over Miami, but its 100 mph winds shattered windows throughout downtown. One reason: Wind speeds grow drastically the higher you go.

Wilma’s 75 mph winds on the ground grew to 115 mph on the 30th floor, according to a hurricane wind model created by Florida International University in Miami. No condos collapsed, but the window failures caused massive damage.

“The structure looks great from the outside, and yet, the building has to be gutted because of the water damage inside,” said Shahid Hamid, director of the Laboratory for Insurance, Financial and Economic Research at FIU.

Price of paradise

So with a catastrophic risk looming, why do Floridians continue to build such high structures right on the coast?

For developers, the answer is simple.

“Anybody that owns a piece of property should be able to do what they like with it, as long as they’re complying with the laws,” said Jeremy Stewart, a Crestview, Fla., developer and chairman of the Florida Home Builders Association.

But developers aren’t just interested in the principles of individual freedom or property rights, says Craig Fugate, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It comes down to money, Fugate says.

With each new glass-covered skyscraper that goes up along Florida’s coasts, developers reap a windfall of profits. The money drives businesses and puts taxes into government coffers.

Real estate attorneys, realtors, agents, architects, and contractors all get a piece. Every new condo that goes up in Pensacola or Tampa or Jacksonville means more tax revenues for those city governments. Florida is one of seven states that doesn’t collect personal income tax, so real estate taxes and fees included in every home purchase are critical to keep the state’s finances afloat.

Fugate said that has created a “vicious cycle” of transactions that the state has grown to rely on.

“Our economy is building houses, apparently,” said Fugate, who lives in northern Florida and used to run the state’s emergency management division before heading up FEMA. “Our bias now seems to be to the benefit of the transaction, not the homeowner.”

Some city leaders say it’s not that nefarious. In Miami Beach, the tourist mecca that is at the front line of Florida’s battles against climate change, leaders say the tax revenues from new developments are the only way they can afford to make the long-term improvements to gird the barrier island from rising water.

The city is in the midst of a $500 million project to raise roads, raise seawalls and install 80 pumps to push out floods that occur even on sunny days.

New York and New Jersey received billions in federal funding following Superstorm Sandy, just as New Orleans did following Hurricane Katrina. But since a hurricane hasn’t hit Miami and Miami Beach directly in decades, they are left to improve their infrastructure mostly on their own.

“On the one hand, we have to be responsible with our development,” said Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales. “But on the other hand, we need that revenue. We’ve got to figure out how to pay for all that.”

Then there’s the way residents ponder the question. Ask Floridians why they’re willing to endure the threat of hurricanes and they’ll usually give some version of the same answer: They raise their arms and say, “Look around.”

Maria Lopez, 38, moved out of her home in Little Havana just outside downtown Miami 10 years ago as the rent increased and the neighborhood endured more and more flooding. Lopez said she never even considered leaving the city or the state, opting instead to find a home in nearby Liberty City that was elevated to avoid flooding and built to hurricane-proof building codes.

Lopez, a customs broker with two young sons, loves “the food, the culture, the climate.” But, she says, “You just have to know that a hurricane can hit.”

James Murley, the chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County, agreed, saying the dangers of hurricanes and sea level rise are simply the price of living in paradise, just as Californians are willing to deal with the occasional earthquake.

“You have to live with the risk,” he said. “Why are they still building in San Francisco? Why are they still building in Los Angeles? They’re on established fault lines. Communities that have a history, they’re going to grow one way or the other.”

Grow smarter or inland?

With no slowdown in sight, experts say Florida has two remaining choices: grow farther from the coast or grow smarter.

Jean-Pierre Bardet, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Miami, said the only way that developers will stop building skyscrapers right along the water will come down to money.

Florida’s building codes have made construction more expensive over the years. And some developers have gone beyond those codes to create safer, and costlier, buildings.

For example, many new high-rises in Florida don’t have a street-level entrance for pedestrians. They begin with several floors of parking on the ground floors, then a lobby higher up, topped off by apartments or offices. That means only cars parked at those levels will be damaged if a hurricane pushes in storm surge or rising sea levels create more regular flooding.

Those kinds of measures are expensive, though, and Bardet said their prices will only increase as the projects become harder to engineer.

“The economic consideration will be what puts the brakes on this expansion,” he said.

Some cities and counties, including St. Petersburg, Palm Beach County and Miami, are taking a “smart growth” approach by hiring “resilience officers” or “sustainability managers” who devise growth plans that account for the potential environmental impacts of climate change.

James Cloar, an urban development consultant and former chairman of the Urban Land Institute Tampa Bay, said the people in those positions need broad power to control how a city grows.

“These offices are being created with good intentions, but I don’t think universally they’re at the level that they need to be,” he said.

Jane Gilbert, who became the city of Miami’s first chief resilience officer in 2015, said it’s been tough to persuade everyone of the value of such planning, but some government officials and private developers do see a long-term benefit.

“Luckily we have some progressively-minded developers, architects and land-use attorneys that get it,” she said. “(They understand) that if we don’t start building with a long term view, their investments are at risk.”

More: As Hurricane Andrew memories fade, Florida weakens building codes

More: ‘Extremely active’ hurricane season now likely, federal forecasters say

Source: Retrieved August 24, 2017 from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/22/hurricane-cost-florida/560846001/

———-

VIDEO – Hurricane Season is getting more intense – https://usat.ly/2utG8JA

Posted August 22, 2017 – Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have upped their predictions of the number of and severity of upcoming storms during hurricane season. Newslook.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society, to better respond, relieve and rebuild from devastating hurricanes in all the 30 member-states in the region.

Remember? We cannot win in a battle with “Mother Nature”; we can only respond, relieve and rebuild.

This CU/Go Lean roadmap therefore has these 3 prime directives:

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

The book stresses that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state alone to contend with, that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines – to mitigate the risks of disasters – must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. The book details that the CU will implement an optimized Emergency Management scheme to provide better stewardship for the region’s preparation and response to natural disasters; (in addition to hurricanes, there is the need to monitor and manage earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and droughts in the regions). In addition, the CU will assume jurisdiction for the Caribbean Sea, the 1,063,000 square-mile international waters, as an Exclusive Economic Zone. These preparations and mitigations will allow for better cooperation, collaboration and equalization in the region.

This commentary has previously detailed other discussions related to managing Caribbean society’s preparation and response to hurricanes; see sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12068	Trump Denies ‘Climate Change’ and Ends Federal Abatements
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11442	Caribbean Roots: Al Roker – ‘Climate Change’ Defender
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455	Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9334	Hurricane Categories – The Science
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7896	The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449	‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4741	Vanuatu and Tuvalu – Inadequate response to post-storm suffering
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2465	Book Review: ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense new cycles of flooding & drought

Hurricane Andrew was not the first, nor the last hurricane to devastate the tropical region. Truth be told, this is a product of Climate Change. Though there are deniers of any man-made causes, the actuality of these storms is the new Caribbean reality.

It is what it is!

Yet still, with better stewardship and shepherding, our communities can be better and do better. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap 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.

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