College – Page 4 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: College

Skipping School to become Tech Giants

Posted on April 12, 2016 in Economics, Ethos, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

How can we mold young minds for career success?

Apparently, there is more than one way; (notwithstanding starting early). Yes, there is college, but there is another way too: entrepreneurship. Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. These ones are notorious for their billionaire success, despite not finishing college.

Some people think that a 4-year college degree may NOT be entirely essential for career success; these ones say: “there is an alternate path” for success for an individual career and for their community; (some even claim that a 4-year degree may be a bad investments for students).

So there are parallel paths. Let’s consider: education -vs- entrepreneurship …

Many claim that the underlying goal for molding young minds should not be education, but rather competition … with the rest of the world. The question could therefore be codified as: “Is a 4-year college degree necessary for our community to better compete with the world?”

This is a tough one (question), in which there are no easy answers.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean embarks on the quest to elevate the Caribbean societal engines (economics, security and governance); it presents options with education and with entrepreneurship. The book immediately rails against the education status quo; it stakes the claim that Caribbean tertiary education eco-system needs to be reformed and transformed, asserting that the status quo has not served the region as well as expected. Truth is, traditional college education paths may be considered disastrous for the Caribbean region in whole, and for each specific country in particular. Why?

Students leave to study …

… and do not necessarily return. They are “gone and forgotten”^*; they run-off with their community investments with little chance for any “return”. (* = Many Caribbean graduates only return for family visits and festivals).

Normally, college education is great for the individual. The Go Lean book relates how economists have established that every additional year of schooling increases a student’s earning potential by about 10% (Page 258). Yet for our Caribbean communities as a whole, the end-result has been different – bad – ending in our incontrovertible brain drain.

How bad?

Previous blogs on this same subject matter have detailed the dysfunction; one example is the report that 70 percent of the tertiary-educated population in the Caribbean has fled. What’s worst in these reports, is the fact that these emigrants have taken their Caribbean-funded education and skill-sets with them; even taking any hope for collecting student loans, thereby imperiling future generations of scholars from their own benefits of a college education.

So education is not the champion – for nation-building – that we would expect. There is room for a challenger-contender. Consider this VIDEO here (and transcript in the Appendix), of young ones quitting college or never enrolling, to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors in the technology space. These ones are being fostered, prodded and nurtured; as related here:

VIDEO – Skipping School to become Tech Giants – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/investing-in-college-dropouts-with-big-ideas

(VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).

The Go Lean movement – book and blogs – asserts that change must come to the region in response to the debilitating status quo in Caribbean life. The book refers to these change factors as Agents of Change, including technology and globalization. The best strategy for contending with both technology and globalization change is to not only consume; communities must develop, innovate and produce as well. The Go Lean book posits therefore that Caribbean regional shepherds should invest in (better) higher education and entrepreneurial options. The bottom-line motive should be the Greater Good.

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

Optimization of the economic engines – including educational empowerments and entrepreneurial incubators – in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The book relates that forging technology genius is a direct product of perspiration and inspiration. Perspiration as in the training and education needed to excel in this field; and inspiration as in the spark of innovation that is required to conceive, compose and construct competitive products pertaining to hardware, software and communication systems.

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to foster genius and how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education eco-systems. As a planning tool, the roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the opportunities in the region:

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

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

xxx.   Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, and it recognizes that computer hardware, software and communications systems are the future direction for consumer, corporate and industrial developments. This is where the new jobs are to be found. If we want to arrest societal abandonment occurring in our communities, we must create jobs. The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting for people, organizations and governments to foster genius and forge technological innovations here at home in the Caribbean; (i.e. start early).

This commentary is not advocating a practice of “skipping school to rush to try and become tech giants”. But rather, it is advocating education reform, abandoning failed practices, like study abroad and adopting new ones, like e-Learning solutions. After which there should be an effort to provide entrepreneurial incubators to foster more business start-ups.

The Go Lean book posits that education and entrepreneurism are vital advocacies for Caribbean economic empowerment. But there have been flawed decision-making in the past, both individually and community-wise, and so we are now playing catch-up with the rest of the world. Whether we want it or not, there is a competition; globalization features trade wars; wars feature battles; battles feature champions. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational and entrepreneurial policies.

The book details those policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact the Greater Good for the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments – ROI	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Strategy – Agent of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agent of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department	Page 89
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries	Page 187
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth	Page 258

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the changes described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We welcome entrepreneurism and we welcome education; these two activities can be concurrent and complementary. But we need to break from the old-bad practices (i.e. study abroad) and engage new-better practices (i.e. incubators).

So we encourage all young people to get advanced education, but to do it at home. And we encourage all with entrepreneurial dreams to pursue them … here at home.

The new jobs that our region need must come from these initiatives. Let’s get started! 🙂

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

————–

APPENDIX – Story Transcript: Skipping School to become Tech Giants

A select group of whiz kids seems to be thriving despite having dropped out of college. All any of them seems to need is a high-tech idea, a sofa to sleep on … plus a $100,000 grant. John Blackstone explains:

When brothers Kieran and Rory O’Reilly were both accepted to Harvard, their parents marked the accomplishment with new license plates: One read “2 N HRVD”; the other, “HARVRD 2.”

“They might change it to ‘2 DROPOUTS,'” said Rory.

They both quit Harvard as undergrads two years ago. They were just 18 and 19 when they moved to San Francisco with big hopes, and almost nothing else.

“Three bags of clothes — every day we would take it, move from hotel to hotel,” said Rory.

“I remember our bank account was always negative $66, because that’s the overdraft fee,” said Kieran.

They’re now living IN their office. “Every single day our mom tries to call us or send food,” Rory said.

They’ve created a website, gifs.com, a tool for re-editing online videos. Seventeen million people in the past month have used it.

The O’Reillys are on a path made famous by some of the tech industry’s biggest names: Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg.

“People that drop out of Harvard, maybe the Bill Gateses of the world, the Zuckerbergs, they’re the people that are really changing the entire world, in my opinion,” said Rory. “And yeah, I’m glad to be a part of that.”

The O’Reillys are “part of that” partly because Peter Thiel, one of the billionaire founders of PayPal, gave them $100,000 each.

Thiel started his surprising giveaway five years ago, offering $100,000 to kids who quit college to “build new things.”

Jack Abraham is executive director of the Thiel Fellowship, which distributes the money to 20 new dropouts each year. And what is he encouraging? “If you have a great idea, the time to pursue it is now,” Abraham said. “We also hope to show society that this is an alternate path that people can and should consider and take.”

Abraham says the 105 current and former Thiel Fellows have created more than 1,000 jobs and raised $330 million from investors.

Only eight have returned to college.

PayPal billionaire funds college-aged kids’ ideas (“The Early Show,” 06/01/11)
Billionaire offers college alternative (“60 Minutes,” 05/17/12)
Dropping out: Is college worth the cost? (“60 Minutes,” 05/21/12)
Billionaire heads back to college (CBS Moneywatch, 03/13/12)

The selection committee is now sorting through 5,000 applications for this year’s 20 fellowships. Most of the applicants would have much better odds getting into the Ivy League.

“It breaks my heart when some of the most promising students don’t fulfill their potential because they’re chasing rainbows,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a fellow at StanfordUniversity, who has been a critic of the Thiel Fellowship from the beginning.”

“It’s like what happens in Hollywood: You have tens of thousands of young people flocking to Hollywood thinking that they’re gonna become a Brad Pitt or an Angelina Jolie; they don’t,” said Wadhwa.

“They don’t become billionaires. There haven’t been many Mark Zuckerbergs after Mark Zuckerberg achieved success.”

And Wadhwa says there is little evidence the Thiel dropouts are doing much that isn’t already being done in Silicon Valley.”Everyone does the same thing: It’s social media, it’s photo sharing apps. Today it’s sharing economy,” Wadhwa said. “It’s ‘Me, too,’ ‘More of the same.'”

But 19-year-old Conrad Kramer and 21-year-old Ari Weinstein were convinced they had a new idea, so when they were awarded Thiel Fellowships in 2014, they both walked away from MIT to work full-time on their app, called Workflow.

“There are some opportunities that come up that you would regret turning down,” Kramer said. “Workflow was definitely one of those.”

“It’s kind of like making your own apps that save you time,” Weinstein said.

When Workflow launched, it was the number one bestseller on Apple’s App Store — and has since won several awards.

They’ve just hired their newest employee, Tim Hsia, a graduate of Stanford’s business and law schools and an Army vet. He’s 33-years-old and says he doesn’t mind taking orders from a teenage boss.

“I’m learning so much because they have such a wealth of experience despite their age,” Hsia said. “In Silicon Valley it’s about meritocracy of ideas. And so if you have a good idea, everyone’s always receptive to listen to it.”

Zach Latta found many people were willing to listen — leaving high school to move to San Francisco on his own, to start a non-profit called Hack Club.

He recalled that when he moved to the city at age 16, “I’d showed up at a gym one day with some friends, and they turned me away at the door because I had to be 18.”

Now he is 18 and works full-time helping high school students learn to code.

“I feel challenged in every single day,” Latta said. “And I think I’m learning as much as I’ve ever been while being happy.”

For now these wannabe tech titans live modestly in homes they share with several others, or in offices that also provide a place to sleep. Instead of meals, some drink Soylent — Silicon Valley’s version of fast food. It apparently contains all the nutrients necessary to stay alive, in a bottle.

“Yeah — breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner,” said Latta.

They are building their companies with money from investors who seem to care little whether they graduated from college.

“It’s actually kind of a badge of honor here, dropping out,” said 23-year-old Stacey Ferreira. She’s dropped out of NYU — twice! The first time she saw a tweet from Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, offering to meet anyone who gave $2,000 to his charity.

She borrowed the money and met him. She was 18 and starting her first business.

“And make a long story short, he and two of his buddies ended up investing $1.2 million in our business that summer,” Ferreira told Blackstone.

Two years later, she sold that company, MySocialCloud, for a hefty profit, and returned to NYU. But then she had another big idea that couldn’t wait.

“If you can create your own job, why wouldn’t you just do that and not get stuck paying student loans for the rest of your life?” Ferreira said.

Instead of student loans, she has $100,000 from Peter Thiel. She’s working on an app called Forrge that aims to create an on-demand marketplace for hourly workers.

She’s hoping that dropping out of NYU again will pay off again.

Blackstone asked, “Is there a lesson in your story for other young people?”

“Yeah, I think the biggest lesson to learn is just take risks,” Ferreira said.

“What’s the worst that can happen to you when you take the risk?”

“For me, the worst that can happen is I move home and sleep on my parent’s couch for a couple months, until I figure it out,” Ferreira replied.

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Dr. Sybil Mobley – FAMU’s Business School Dean – RIP

Posted on September 30, 2015 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The FAMU world mourns the passing of Dr. Sybil Mobley (1925 – 2015; age 90), the much-accomplished and celebrated Dean Emerita of the School of Business and Industry (SBI).

This Go Lean … Caribbean movement – book and accompanying blog-commentaries – stress the fact that one man or one woman can make a difference in their community. Dr. Mobley’s impact was societal elevation with her mission to embed Black Americans in the conference rooms and board rooms of major corporations. She molded, prepared, energized and guided the best-of-the-best of Black America (many of Caribbean heritage as well; this writer included) and sent them off to impact the corporate world.

She sowed the seeds …

… the entire Black community now reap from this harvest.

Dr. Mobley was born in Jim-Crow America in Shreveport, Louisiana. She came to Tallahassee, Florida – the home campus of Florida A&M University – in 1963, still in the era and location of the Deep South. Despite that debilitating environment for a Black woman, she thrived and got her disciples to thrive, as depicted in the following news-media obituary and VIDEO:

Title: FAMU’s Dr. Mobley Passes Away
By: Lanetra Bennett

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – September 29, 2015 — Dr. Sybil C. Mobley passed away today. She’s the founder of the world renowned School of Business and Industry at FAMU.

Her students and those who knew her say she was much more.

Dr. Mobley’s family confirms she died early Tuesday morning after a brief illness.

Former students say they’re known as, “Sybil’s babies”. They marvel how she balanced power in the boardroom, with compassion for students.

Tallahassee businessman Clinton Byrd keeps a medallion on his desk with Dr. Sybil Mobley’s face on it.

He says, “The phone rings and you’re just hoping that it’s not that news. But, we knew that one day it would come.”

The news came Tuesday that Dr. Mobley had died. “It’s a sad day for us.” Byrd said.

Dr. Mobley started the School of Business and Industry at FAMU in 1974.

Byrd was one of her students. He said, “One day I was giving a presentation on Accounting Theory and the bright lights came on. I just lost it. When I got through, she said, boy that was fantastic. I said, doc, I can’t even remember what I said or what I did. She was always encouraging. She kept a paper that I wrote in 1967. She still has it about impact.”

Mobley had an impact on countless people in Tallahassee and beyond.

The Shreveport, Louisiana native started her career at FAMU in 1963, and is said to have put S.B.I. on the map alongside Yale, University of Chicago, and University of North Carolina. “People used to come here from all over the world to meet her, to spend time with her.” Said, Byrd.

Precious Tankard is a current sophomore. She said, “It’s a lot to say I am a business administration student or an S.B.I. period, in SBI. When we say we’re SBI, they know that greatness lies ahead.”

The current dean, Shawnta Friday-Stroud, is also a former student. She said, “I hope that I have done and that I continue to do her proud. It’s because of what she taught so many of us that I’m even standing in this position as dean today.”

Byrd said, “Some way, somehow we just all have to carry on.”

S.B.I. recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. Dr. Mobley was the founding dean until she retired in 2003. That’s when those special medallions that Byrd has were issued.
Source: Local CBS TV Affiliate WCTV (Retrieved September 29, 2015) – http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/Dr-Sybil-Mobley-Former-FAMU-Business-School-Dean-Dies-329934011.html

VIDEO – Rep. Gwen Graham Honors FAMU Leader Dr. Sybil Mobley – https://youtu.be/QCCk19vnKPU

Published on Oct 7, 2015 – “Today I rise to honor the life of Dr. Sybil Mobley, the founding dean of Florida A&M University’s School of Business and Industry.

“Dr. Mobley first worked at Florida A&M as a secretary in 1945 – she then went on to study at the Wharton School of Finance and earned her doctorate from the University of Illinois.

After graduating, Dr. Mobley returned to Florida A&M, and in 1974 she became the founding dean of the University’s School of Business and Industry.

“She held that position for 29 years, during which time she worked tirelessly to build the business school into a nationally recognized institution.

“Her rise from working as a secretary to sitting on the board of Fortune 500 companies and leading a business school serves as an inspiration for all of us.

“Today, we mourn Dr. Mobley’s passing – and celebrate her life. She was a treasure to FAMU, Tallahassee, the state of Florida and our nation.”

Category: People & Blogs

License: Standard YouTube License

Dr. Sybil Mobley impacted the business world, not just the world of college education. She served on many corporate boards and received many awards and honors from around the world; (see plaque in photo above). While she was not of Caribbean heritage, she impacted many students who are; see the Facebook testimony here of two, one Jamaican-American and one Bahamian-American FAMU-SBI alumni:

Michelle Graham Day, SBI Class of 2008
Oh no, ‪#‎LEGEND! No matter how powerful a force to be reckoned with, you could walk in her office as an unknown freshman and get a one on one without an appointment! I remember feeling inspired because like me she had also graduated high school and started college at 16, and I remember her making clear that she was here to get us to play in the majors and said “when people say [why isn’t she using an HBCU business school to funnel students into] minority business what they [the critics, not the official definition!] really mean is minor business” meaning they were doubting her SBI students could hang in the big leagues. She pointed out that no company makes it onto the wall of plaques outside the main entrance without having invested $100k? (correct me if am off) in her vision…

I took 3 long internships that were real work not coffee fetching, one a year long, and graduated way off cycle, but my first big league company out the gate was IBM out west in Colorado (I was always willing to go anywhere while many were not even applying cause it wasn’t somewhere sexy to black people like New York or Miami) and even in the recession when on campus offers froze up, it is those 3 positions with Fortune 500 companies that led to my career which evolved from logistics/supply chain into data analysis into business intelligence and IT. It’s those 3-part PD questions with your premises and non-yes-or-no-answer follow-up question that had me stumping interviewers with my never-cliche questions and already-solid work experience standing out among other candidates even at internship stage. To this day I get compliments on the quality of my questions. The ability to multitask and speedread through 18 credit hours a semester (which I have also pulled off that load in SUMMER when full time is 6 credit hours), the logic picked up by being forced to take Physics I & II as our required sciences with much grumbling on our part, it all served me oh so well in skeleton crew workplaces where you wear many hats and the workload is intense as everyone is required to do more with less post-recession, and in learning how to experiment with the data and record different observations during data analysis and data mining/modeling, just like in the physics labs. She evolved with the needs of corporate and I’m constantly having to evolve to stay ahead of the demands of my field. I went on to work for some of the most established, storied corporations on earth and moved into Fortune 100 and it is all thanks in major part to applying what was learned in Dean Mobley’s program. Her passing is the passing of an era, she will be missed! ‪#‎RIP.‪#‎FAMU ‪#‎SBI ‪#‎visionary

Clifton H. Rodriguez, CPA, SBI Class of 1985
Probably [she] was the most influential woman in my life. I can still remember her teachings, and the lasting motto: “No effort is adequate until it is effective”. I remember in 1981 when she served on the Board of Anheuser Busch Companies, and had a meeting in St. Louis, Mo. She left her meeting with those important people, including August Busch, III to seek Anthony Glover and myself out to advise us about [a] murder that occurred on campus…. She did not have to do that, but deemed us that important to seek us out and advise us. She treated all of her students in that manner. She was not only our dean, but our nurturing mother, who cared deeply about her precious children.

These foregoing testimonies are such good reflections of Dr. Mobley’s character and quest: she wanted her students “playing in the ‘Major’ leagues” of Big Corporate businesses. She recognized that while minority business ownership is important in America today and for the recent past, minority businesses are just minor businesses.

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean recognize the life contributions of Dr. Sybil Mobley as an educator, industrialist and advocate for many causes that align with our quest for empowerment and elevation of Caribbean commerce and life. Her vision was for more self-determination for the role that business and economics play in the lives of Black America. This means participating, not just spectating, in the business processes of BIG business. There are now more African-Americans (and those of African-Caribbean heritage) engaged in the business processes with corporate America because of the efforts of Dr. Mobley.

Mission accomplished!

“You have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, and you have remained faithful”. – 2 Timothy 4:7 (The Bible New Living Translation).

Like Dr. Sybil Mobley, the prime directive of the Go Lean book is also to elevate society, but instead of impacting America, the roadmap focus is the Caribbean first. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU seeks to empower the people of the Caribbean to lead more impactful lives in which they are better able to meet their needs and plan for a productive future. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to put Caribbean people in a place of better command-and-control of their circumstances, to develop the community ethos of fostering genius, innovation and entrepreneurship. In fact, the prime directive declarative statements in the Go Lean book are as follows:

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

Dr. Sybil Mobley is hereby recognized as a role model that the rest of the Caribbean can emulate. She provided a successful track record of forging change, overcoming incredible odds, managing crises to successful conclusions and paying forward to benefit the next generation. The Go Lean book posits that the economic, security and governing engines are all important for the sustenance of Caribbean life, so Dr. Mobley’s life course stands as a vanguard for many of these pursuits.

The book posits that one person, despite their field of endeavor, can make a difference in the Caribbean, and its impact on the world; that there are many opportunities where one champion, one advocate, can elevate society. In this light, the book features 144 different advocacies, so there is inspiration for the “next” Dr. Sybil Mobley to emerge, establish and excel right here at home in the Caribbean.

The roadmap specifically encourages the region, to lean-in and foster this “next” generation of Dr. Sybil Mobley’s with these specific community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Build and foster local economic engines	Page 45
Strategy – Educate our children with the wisdom and knowledge to succeed	Page 46
Tactical – Grow the Economy to $800 Billion – Elevate economy through Education	Page 70
Tactical – Separation-of-Power – Federal Department of Education	Page 85
Anatomy of Advocacies	Page 122
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Better Provide Clothing	Page 163
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street	Page 200
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth	Page 258

Education is a priority in the Go Lean roadmap. Previously, this commentary has highlighted many other lessons that the region needs to apply to elevate the societal engines for education. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269	Education & Economics: Welcome Mr. President
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5482	For-Profit American Education: Plenty of Profit; Little Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4572	Role Model: Innovative Educator Ron Clark
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4487	FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256	Is a Traditional 4-year Degree a Terrible Investment?

We need impactful role models like Dr. Sybil Mobley at home in the Caribbean. The formula of sending our “best-of-the-best” to North America and Europe has failed us – they rarely come back home; see sample testimonies above, both individuals currently live in the US. The quest of the Go Lean roadmap is to change that formula – we now want to educate our “best-of-the-best” right here in the Caribbean region, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will remain after their matriculation. This change will require a lot of contributions from a lot of different people. This quest is pronounced early in the roadmap in the Declaration of Interdependence at the outset of the book, declaring a need for regional solutions (Pages 13 & 14) with these statements:

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

With the participation of many advocates on many different paths for progress, the Caribbean can truly become a better place to live, work, learn and play.

Thank you for preparing us for this challenge, Dr. Mobley. Thank you for your service, commitment, nurturing and love. Now take your rest. Rest in Peace!

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

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Microsoft Pledges $75 million for Kids in Computer Science

Posted on September 18, 2015 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Microsoft pledges support to young children learning the science of computers … $75 million worth.

… on behalf of a grateful region, we accept.

While $75 million is not a lot for a global program, consider the source of the benefactor – Microsoft – and it is the spirit that counts. We will take it Microsoft; we want your time, talents and treasuries.

These three resources, are what the book Go Lean…Caribbean asks for from the philanthropic community in terms of gifts to the Caribbean. This is so important, that the book prepares a comprehensive plan for organizing the interactions with charitable foundations and gift-giving organizations. We need and want all the help we can garner!

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate Caribbean society. This movement asserts that to effect change in the region, all Caribbean stakeholders (residents, institutions, students, Diaspora) have to devote a measure of time, talents and treasuries.

The Go Lean book strategizes a roadmap to elevate the economic, security, and governing engines. It clearly relates that these prime directives do not cover every social aspect of Caribbean life. We need the resultant void to be filled by Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s). The following news article/Press Release relates the community empowering and philanthropic efforts from one such entity, computer software giant Microsoft:

Title: Microsoft expands global YouthSpark initiative to focus on computer science
Sub-Title: Microsoft invests $75 million in community programs to increase access to computer science education for all youth and build greater diversity into the tech talent pipeline.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft Corp. announced on Wednesday a new commitment of $75 million in community investments over the next three years to increase access to computer science education for all youth, and especially for those from under-represented backgrounds. Through the company’s global YouthSpark initiative, scores of nonprofit organizations around the world will receive cash donations and other resources to provide computer science education to diverse populations of young people in their communities and prepare them with the computational-thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for success in an increasingly digital world.

“If we are going to solve tomorrow’s global challenges, we must come together today to inspire young people everywhere with the promise of technology,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We can’t leave anyone out. We’re proud to make this $75 million investment in computer science education to create new opportunities for students across the spectrum of diverse youth and help build a tech talent pipeline that will spark new innovations for the future.”

Over the next three years, Microsoft will deliver on this commitment through cash grants and nonprofit partnerships as well as unique program and content offerings to increase access to computer science education and build computational thinking skills for diverse populations of youth. One of the flagship programs is Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), which pairs tech professionals from across the industry with classroom educators to team-teach computer science in U.S. high schools. TEALS aims to grow fivefold in the next three years, with the goal of working with 2,000 tech industry volunteers to reach 30,000 students in nearly 700 schools across 33 states. A key objective of TEALS is to support classroom educators as they learn the computer science coursework, preparing them to teach computer science independently after two years of team-teaching.

Nadella reinforced the company’s commitment to computer science education today during the annual Dreamforce conference hosted by Salesforce where he called upon thousands of tech professionals to serve as TEALS volunteers and help broaden the opportunity for students of all backgrounds to learn computer science in high school.

“Computer science is a foundational subject — like algebra, chemistry or physics — for learning how the world works, yet it’s offered in less than 25 percent of American high schools,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith. “We need to increase access to computer science and computational thinking for all students, especially those from diverse populations, by partnering across the industry and with teachers and schools to turn this situation around and change the paradigm for developing a more diverse tech talent pipeline.”

There are three additional key elements of Microsoft’s global commitment to increasing access for all youth to the full range of computing skills, from digital literacy to computer science.

Global philanthropic investments with nonprofits in 80 countries, including the Center for Digital Inclusion in Latin America, Silatech in the Middle East and Africa, CoderDojo Foundation in Europe, YCAB Foundation in Asia, and many others, will deliver a range of computing skills from digital literacy to computer science education to youth in local communities around the world.

Microsoft Imagine connects students with the tools, resources and experiences they need to turn their innovative ideas into reality. Whether it’s building a game or designing an app, Microsoft Imagine makes learning to code easy and accessible for students and educators, no matter their age or skill level and at no cost. Whether it’s free cloud services like Azure, online competitions via Imagine Cup that educators can incorporate into their curriculum, or fun self-serve learning tutorials, Microsoft Imagine helps bring a student’s technology passion to life through computer science.

YouthSpark Hub resources are designed to inspire youth about the full spectrum of computing skills, ranging from digital literacy to computer science engineering. In addition to providing access to the Microsoft Imagine tools, the YouthSpark Hub brings together opportunities to participate in activities such as DigiGirlz and YouthSpark Live, attend free YouthSpark Camps at the Microsoft Stores, and access training through nonprofit organizations supported by Microsoft around the world.

Since 2012, Microsoft YouthSpark has created new opportunities for more than 300 million youth around the world, offering technology skills training and connections to employment, entrepreneurship, and continued education or training.

More information about YouthSpark and access to tools and resources can be found at http://YouthSparkHub.com and http://imagine.microsoft.com.

Those wanting more information on the TEALS program and to learn more about how they can get involved should visit http://TEALSK12.org.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Source: PR Newswire Service; retrieved September 17, 2015 from: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-expands-global-youthspark-initiative-to-focus-on-computer-science-300144592.html

——
VIDEO – Microsoft YouthSpark: Opportunity for Youth – https://youtu.be/ZRKYTQ6_UEs

Published by Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.eu
YOUTH INFOGRAPHIC: http://www.microsoft.eu/Portals/0/Doc…

There’s $75,000,000 and then there’s $75,000,000 from Microsoft.

A $75,000,000 charitable gift from Microsoft is more than just money; it’s an invitation to explore the future: the future of Information Technology.

This is BIG! As it also builds a technology talent pipeline, especially for the under-represented female population; so future jobs are at stake.

Microsoft founder and largest shareholder, Bill Gates, is now retired from the CEO’s office. (Though he continues as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors). He is a certifiable billionaire – a member of the One Percent – in which his riches came from this company. He is a great role model for all the youth of the Caribbean.

A great role model for the adults, too!

This innovator’s latest effort is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which sets out to make a permanent impact on the world. According to a previous blog detailing this foundation’s efforts, his belief is that every life has equal value. So his Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. Now we see his hallmark company following this lead so as to also promote hi-technology values among the more disadvantaged youth populations in the world.

We absolutely appreciate those leading and following in this path.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean champions the cause of building and optimizing the Caribbean eco-system. There are a lot of expectations for technology in the region, to aid and assist with all aspects of the Go Lean prime directives, defined as follows:

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

The CU/Go Lean roadmap clearly recognizes that the love and curiosity for technology must be ingrained as early as possible. Since the Caribbean does not only want to be on the consuming end of technological developments, we want to create, produce and contribute to the world of innovations. So we need to foster genius qualifiers in our Caribbean youth for careers and occupations – at home – involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

This point was pronounced at the outset of the Go Lean book with these opening Foreword (Page 3) and the subsequent Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14) with these statements:

Foreword: Our youth, the next generation, may not be inspired to participate in the future workings of their country; they may measure success only by their exodus from their Caribbean homeland.

xiii. 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, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

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.

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The Go Lean book seeks a quest to create 64,000 new direct and indirect technology/software jobs in the Caribbean marketplace. It will be a good start to use the grants and support of Microsoft, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other philanthropic groups and NGO’s to foster this campaign.

The Go Lean roadmap was constructed with the community ethos in mind to forge the needed change to adopt technology. Plus with the execution of these related strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies it will help build up our communities. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Non-Government Organizations	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – Anti-Bullying Campaigns	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Prepare the Youth with the skills to compete in the modern world	Page 46
Strategy – Mission – Exploit the benefits and opportunities of globalization	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department – Registrar/Liaison of NGO’s	Page 80
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers – Creating the ‘Cloud’	Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – Caribbean Cloud	Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid	Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – Cyber-Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – *STEM* Promotion	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – e-Government & e-Delivery	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries	Page 187
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism – Internet Marketing	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Foundations	Page 219
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the One-Percent	Page 224
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Appendix – CU Job Creations	Page 257
Appendix – Giving Pledge Signatories – 113 Super Rich – One Percent – Benefactors	Page 292

This Go Lean roadmap calls for the heavy-lifting to build-up Caribbean communities, to shepherd important aspects of Caribbean life, so as to better prepare for the future, dissuade emigration and optimize the ICT eco-systems here at home.

These goals were previously featured in Go Lean blogs/commentaries, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	Tourism Digital Marketing & Stewardship — What’s Next?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269	Education & Economics: Lessons from Detroit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6151	3D Printing: Here Comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3490	How One Internet Entrepreneur Can Rally a Whole Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon – A Role Model for Caribbean Logistics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=476	CARICOM Urged on ICT
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP Urges Greater Innovation

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, and it recognizes that computer technology is the future direction for industrial developments. (See the foregoing VIDEO). This is where the jobs are to be found. The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting for people, organizations and governments to forge these innovations here at home in the Caribbean. Clearly philanthropic organizations, Not-For-Profit charities, foundations and NGO’s are also stakeholders for the effort to make the Caribbean better.

So the Go Lean roadmap invites NGO’s to impact the Caribbean – to plant seeds – according to their charters. We are open to ask for their help. But we assure these benefactors that their help is really an investment. Our young people have the will, passion and integrity to grow the seeds into fine fruit.

We want more … such organizations. We will be pursuing other NGO’s … especially for the under-represented female population, such as:

Black Girls Code – Their Vision: To increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology.

Women in Technology – A premier professional association for women in the technology industry, we understand the unique challenges you face. No matter where you are in your professional development, or what technology-related field you’re in, our community offers a broad range of support, programs and resources to advance women in technology from the classroom to the boardroom.

Women in STEM – The Office of Science and Technology Policy, in collaboration with the White House Council on Women and Girls, is dedicated to increasing the participation of women and girls — as well as other underrepresented groups — in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by increasing the engagement of girls with STEM subjects in formal and informal environments, encouraging mentoring to support women throughout their academic and professional experiences, and supporting efforts to retain women in the STEM workforce.

This is an invitation to the world to help us help ourselves. It is not just a dream. This is a conceivable, believable and achievable business plan. With the right commitment of time, talent and treasuries from domestic and foreign sources, we can succeed in making the region a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Education & Economics: Welcome Mr. President

Posted on September 10, 2015 in Economics, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is a concept in the field of Econometrics and Statistics, that numbers can tell any lie. Proponents and opponents can look at the same numbers and draw different conclusions. Consider:

An 8-ouce glass with 4 ounces of water.
It is half full.
It is half empty.

So while numbers can be a source of great debate in the planning and forecasting process, there comes the time where the “rubber meets the road”, where there is no more planning or interpretation, it is just reality; it then becomes this scenario:

“It is what it is”.

This is the reality facing the Detroit Metro-area School District for Farmington, Michigan. This week was back-to-school, the start of a new academic school year, and the reality is:

There are not enough students and too many schools.

What’s a community to do?

See the VIDEO here:

VIDEO #1 Title: Farmington Hills school district weighs closures – http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/farmington-hills-school-district-weighs-closures/35186390

Detroit, MI – The Farmington Hills school district says it has too much space and too few students.

This news report aligns with the movement promoting the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The publication took an assessment of the Caribbean’s economic, security and governing engines and then declared … a crisis! The same as the Detroit-area is in crisis after decades of societal decline in their societal engines; to the point that there are now not enough students to fill the class rooms. The Caribbean is suffering a similar fate of dysfunction. The schools buildings in the Farmington District are still there; the teachers are still hired, (under labor contracts); the school buses still roam the city for pick-up and drop-off; food supplies still have to be delivered, prepared and served to the available students. But now there are less of them, and less monies accordingly. (The State of Michigan, like most US States, provides education grants to each school district based on the number of students).

This is the case in Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan USA. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan area. The foregoing article/VIDEO relates to topics that are of serious concern, demographics of the community. The numbers cannot be ignored! Declining populations are a problem and the consequences are dire.

School closures are only one symptom.

This is a lesson for the Caribbean!

Problems like “brain drain”, “retiring baby-boomers”, “having less babies”, “education policy” are all very relevant for the societal concerns of the any community, including the Caribbean.

This latter point – education policy – is the focus of this commentary. (College education in particular).

This is a concern for Detroit and other American cities. To the extent that US President Barack Obama came to Detroit, yesterday (September 9, 2015) to advocate for a change in government policy for education. Mr. Obama recognizes that there is the need to re-boot the American tertiary education eco-system to better adapt to the changing workplace and job markets. Without the ability to supply the market with the labor force being demanded, communities will just continue to lose out on population growth and economic growth. The situation would go from good … to bad, to worse, to Detroit. 🙁

This is why the President was here (Metro Detroit) in January, and again yesterday. See the VIDEO here of his September 9^th visit:

VIDEO #2 Title: Obama touts retraining, reinvention in Warren speech – http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/obama-touts-retraining-reinvention-in-warren-speech/35186446

Detroit, MI – President Barack Obama touted retraining and reinvention in his speech at Macomb Community College.

We need to apply these lessons in the Caribbean. Education policy has been devastating for this region. Rather than the usual gains, we have experienced declines due to the implementation of education policy in the region. This point has been echoed in many previous Go Lean blog/commentaries. See sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5482	For-Profit Education: Plenty of Profit; Little Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5423	Extracurricular Music Programs Boost Students
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4913	Ann Arbor: Model for ‘Start-up’ Cities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4572	Role Model: Innovative Educator Ron Clark
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4487	FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256	Is a Traditional 4-year Degree a Terrible Investment?

This commentary is a big proponent for the Caribbean of the type of education reform being touted by President Obama. But this commentary is a big opponent of Caribbean stakeholders leaving their homeland to matriculate in these American schools. Our track record cannot be ignored, for far too often, our Caribbean students have not returned, contributing further to our brain drain and societal abandonment problem. We need this Obama-promoted education reform, but we need it in the Caribbean, for the Caribbean.

Change has now come. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. Under the tenants of globalization, the conflict is a Trade War. There are offensive and defensive battles. Caribbean institutions must be able to attract foreign students to study in the region, not just have local students study abroad. Otherwise, we can never compete in this education trade wars. It will be all “give” and no “take” for us.

How do we re-boot the region’s education eco-systems for this Trade War?

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on reforming the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

xix.    Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book details how education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment, but with lessons-learned from all the flawed decision-making by the Caribbean in the past and from other communities like Detroit. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. The book details those policies (like online learning; forgive-able student loans), the community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to succeed in the education reform quest in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment	Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job Training	Page 89
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit	Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Online Options	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans – Forgive-able Options	Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries	Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth	Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education	Page 266

The US is the world’s largest Single Market economy and yet they are failing in some communities, i.e. Detroit. Let’s learn from this… and do better.

We want to only model some of the American example. We want to foster a education climate to benefit the Greater Good of the Caribbean, and not repeat bad mistakes.

Those are the lessons from Detroit and the Caribbean past.

It is time now to graduate from this “school … of thought”. It is time to lean-in to the reform, re-boot and empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. It is time to work to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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Where the Jobs Are – Futility of Minimum Wage

Posted on August 5, 2015 in Economics, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

There are laws and there are absolutes.

Gravity is an absolute: what goes up must come down!

Minimum wage is a law, not an absolute.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean, which calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, asserts that the Caribbean has to better managed the realities of minimum wage jobs. The book examined the anatomy of minimum wages (Page 152) and its effect on a community’s eco-system. This classic case study on this subject is quoted as flows:

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in many jurisdictions, differences of opinion exist about the benefits and drawbacks of a minimum wage.

The minimum wage is generally acknowledged to increase the standard of living of workers, reduces poverty, reduces inequality, boosts morale and forces businesses to be more efficient. Critics of the minimum wage, predominantly followers of neo-classical economic theory, contend that a minimum wage increases unemployment, particularly among workers with very low productivity due to inexperience or handicap, thereby harming less skilled workers and possibly excluding some groups from the labor market; additionally it may be less effective and more damaging to businesses than other methods of reducing poverty.
Source: Black, John (September 18, 2003). Oxford Dictionary of Economics. OxfordUniversity Press. p. 300.

The reality of minimum wage, helping some workers while harming others, has been bantered about in the news as of late, consider the following news articles:

Title #1: Fast Food Workers Win A Historic Raise
By: Cole Stangler, International Business Times

New York made shockwaves on Wednesday when a specially-convened state wage board called for a hike in the minimum pay for fast food workers to $15 an hour. Assuming it’s approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo –and no signs suggest otherwise– the new rate will be, at once, a jaw-dropping victory for labor activists, a rare political setback for name-brand restaurant chains, and the latest piece of fodder for a national debate about the value of fair pay. It also can’t come soon enough for David Ramirez.

“We need that raise, my man,” says Ramirez, 52, an employee at the same Subway restaurant in midtown Manhattan for the past 10 years, where he earns the state minimum, now $8.75. “We bust our a– up in here.”

On most days, Ramirez wakes well before dawn in downtown Brooklyn, where he splits monthly rent of $1300 with his mother who receives Social Security benefits. He usually starts work at 5 in the morning. When his shift ends at 3 in the afternoon, he heads to a different Subway in Woodmere, Queens –about an hour and a half away by train– and works another 4 hours. It makes for an exhausting 60 hour work week. Since he divides the time over two jobs, neither tallying more than 40 hours per week, Ramirez doesn’t earn any overtime. In New York City, he says, those annual earnings of about $21,000 are hard to get by on. A raise of $6 would go a long way.

“It would make a big difference, not just to me,” he says, “but other families too.”

Unchartered Waters
That was also the thinking of the Fast Food Wage Board, which voted unanimously in support of the $15 rate. The pay hike would apply to fast food chains with 30 or more locations nationwide, and be phased in over time, becoming mandatory in New York City by 2019, and the rest of the state by July 2021. Backed with enthusiasm by Gov. Cuomo, the raise can proceed without legislative approval: a New Deal era law allows state regulators to boost wages for specific industries and occupations where they deem pay “insufficient to provide for the life and health” of workers. The raise comes after two and a half years of high-visibility protests from the so-called Fight For 15, a movement of low-wage workers and labor activists backed by the powerful Service Employees International Union that demands higher wages in fast food and other low-paying sectors.

Amid pressure from these activists, other major cities have already approved $15 minimum wages –Seattle, San Francisco and both the city and county of Los Angeles– but New York’s looming pay hike is unique for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s the only one to apply to a single industry. It also would take effect across the entire state, whereas the other ambitious wage hikes have all been limited to cities.

Jay Holland, government affairs coordinator for the New York State Restaurant Association, blasted the state’s decision to single out the fast food industry. “This is an economic policy that’s never been tried before,” he says of the sector-wide wage. “The idea that an EMT worker or a home care aide should make less than a fast food worker flies in the face of reason.”

“Most restaurants operate under really thin margins,” he adds. “You’re gonna have to raise prices, lay people off or come up with some creative scheduling practices to save money.”

Anna agrees with Holland. She earns $9.75 an hour and works 32 hours a week, scrubbing tables and mopping floors at a McDonald’s in midtown Manhattan. Like many low-wage workers, she lacks job protections and did not provide her last name. “It sounds good,” she says of $15 an hour, “but you know they’re gonna cut hours. That’s what they’re already doing.”

James Sherk, labor policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says the pay mandates will accelerate the industry’s turn toward automation — self-service tablets, for example, that replace the need for cashiers. Such technologies are already being developed, but are not yet widely used.

“The main barrier to implementation is the up-front cost and then maintenance,” Sherk says. “But with the minimum wage going up it will make a lot more sense for McDonald’s to do this. It changes the financial calculus.”

Tsedeye Gebreselassie, staff attorney at the left-leaning National Employment Law Project, shrugs off the criticism. Businesses always tend to complain when the wage floor rises, she says, and this is no exception. Plus, the hike is staggered over time, giving the firms –which include some of the largest corporations in the nation– plenty of time to adjust.

The boost will also deliver broader benefits to the economy, as workers find themselves with more spending power than before. That bottom tier of the labor force is in despearate need of economic gains. “Part of why there has to be such a dramatic increase is that wages have fallen so dramatically,” Gebreselassie says. “This is about playing catch up.”

It’s also about setting high standards for an increasingly large part of the labor force, she says. More than 4 million people work in the fast food sector nationwide; 180,000 of them are in New York.

As the recovery continues to inch forward, lingering myths of fast food as a temporary gig for teens simply don’t reflect the new economic reality. A New York survey found 87.5 percent of the state’s fast food workers are aged 19 and older. “Because this is such a growing industry, more and more adults are going to be spending their careers in it,” she says. It makes sense that decent pay should follow.

Another benefit of the wage hike is that it remains largely immune to a common threat of employers confronted with mounting high labor costs: relocation. Unlike the sorts of manufacturing jobs that companies can easily ship to cheaper states or countries — say, General Electric’s ongoing relocation from a unionized capacitor plant in Fort Edward, New York to non-union Clearwater, Florida — fast food restaurants aren’t about to up and leave the state en masse. “You need to be where your customers are, where the demand is,” says Gebreselassie.

“Everything’s Rising Except For The Pay”
For many workers, business concerns don’t change the fact that current pay practices verge on the nightmarish.

“Everything’s rising except for the pay — rents, food, transportation” says Filiberto Carrillo, who, like David Ramirez, has to work at two different New York City Subways to make ends meet. He’s worked at Subway for 6 years, he says, and earns $10 an hour. “Right now, when you ask for more pay, they just give you more hours.”

Physically, he cannot tolerate much more. Carrillo says he usually works 15 to 16 hour days, or 75 hours a week. A $15 wage would be a relief, he says, before going to fix coffee for an anxious customer in line.

Meanwhile, for David Ramirez, a pay raise might resolve his MetroCard dilemma. Right now, he uses a weekly pass. He knows it’s cheaper to get the monthly one, but it’s especially prone to malfunction if it bends a lot — it’s happened before and takes far too long to get fixed. The monthly cost difference between the two passes is about 7 dollars. He would rather not make such calculations.

Source: International Business Times Web News – Posted 07-23-2015; retrieved from:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/fast-food-workers-win-a-historic-raise/ar-AAdnvse?ocid=HPCDHP
————
VIDEO – New York City Gives Fast Food Workers a Raise to a Minimum $15 an Hour – https://youtu.be/2QaFCrhFLjg

Published on Jul 22, 2015 – New York City fast food workers are getting a pay raise after the state’s wage board approved a new minimum hourly pay of $15, up from $8.75 which would take effect by 2018 and 2021 for the rest of the state. The wage hike applies to fast food workers — whether at big corporations like McDonald’s (MCD) and Burger King …

Poor McDonalds!

No wait … the foregoing article highlights:

… the pay mandates will accelerate the industry’s turn toward automation — self-service tablets, for example, that replace the need for cashiers. Such technologies are already being developed, but are not yet widely used.

This is the theme of this commentary, minimum wage is a law, not an absolute; technology will simply be deployed to mitigate the high costs of labor. See this subsequent article, posted earlier, during the 4^th Quarter of 2014:

Title #2: McDonald’s has joined the list of food chains looking to put more machines to work
By: Patrick Thibodeau, ComputerWorld Magazine Contributor

Oct 24, 2014 – McDonald’s this week told financial analysts of its plans to install self-ordering kiosks and mobile ordering at its restaurants. It isn’t the only food chain doing this.

The company that owns Chili’s Grill & Bar also said this week it will complete a tablet ordering system rollout next month at its U.S. restaurants. Applebee’s announced last December that it would deliver tablets to 1,800 restaurants this year.

The pace of self-ordering system deployments appears to be gaining speed. But there’s a political element to this and it’s best to address it quickly.

The move toward more automation comes at the same time pressure to raise minimum wages is growing. A Wall Street Journal editorial this week, “Minimum Wage Backfire,” said that while it may be true for McDonald’s to say that its tech plans will improve customer experience, the move is also “a convenient way…to justify a reduction in the chain’s global workforce.”

The Journal faulted those who believe that raising fast food wages will boost stagnant incomes. “The result of their agitation will be more jobs for machines and fewer for the least skilled workers,” it wrote.

The elimination of jobs because of automation will happen anyway. Gartner says software and robots will replace one third of all workers by 2025, and that includes many high-skilled jobs, too.

Automation is hardly new to retail. Banks rely on ATMs, and grocery stores, including Walmart, have deployed self-service checkouts. But McDonald’s hasn’t changed its basic system of taking orders since its founding in the 1950s, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a research group focused on the restaurant industry.

The move to kiosk and mobile ordering, said Tristano, is happening because it will improve order accuracy, speed up service and has the potential of reducing labor cost, which can account for about 30% of costs. But automated self-service is a convenience that’s now expected, particularly among younger customers, he said.

“It’s keeping up with the times, and the (McDonald’s) franchises are going to clamor for it,” said Tristano, who said any labor savings is actually at the bottom of the list of reasons restaurants are putting in these self-service systems.

McDonald’s is already deploying mobile ordering in other countries. In France, you can order a McDonald’s hamburger from a mobile device, tablet or desktop and pick it up later at a restaurant, said Thomas Husson, a Forrester analyst in a report.

“By reducing the stress of the ordering, McDonald’s has significantly increased the average revenue per order,” wrote Husson of the experience in France.

Chili’s has deployed some 45,000 tablets from Ziosk, which makes the system. Ziosk CEO Austen Mulinder says the tablets are used for ordering drinks, appetizers and desserts and for making payments, but they remain optional for customers. The waitstaff will take the first drink and entrée orders, which are often modified by people at the table.

Mulinder said there’s no capital cost to installation, and the multi-year subscription price for the system is more than offset by increased revenues it generates.

The tablet also includes games and an opportunity for people to give feedback, and to join a loyalty program. That creates the potential for increased sales, because customers aren’t necessarily waiting to catch an employee’s attention to refill a drink. It also avoids the frustration of waiting for the check, said Mulinder.

“Restaurants want to speak the language of the millennials and the language of millennials is digital,” said Mulinder.

Wyman Roberts, the CEO of Chili’s parent company, Brinker International, spoke to financial analysts this week in a conference call about the new system. “We’re excited about the potential this has to create a stronger connection and smarter interactivity between us and our guests,” said Roberts, according to a transcript by Seeking Alpha.

Patrick Thibodeau – Senior Editor – covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2837810/automation-arrives-at-restaurants-but-dont-blame-rising-minimum-wages.html

The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour; a change to $15 is considered by some: Extreme!

Needless to say, this issue is highly charged politically.

There are forces on the “left” that want to elevate many in poverty by mandating a higher minimum wage, setting a higher entitlement benefit. Then there are forces on the “right” that want the Free Market to reign, despite any suffering by those at the lowest rungs of society’s economic ladder. Consider this right-leaning commentary here in the following article:

Title #3: McDonald’s Announces Its Answer to $15 an Hour Minimum Wage – Touch-Screen Cashiers
By: Jim Hoft, June 15th, 2015

This is exactly what the left pushed for… Fast Food chains were never meant to be a place for someone to raise a family of 6, they were to be part time positions with some full-time advancements. Mostly the fast food restaurants were for school aged kids to learn how to interact with people, with a job, to offer spending money, and to begin responsibility learning for their future.

The part time position was not intended to pay for a house, it is a stepping stone to move on.

$15.00/hr x 8 hrs= $120/day x 5 days= $600/week x 52 weeks = $31,200/year!!

Of course when this happens, like it did today in Los Angeles, the poor and unskilled workers will go on Welfare, and cost American workers more to support them.

McDonald’s recently came out with their answer to those that want $15/hr pay:

Robots.

This month in Europe McDonald’s hired 7,000 touch-screen cashiers. See a related article here:http://www.cnet.com/news/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-screen-cashiers/

From a Caribbean perspective, neither extreme – “left” nor “right” – is acceptable!

The $31,200 annual salary for New York proposed minimum wage is higher than the average income for all Caribbean member-states, except the states with bloated figures from residing expatriates and offshore banking activity (Bermuda, BVI, Caymans & St. Barths). This new $31,200 minimum wage development would therefore lure even more Caribbean citizens away, as those minimum wage jobs in New York would be higher than their normal income/experiences at home. The Caribbean crisis will therefore deepen.

These ‘Agents of Change’ (Technology and Globalization/Mobilization of Labor Force) align with the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, asserting that the Caribbean region has been losing the battle of technology and globalization. The consequence of our defeat is the sacrifice of our most precious treasures: our people, especially our youth. The assessment of all 30 Caribbean member-states is that every community has lost human capital to emigration. Some communities, like Puerto Rico (and the US Virgin Islands) have suffered with an abandonment rates of more than 50% , thus the term “Nuyorican”. Other states have watched as more than 70% of their college-educated citizens flee their homelands for foreign shores.

These ‘Agents of Change’ are affecting everyone, everywhere. The Go Lean book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce – fix the broken eco-systems – so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. We need jobs; though our focus is on higher-paying jobs, the minimum wage variety, must not be ignored. The foregoing news articles therefore are very relevant … and fear-inspiring.

The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) with the charter to facilitate jobs in the region. The book posits that ICT (Internet & Communications Technology) can be a great equalizer for the Caribbean to better compete with the rest of the world. This job-creation focus is among these 3 prime directives of CU/Go Lean roadmap:

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

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

xxvi.     Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

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.

xxviii.   Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

According to a previous blog/commentary, computers are reshaping the global job market; now the foregoing articles relate that the impact is also affecting the low-end Fast-Food industry’s jobs. Nothing is safe! Consider these other blog/commentaries related to the current state of the job market:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5597	Wage-Seeking: Market Forces -vs- Collective Bargaining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5210	Cruise Ship Labor/Commerce: Getting Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4278	Businesses Try to Stave-off Brain Drain as Boomers Retire
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3446	Forecast for higher unemployment in Caribbean in 2015
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2857	Where the Jobs Are – Entrepreneurism in Junk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2025	Where the Jobs Are – Attitudes & Images of the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2003	Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Shipbreaking
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	Where the Jobs Are – STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=242	The Erosion of the Middle Class

The book Go Lean…Caribbean details the creation of 2.2 million new jobs for the Caribbean region, many embracing ICT/STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/Medicine) skill-sets. How? By adoption of certain community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample from the book:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Strategy – Mission – Education Without Further Brain Drain	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries	Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Patents & Copyrights	Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact ICT and Social Media	Page 111
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Food Consumption – Reality of Quick Serve Restaurants	Page 162
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Markets and Unions	Page 164
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Battle Poverty – Third World Realities	Page 222
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class	Page 223
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth – Usual Candidates for Fast-Food Jobs	Page 227
Appendix – Growing 2.2 Million Jobs in 5 Years	Page 257
Appendix – Job Multipliers	Page 259
Appendix – Nuyorican Movement	Page 303

The CU must foster job-creating developments for above minimum-wage jobs, by incentivizing many high-tech start-ups and incubating viable companies. The primary ingredient for CU success must be Caribbean people, so we must foster and incite participation of many young people into STEM fields.

The automation trend will continue. We cannot be on the receiving end of these monumental changes; we must help foster the change as well. These previous commentaries highlighted how the Go Lean roadmap is preparing the region for engagement with autonomous systems:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5376	Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3187	Robots help Amazon tackle Cyber Monday
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487	Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673	Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

The Caribbean must not be parasites, we must be protégés!

The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but jobs are obviously missing. Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap, so that we can create the high-paying, community-impacting jobs. This roadmap provides the turn-by-turn directions to get the region to its desired destination: a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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For-Profit Education: Plenty of Profit; Little Education

Posted on June 8, 2015 in Economics, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Follow the money…

This is a familiar plot-line in Hollywood Police dramas. Its “life imitating art” because this is the same eventuality for the American For-Profit education industry. There is a lot of money available in the US for post-secondary education of American students. Federal Student Loans are available to any American citizen regardless of credit or income. This constitutes a fertile ground for abuse.

According to the following news article, this one education company Corinthian College – see Appendix A below – is a bad example of For-Profit schools making a lot of profit but providing very little education to its customers: students.

“Scratch a liar, catch a thief”.

The article is presented here:

1. Title: My college degree is worthless

Sub-title: Students across the country are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for degrees that end up being completely worthless.

Rosalyn Harris, an unemployed single mother who had never gone to college, thought getting a degree would be the ticket to a new life. So at age 23, she enrolled in a two-year criminal justice program at for-profit Everest College in Chesapeake, Va.

But the wealth of job opportunities the school had touted never transpired, and all she ended up with was more than $22,000 in student loan debt. She said classes were terrible, she didn’t receive any of the training she needed, and as a result, she spent months after graduation searching for criminal justice jobs without ever getting a call back.

Desperate to start paying some of her bills, Harris eventually applied for any entry-level job she could find. A full year after she graduated, she finally found a minimum wage job stocking shelves at Victoria’s Secret.

“My sole purpose of going to school was bettering my life for me and my son,” she said. “But now I wish I had never gone.”

Everest is a member of for-profit behemoth Corinthian Colleges, which has been accused by federal agencies of operating a predatory lending scheme, preying on low-income students and falsely inflating job placement numbers. Corinthian is currently closing and selling its schools, leaving thousands of graduates on the hook for loans they took out.

A Corinthian spokesman confirmed that Harris graduated in good standing, but it was unable to place her in a job. He said the school did provide her with career assistance and claims the criminal justice program has a 75% job placement rate, which he said is “a strong outcome for any educational program.”

He also disputed the allegations against the school, noting that Corinthian’s student loan default rate (of up to 27% for its EverestCollege campuses) is lower than other community colleges and its graduation and job placement rates are higher.

And while Corinthian has a particularly bad reputation, the for-profit college industry as a whole is often criticized for luring low-income students with false promises and failing to provide educations that qualify students for jobs.

Not only that but for-profit schools are generally double or triple the cost of public institutions like community colleges, and the default rate (19% last year) was the highest of all sectors.

Vantrell Echols, a 36-year-old from Georgia, wishes he never received a phone call from for-profit Lincoln College of Technology back in 2008. He said the school spent six months convincing him to enroll — promising to provide all the training and help he needed to find a high-paying computer science job. He had been unemployed for more than a year and he was desperate, so he gave it a shot.

But upon enrolling in the computer science program, he said the quality of education “was a complete joke” and job assistance was nonexistent.

“They sold many of us dreams about helping us, getting us qualified to work, to help us with jobs, [but] I had to ask fellow students to help me because the teachers wouldn’t. Many of us graduated with honors but didn’t learn anything in our fields,” he said.

Lincoln Educational Services president Scott Shaw defended the school’s reputation to CNNMoney, touting its 75% job placement rate and pointing to examples of successful graduates like the CEO of VMWare (who graduated in 1979).

But Echols said that after accumulating more than $20,000 in debt to attend the one-year program, he wasn’t able to find a single job in computer science. He’s still unemployed, is now homeless — and he is convinced he’d be better off without the degree even listed on his resume.

He says multiple employers have told him that they don’t view his degree as credible because of the for-profit industry’s reputation and because other people they’ve hired from the school haven’t had the necessary skills for the job.

“They’ve ruined my life and the lives of many of my classmates,” he said.

Shaw said extensive career assistance was provided to Echols and that he isn’t sure why Echols couldn’t find a job. “There’s only so much we can do — at some point the student has to partake,” he said.

But these kinds of stories are popping up so often that even the Obama Administration took action this week. Going forward, for-profit colleges will risk losing federal student aid if average loan payments of graduates exceed 20% of discretionary income or 8% of total earnings.

“Too many hard-working students find themselves buried in debt with little to show for it,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Harkin of Iowa are pushing for legislation that goes a step further. They argue that a loophole in federal laws allow some institutions to offer programs that aren’t licensed or accredited at the state or federal level. That means graduates end up with degrees that may sound legitimate but are meaningless to many employers.

The two senators introduced legislation last month aimed at cracking down on these “worthless degrees.” The legislation would require courses to be licensed before allowing schools to accept federal money like student loan dollars or financial aid.

“Passing this bill will ensure that a college can no longer charge thousands of dollars for a degree that does not prepare them to work in the field they were promised‎,” according to a statement about the bill.

Related: U.S. sues Corinthian Colleges
2. Title: Embattled for-profit education behemoth Corinthian Colleges is facing yet another legal fight: This time, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The consumer agency announced Tuesday it is suing Corinthian for “illegal predatory lending” and is demanding that the school forgive more than $500 million in private loans it has given to students since July of 2011.

According to the CFPB’s complaint, Corinthian convinced students to enroll in the school by inflating its job placement rates. It even paid employers to hire graduates for at least one day in order to boost its numbers.

Meanwhile, Corinthian’s tuition and fees — which can climb to as high as $75,000 for a bachelor’s degree — are higher than what federal loans generally cover, forcing many students to take out private loans from the school. These loans, called “Genesis loans,” came with origination fees of 6% and interest rates of around 15% as of 2011 — much higher than the 3% and 7% charged on federal loans.
…
CNNMoney (New York); posted September 16, 2014 from: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/16/pf/college/cfpb-corinthian-lawsuit/index.html?iid=EL

The references to “low-income students” in the foregoing article are most commonly the “Black and Brown” of the American population. This is a frequent demographic for victimization in American life.

This issue in the article is just another example of Crony-Capitalism and institutional racism. The book Go Lean…Caribbean and subsequent blogs posit that the Caribbean must not be vulnerable to these negative American forces.

The dread of Crony-Capitalism and institutional racism have been highlighted and detailed in many previous blog commentaries; see the many Crony-Capitalism models in Appendix B below. Now we have to add the reality of Big Education to the discussion. The issue underpinning this dilemma is the easy availability of guaranteed student loans from the US federal government. Unfortunately this is not just an issue for For-Profit institutions, many not-for-profit colleges and university also exploit the federal student loan funds to garner revenues at the expense of innocent students. The Crony in this case is a direct consequence of a rich pool of federal monies.

Rich pool? This brings to mind the visual of an isolated pool/pond on the African Plain, a watering hole on the Serengeti where many animals seek hydration and refuge, but the terrain is endangered with predators: lions, crocodiles, hyenas, cheetahs, etc.. Yes, in the American commercial eco-system, “follow the money”, and you will find many “bad actors” looking to exploit the situation for unfair gain and quick profits.

VIDEO – Is the cost of college crippling? – http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/09/03/n-cost-of-college-rising-education-middle-class-jobs.cnnmoney/

The Caribbean must do better! We must also dissuade our citizens from emigrating to this American eco-system.

The consideration of Crony-Capitalism in the For-Profit Education industry aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, a roadmap to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean. The Caribbean wants to model many of the good examples of the United States, and learn from the many bad models. Education is one such model. While optimization of education can systemically raise a country’s economy, the Caribbean experience has been more negative than positive. Too many of our students have left … to study abroad; then refused to return home, taking with them the return on community investments and repayment of their student loans. The Go Lean book has reported in detail on how traditional college career paths have been disastrous policies for the Caribbean in whole, and each specific country in particular.

This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU has a complete education agenda, applying lessons learned from the consideration of the American models. This roadmap represents a big change for the region. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. There is a plan for a regional student loan pool, where we mitigate the dangers that are so evident in the American eco-system. Our primary threat now is the constant abandonment rate among the college-educated populations. So as a planning tool, the roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the dread of societal threats and the Caribbean brain drain (Page 12):

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 …

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… This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

The Go Lean book posits that education is a vital consideration for Caribbean economic empowerment. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of championing better educational policies. The book details those policies; and other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact tertiary education in the region:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future – Apply Lessons of American Lax Oversight	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship – Training & Mentoring	Page 28
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – On-the-Job-Training Regulator	Page 89
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt – Lessons of American Student Loan Crisis	Page 114
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Essential Role of Tertiary Education	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs – Vital Need for Better STEM* Education Empowerments*	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Mitigating the Brain Drain	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans – Regional Pools for Cross-Border Enforcements	Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 169
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth	Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education Progress and Success Criteria	Page 266
Appendix – New American Student Loan Debt Crisis – Now Over $1 Trillion in Debt	Page 286

The American Tertiary Education Student Loan eco-system is badly broken; (tuition has increased 500% since 1985). The large pools of money has attracted “bad actors” or predators. The party in the foregoing news article – Corinthian Colleges – has been charged and adjudicated with predatory lending violations. Their victims: poor students who would have to repay these non-dischargeable federally-insured student loans. How sad? All of that time, talent and treasury and nothing to show for it. No wonder the economic effects of this affected population are now showing in other aspects of the economy, such as retarded home-buying output among the younger generations.

The Caribbean is urged to do better.

The people, educational and governing institutions in the region are urged to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. Education reform can suceed in elevating Caribbean society; we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

———-

Appendix A – Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_Colleges)

Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (CCi) was a large for-profit post-secondary education company in North America. Its subsidiaries offered career-oriented diploma and degree programs in health care, business, criminal justice, transportation technology and maintenance, construction trades, and information technology.^[1]

At its largest, CCi had over 100 Everest, Heald and WyoTech campuses throughout the United States and Canada.^[2]

Corinthian’s campuses in Canada closed on February 19, 2015 after the Ontario government suspended their operation license. After a series of legal challenges by state and federal agencies, on April 26, 2015 Corinthian Colleges announced that they would cease operations at all remaining US locations effective April 27, 2015. The closure affected more than 16,000 students and employees.

Corinthian Colleges was founded in February 1995.^[3] The five founders — David Moore, Paul St. Pierre, Frank McCord, Dennis Devereux, and Lloyd Holland — were executives at National Education Centers, Inc. (NECI), a for-profit operator of vocational schools based in Irvine, California. The founders planned to acquire schools that were fundamentally sound, but which for one reason or another were performing below their potential.^[4]

Historically, CCi grew rapidly through acquisitions and through organic growth, including opening new branch campuses, remodeling, expanding or relocating existing campuses, and adopting curricula into existing colleges.^[3]

Acquired Schools
The following institutes and colleges were acquired [through the years]:^[5]

American Motorcycle Institute
AshmeadCollege
Blair College
Bryman College
Bryman Institute
Duff’s Business Institute
Florida Metropolitan University
Georgia Medical Institute
Kee Business College
Las Vegas College
National Institute of Technology
National School of Technology
Olympia Career Training Institute
Olympia College
Parks College
Rochester Business Institute
Tampa College
Western Business College

Corinthian Colleges faced numerous investigations and lawsuits, including a federal criminal investigation.^[6]

Financial Aid Financing
The Higher Education Act provides that a private, for-profit institution, such as CCi’s institutions, may derive no more than 90% of its revenue from the Title IV federal student aid programs.^[39] In 2010, CCi reported that it received 81.9% of revenue from Title IV federal student aid programs. ^[40] Corinthian Colleges (CCI) acquired QuickStart Intelligence in summer 2012, an Irvine, California-based, privately held technology training company. As a B2B revenue stream; CCI acquired QuickStart Intelligence to leverage the 10%, non-government funding essential to back the additional student loans for CCi’s core adult learning programs.

Student Loan Default Rate
A significant requirement imposed by Congress is a limitation on participation in Title IV programs by institutions whose former students default on the repayment of federal student loans in excess of specified rates (“Cohort Default Rates”).^[41] On March 25, 2013, CCi received a draft three-year Cohort Default Rates from the U.S. Department of Education for students who entered repayment during the federal fiscal year ending September 30, 2010 (the “2010 Cohort”), measured over three federal fiscal years of borrower repayment. The weighted average of CCi’s institutions was 19.0%, a 9.0 percentage point decrease from the 28.0% weighted average for the three-year cohort default rate for students who entered repayment during the prior fiscal year.^[42] For the 2010 Cohort, none of CCi’s institutions exceeded the default threshold set by the U.S. Department of Education.^[42]

———-

Appendix B – Models of American Crony-Capitalism

Big Defense	Many theorists indicate that the “follow the money” approach reveals the Military Industrial Complex work to undermine peace, so as to increase defense spending for military equipment, systems and weapons.
Big Media	Cable companies conspire to keep rates high; kill net neutrality; textbook publishers practice price gouging; Hollywood insists on big tax breaks/ subsidies for on-location shooting.
Big Oil	While lobbying for continuous tax subsidies, the industry have colluded to artificially keep prices high and garner rocket profits ($38+ Billion every quarter).
Big Box	Retail chains impoverish small merchants on Main Street with Antitrust-like tactics, thusly impacting community jobs. e-Commerce, an area of many future prospects, is the best hope of countering these bad business tactics.
Big Pharma	Chemo-therapy cost $20,000+/month; and the War against Cancer is imperiled due to industry profit insistence.
Big Tobacco	Cigarettes are not natural tobacco but rather latent with chemicals to spruce addiction.
Big Agra	Agribusiness concerns bully family farmers and crowd out the market; plus fight common sense food labeling efforts.
Big Data	Brokers for internet and demographic data clearly have no regards to privacy concerns.
Big Banks	Wall Street’s damage to housing and student loans are incontrovertible.
Big Weather	Overblown hype of “Weather Forecasts” to dictate commercial transactions.
Big Real Estate	Preserving MLS for Real Estate brokers only, forcing 6% commission rates, when the buyers and sellers can meet without them.
Big Salt	Despite the corrosiveness of salt on roads and the environment, it is the only tactic used to de-ice roads. Immediately after the weather warms, the roads must be re-constructed, thus ensuring a continuous economic cycle.
Big Energy	The For-Profit utility companies always lobby against regulations to “clean-up” fossil-fuel (coal) power plants or block small “Green” start-ups from sending excess power to the National Grid. Their motive is to preserve their century-long monopoly and their profits.
Big Legal	Even though it is evident that the promotion of Intellectual Property can help grow economies, the emergence of Patent Trolling parties (mostly lawyers) is squashing innovation. These ones are not focused on future innovations, rather just litigation. They go out and buy patents, then look for anyone that may consume any concepts close to those patents, then sue for settlements, quick gains.
Big Cruise	Cruise ships are the last bastion of segregation with descriptors like “modern-day-slavery” and “sweat-ships”. Working conditions are poor and wages are far below anyone’s standards of minimum. Many ship-domestic staff are “tip earners”, paid only about US$50 a month and expected to survive on the generosity of the passengers’ gratuity. The industry staff with personnel from Third World countries, exploiting those with desperate demands. Nowhere else in the modern world is this kind of job discrimination encouraged, accepted or tolerated.
Big Jails	The private prison industry seem motivated more by profit than by public safety. They attempt to sue state governments when their occupancy levels go too low; a reduction in crime is bad for business.
Big Housing	The American legacy is one of the institutional segregation in American cities. The practice was administered by real estate agents and housing officials executing policies to elevate property values and generational wealth for White families at the expense of a life of squalor for Non-Whites.
Big Charities	Big Not-For-Profit organizations that fleece the public under the guise of charities but retain vast majorities of the funding as administrative costs, thusly benefiting mostly the charities’ executives and staff rather than the intended benefactors.

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Extracurricular Music Programs Boost Students

Posted on May 28, 2015 in Economics, Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic” – The 3 R’s of Education.

If only everybody learned these basic skills at the same level of competence.

The truth is, not everyone is as gifted as others. While some may display genius abilities with these literary and/or computational skills, others show genius qualifiers for art, dance, athleticism … and music!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean declares: “That’s OK”!

The book identifies that there are 8 different genius qualifiers and plots to include the contribution of all these participants in the quest to elevate Caribbean society. The 8 genius qualifiers are stated in the book (Page 27) as follows:

1. Linguistic
2. Logical-Mathematics
3. Musical, Sound, Rhythm
4. Bodily-Kinesthetic-Body Movement Control
5. Spatial – Shapes/Figures Aptitude
6. Interpersonal – Other People’s Feelings – Leadership
7. Intrapersonal and Naturalistic – Self-Awareness
8. Existential – Moral Intelligence

Some genius skills are innate, natural abilities; but some genius qualifiers have to be taught, learned and fostered. The same as everyone benefits from literary and computational skills – genius or not – the same can be said of music, sound and rhythm. Those who can make music can contribute greatly to society. But on the other hand, even those not enabled with great musical abilities can become appreciative music consumers. So the benefits of music education are extended far-and-wide. In fact, this below news article posits that Extracurricular Music programs have benefits for all students, boosting their grades and graduation rates.

Wow, the research and findings – as follows – should not be ignored:

Title: Extracurricular Music Program Boosts Students’ Grades and Graduation Rates
By: Corey Whelan

(This article is presented in partnership with the California Lottery. The California Lottery proceeds provides supplemental funding to State Education & Music programs)

Music is one of the most powerful motivators human beings have. Music can calm an anxious toddler, energize a sleepy teenager and elicit every human emotion known. According to MUSICSTAR, a California public school music program, it can also generate better math scores and higher rates of graduation among public school students. As reported in a recent Gallop Poll, most parents, including those raising children in California, agree that children can benefit from music programs and want them to be available at their child’s school.

The Sound of Learning
In general, music education and learning how to play a musical instrument, have been consistently resulted in developing a myriad of skills and abilities among children. In addition to acquiring mastery of an instrument many come to love, according to MUSICSTAR, the following benefits also occur:

Creativity development

Team-building skills, particularly if they play in an orchestra or band

Increased levels of academic and personal achievement

Higher sense of self-esteem

Increased levels of self-discipline

Higher rates of school spirit

Decreased rates of behavioral issues

Decreased levels of depression and anxiety

Music programs in school can also support better relationships between teachers and students, and between the school and parent community.

The Power of MUSICSTAR Learning
MUSICSTAR is an educational program which is offered in a variety of California’s public schools, both during the school day and as an after-school program. “We’re providing a solution for many of California’s schools, from elementary through to high school, by providing all of the music education components needed, from the equipment to the instruments, plus the curriculum, trained teaching staff and program support,” says Eckart Seeber, the director of the MUSICSTAR program. “There’s no limit as to what instruments the children can use. They can access and explore band instruments, guitar, drums, marching band or rock band or the violin.”

As an award-winning composer, Seeber knows firsthand what the power of musical learning can do. “MUSICSTAR ran our own internal research and also accessed third-party research which compared students in the same socioeconomic locations. Consistently it was shown that music education learners excelled in many areas over students who were not studying music, in ways which surprised some parents and educators. Music students consistently displayed higher test scores in mathematics than their non-music studying counterparts,” he explains.

The Benefit to Students and Their Community
Students are welcome to explore a wide range of musical instruments and techniques, including multicultural music, music technology, mariachi, choir, glee and hand-drumming. Program options can be suited to all levels of musical ability and the student’s age. Several themes run through all of the programs and provide high levels of musicianship and aesthetics, music literacy and an in-depth comprehension of music as it has been applied throughout various historical periods as an art form.

The programs are geared towards acquiring performance and public speaking skills, both confidence builders. Students involved in the programs long term have the opportunity to take their music into the community. With the support of school-based professionals, many students go on to play with groups at community centers and senior citizen facilities, providing a well-deserved respite for others and an incredible self-growth opportunity for themselves.
——-
Corey Whelan is a freelance writer in New York. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.

Source: CBS Los Angeles – News Site of Local Affiliate (Posted March 18, 2015; retrieved 5/28/2015) –
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/top-lists/extracurricular-music-program-boosts-students-grades-and-graduation-rates/

The focus of this commentary is on education. (This has proven to be a pivotal subject for the Go Lean movement: the book and accompanying blogs). The focus on this commentary is also on music, and the intersection of these two dynamics: music education.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an initiative to bring change and empowerment to the Caribbean region; to make the region a better place to live, work and play. From the outset, the book recognized the significance of music in the Caribbean change/empowering plan with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):

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

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

The purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to foster change, to elevate Caribbean society. Music can play a major role in that endeavor; (there is the acknowledgement that music can help forge change). Education is also pivotal. Therefore music education must be a priority.

This Go Lean roadmap calls for the heavy-lifting in shepherding change in Caribbean life. In fact, the empowerment roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

While the Go Lean book describes the CU as a hallmark of a technocracy, with a commitment to efficiency and effectiveness, there is still a commitment to concepts of fun, such as music, arts, sports, film/media, heritage and overall happiness. There is the 3^rd rail of this Caribbean optimization roadmap: 1. Live, 2. Work and 3. Play.

The Go Lean book declares that before any real change takes root in the Caribbean that we must reach the heart of people, to ready them to adopt new community ethos – the national spirit that drives the character and identity of its people. This is easier said than done! But, Music helps.

This Go Lean movement has previously detailed how society can be transformed through music; consider prior Go Lean blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5251	Bahamas Attempts to Transform Society with Inaugural Carnival
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	Building a City on ‘Rock and Roll’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3568	Forging Change: Music Moves People
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2415	How ‘The Lion King’ Music/Play roared into history
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2291	Forging Change: The Fun Theory
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1909	Music Role Model Berry Gordy: Transformed America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Music Role Model Bob Marley: Legend Transformed the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Do Not Want From the US – #9: Cultural Neutralizations

Our world is in constant flux. The region has not always kept pace with change; as a result, we have often fallen behind and lost many battles in the war of globalization. We have stood on the sidelines and watched the taste and interest of our young people, and many times our youth themselves, shift to life in foreign shores. Change need not be scary! We can win many of the battles of globalization; we do not have to lose this war.

To win, or if only to survive, we must first outfit ourselves in a complete suit of armor. This is a Biblical reference (Ephesians 6:10-18). It stresses that a foremost piece of armor is a “helmet”, referring to the need to protect/prepare mental processes.

This means education!

Yes, the need to better teach our youth is a God-given mandate. Music can be an offensive and defensive tool (weapon). Since most educational administrations in the Caribbean are overwhelmed with just the delivery of the basic “3 R’s” – defined above – music is mostly deemed an extracurricular activity. The Go Lean roadmap was constructed with the approach that change and new empowerments are needed for the Caribbean “community ethos”; plus the execution of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact our society. The following list from the book provides a sample of the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies for the region to Go Lean:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Promotion of Domestic Culture	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Celebrate the Music, Sports, Art, People and Culture of the Caribbean	Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing Economy to $800 Billion – Education Empowerments	Page 70
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Educational Empowerment from Federation to Member-States	Page 85
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – Four Languages in Unison	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better – Music/Media/Arts for better PLAY	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood	Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Beauty Pageants	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music	Page 231
Appendix – Job Creations – Music and Art Related Jobs: 12,600	Page 257
Appendix – Caribbean Musical Genres for all 30 Member States	Page 347

The quest to change the Caribbean is conceivable, believable and achievable. But it is more than just playing or listening to music. It is heavy-lifting. Yes, it does include a lot of skill-sets of those that master the Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic subject matters; but it also has a role for those with genius qualifiers in music and the other arts. Plus, according to the foregoing news article, education in music makes students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) better at their perspective STEM professions.

This is a win-win all-around. Even for those who fail to excel, master or display any genius abilities, their ventures into music will never be wasted, for at least they would have had fun consuming it. This will make them lifelong music patrons.

Life imitating art; art imitating life. This thought was dramatically illustrated in the 2003 Movie School of Rock; see Appendix and VIDEO below.

The Go Lean roadmap was composed with the theme that one man or woman can make a difference in transforming society. The cited movie below is renowned for the quotation:

“One great rock concert can change the world”.

Yes, according to one Bahamian Music Artist and Music Educator extraordinaire Sonovia “Novie” Pierre: Make Love; Make Peace; Make Music.

This aligns with the clarion call for the Go Lean…Caribbean book: A better place to live. A better place to work. A better place to Play. Music is tied to all of these activities.

This is the mandate of the Go Lean roadmap. Everyone is hereby encouraged to lean-in to this roadmap.

🙂

————

Appendix – Movie: School of Rock (2003)

Summary: When struggling musician Dewey Finn finds himself out of work, he takes over his roommate’s job as an elementary school substitute teacher and turns [his] class into a rock band.

Storyline: Down and out rock star Dewey Finn gets fired from his band, and he faces a mountain of debts and depression. He takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his attitude and hijinks have a powerful effect on his students. He also meets Zack, a 10-year-old guitar prodigy, who could help Dewey win a “battle of the bands” competition, which would solve his financial problems and put him back in the spotlight. – Written by Anonymous

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Mike White
Stars: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack

VIDEO – School Of Rock – Epic Scene – https://youtu.be/x_-4d8YBojo

The Journey: The Teacher discovering the genius talents in his midst.
Category: Music. License: Standard YouTube License

VIDEO – School Of Rock -Zach’s Song [HD] “OFFICIAL VIDEO” – https://youtu.be/oP7kExN8LFA

The Big Show: The culmination of all the effort, teamwork and genius.

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Ann Arbor: Model for ‘Start-up’ Cities

Posted on April 16, 2015 in Ethos, Government

Go Lean Commentary

Imagine a university with 75,000 students, faculty and staff. That is a whole city in itself.

This is not make-believe; this is the City of Ann Arbor, in the US State of Michigan. When you visit this city, you would not know when the university begins and the city ends; or when the city begins and the university ends. ^[33]

Ann Arbor is a principal city in Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County.^[5] The 2010 census recorded its population to be 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan.^[6] The city is also part of the larger Detroit–Ann Arbor–Flint, MI Combined Statistical Area. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan)

Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan and 43,625 students; it is one of the foremost research universities in the United States. The university shapes Ann Arbor’s economy significantly as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about 12,000 in the medical center. The city’s economy is also centered on high technology, with several companies drawn to the area by the university’s research and development money, and by its graduates.^[8]

The City of Ann Arbor was founded in 1824, named for wives of the village’s founders and the stands of Bur Oak trees.^[7] The University of Michigan moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, and the city showed steady growth throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as a center for left-wing politics. Ann Arbor became a focal point for political activism and served as a hub for the civil-rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement, as well as various student movements.

The idea of impactful cities aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean in stressing the elevation of the societal engines through entrepreneurial endeavors. The book asserts that Caribbean society can be elevated by improving the eco-system to live, work, learn and play. This is the example of Ann Arbor. This point is strongly conveyed in this following news article/profile entitled “Ann Arbor – Start-up City” about the city in the In-flight Magazine for Delta Airlines: Sky (Published January 2015; retrieved 04-17-2015 from http://msp.imirus.com/Mpowered/book/vds2015/i1/p102:

Click on the Photo/Article to Enlarge

Go Lean blog commentaries have chronicled a lot of the travails of the State of Michigan and its principle City of Detroit. The metropolitan areas were rocked during the Great Recession of 2008, with Detroit eventually having to file a municipal bankruptcy to reorganize it’s finances. Despite all the economic dysfunction in the region, the foregoing article relates how the City of Ann Arbor thrived, not just because of it’s college-town status – see Appendix-VIDEO – but also because of its entrepreneurial ethos and incubation of companies-industries related to Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT).

The cause-and effect of the Great Recession was a great motivation for the composition of the Go Lean book; its 370-pages now serve as a roadmap detailing how the Caribbean can elevate its community by leaning-in to optimizations for the region’s economic, security and governing engines. The roadmap calls for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This technocratic agency will do the heavy-lifting of executing this roadmap; the prime directives are stated as follows:

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

The Go Lean book stresses industrial incubation, which generally refers to the practice of working with “early bird” innovators to exploit business opportunities in certain nascent industries. Ann Arbor has done this, and thusly provide a fitting model for Caribbean communities.

The Go Lean roadmap declares that the region needs “all hands on deck” to model the positive examples of Ann Arbor and other innovative communities. Education is key, as Ann Arbor is a college-town. The correlation is very direct: to create a plethora of new jobs, it is necessary to forge genius, innovation and participation in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM). The book relates that many people can develop the appropriate genius qualifiers with strenuous incentives and fostering on the community level. These points are pronounced early in the following statements in the book’s Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

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

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

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

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The Go Lean roadmap accepts that change has come to the global marketplace, due mostly to the convergence of Internet & Communications Technology (ICT). The book posits that size no longer matters, that from any location – like Ann Arbor in the photos here – innovative solutions can be developed and promoted to an appreciative audience. What matters most is the innovation, not the location; so any Caribbean member-state, large or small can be impactful. The first requirement is the community ethos of valuing intellectual property. This ethos would be new for the Caribbean market; it is therefore a mission of the CU to forge.

The Go Lean book posits that the technocratic facilitations to drive innovation may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state to invest alone, rather the collaboration efforts of the CU is necessary, as the strategy is to confederate all the 30 member-states of the Caribbean into an integrated “single market” to allow for better leverage and incubation.

The CU is designed to do the heavy-lifting of organizing and optimizing the Caribbean for this proposed-improved environment. The following list details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster this environment:

Community Ethos – Forging Change	Page 20
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Anecdote – Valedictorian Experience	Page 38
Strategy – Strategy – Caribbean Vision	Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 73
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Patent, Standards, and Copyrights	Page 78
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 103
Implementation – Capital District Requirements – like Ann Arbor	Page 110
Planning – Lessons from 2008	Page 136
Planning – Lessons from Detroit	Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Electronic Commerce	Page 204
Advocacy – Ways to Battle Poverty – Entrepreneurial Values	Page 222
Appendix – Job Multipliers	Page 259

The Go Lean roadmap asserts that one individual or community can make a difference in the quest to elevate Caribbean society – the promoters of Go Lean have come to Ann Arbor to observe and report on their progress. We want the same outcomes by fostering genius qualifiers in our region; we therefore need impactful college-towns in the Caribbean. Colleges and universities can foster more innovators as there is a need for many contributors. This is true of Metropolitan Michigan / Greater Detroit / Ann Arbor and true for the Caribbean region. These points have been frequently conveyed in previous blogs/commentaries. Consider this sample here:

How One Entrepreneur Can Rally a Whole Community

The City of Santa Clara – A ‘Team Effort’ for Progress

Detroit to exit historic Bankruptcy and start the turn-around

Role Model Shaking Up the World of Cancer

Michigan Unemployment – Then and Now

e-Commerce Role Model Jack Ma brings Alibaba to America

The Lion King’s Julie Taymor – Role Model for the Arts

Philadelphia City Model – Taking the lead for freedom

Role Model Berry Gordy – No Town Like Motown

Bob Marley: The Role Model’s legend lives on!

The Go Lean/CU roadmap presents the change that will come to the Caribbean. The people, institutions and governance of the region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for empowerment. We know there can be many towns in the Caribbean region that can model Ann Arbor. They are waiting to be fostered and nurtured to impact the Caribbean’s Greater Good.

🙂

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

———

Appendix – VIDEO: Explore Ann Arbor – https://youtu.be/E0KVpg3q-tg

Published on May 16, 2013 – The journey is college, Ann Arbor the destination. Place no limits on your Michigan experience. From the nightlife of Main Street to the glowing skies over Barton, go out and #exploreA2.
Produced by Filmic Productions, 2013

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FAMU is No. 3 for Facilitating Economic Opportunity

Posted on March 6, 2015 in Economics, Government

Go Lean Commentary

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

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

Some institutions are better at facilitating social mobility than others. On the National List of institutions, Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University (FAMU) stands out. It is #3 on the list.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to reform the Caribbean tertiary education systems, economy, governance and Caribbean society as a whole. The roadmap commences with a Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing the approach of regional integration (Page 12 & 14) as a viable solution to elevate the region’s educational opportunities:

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores …

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

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

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

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

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate Education without Risk of Abandonment	Page 45
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Education Department	Page 85
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Labor Department – Job Training	Page 89
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Student Loans	Page 160
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Managed the Social Contract – Education Optimizations	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Libraries	Page 187
Appendix – Education and Economic Growth	Page 258
Appendix – Measuring Education	Page 266
Appendix – Student Loan Crisis – Ripping Off America	Page 286

FAMU is a model for the Caribbean tertiary educational endeavors.

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

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

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

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

Go Rattlers!!!

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

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

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

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

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The State of Aruba’s Economy

Posted on February 19, 2015 in Economics, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean is comprised of 4 different language groups. We hear mostly of the English, French and Spanish speaking islands, but the Dutch speaking islands are far from inconsequential. They are integral to the Caribbean landscape and integral to the plan for regional confederation, consolidation and elevation.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean addresses the needs of all the Caribbean, including the Dutch territories. In the book, the islands are referred to as the formal name of the Netherlands Antilles (Page 16). This consists of two island groups; the ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, located just off the Venezuelan coast. Plus also the SSS islands of Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius, located in the Leeward Islands southeast of the Virgin Islands near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles. The Dutch colonized these islands in the 17th century, (at one point, Anguilla, Tobago, the British Virgin Islands, and St. Croix of the US Virgin Islands had also been Dutch), and united them in the new constituent state of the Netherlands Antilles in December 1954.

The largest of the Dutch Caribbean is Aruba.

Aruba called for secession from the Netherlands Antilles from as early as the 1930s, becoming a separate state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986. After many other organizational developments, by 2010, Aruba is dispositioned as one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands (European homeland), Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

What is the status of Aruba today?

How has it fared as an autonomous state?

The Go Lean book posits that Aruba is in crisis; (along with the rest of the Caribbean). This is also the assessment by the International Monetary Fund, as related in this news article:

By: By the Caribbean Journal staff
Aruba’s economy is “recovering gradually” from a “severe double-dip recession,” according to the International Monetary Fund, which recently concluded its 2015 Article IV Mission to the Dutch Caribbean island.

The recession was [exacerbated] by a pair of factors: the global financial crisis and the shutdown of the oil refinery in Aruba.

“These shocks have substantially increased public debt—over 80 percent of GDP in 2014—and eroded fiscal space,” the IMF said in a statement. “To address these fiscal challenges, the authorities have undertaken major entitlement reforms and are aiming to reach a small fiscal surplus in 2018.”

Without similar measures, however, the IMF warned that the pace of fiscal consolidation in the island could slow and public debt would continue to rise in the medium term.

Growth in Aruba is projected to rise by about 2.5 percent in 2015, which would put the island in favorable territory with the rest of the region, though.

The closure of the refinery, however, puts even more pressure on the island’s tourism sector, the IMF said.

That could compound the island’s risk, though, given its large dependence on tourists from the US and from Venezuela, with the latter’s economic crisis adding to the risk.

But the IMF said that Aruba had maintained its competitiveness in tourism, with its share of the Caribbean’s tourism market share continuing to grow.

“In addition, the authorities’ marketing efforts, access to new US hubs, and additional airlift capacity from South America have improved resilience,” the IMF said. “Increasing labor market flexibility and reducing the costs of doing business would not only further improve Aruba’s competitiveness, but would also help its adjustment to external shocks and facilitate diversification.”
Caribbean Journal Regional News Site – Posted February 16, 2015 –
http://www.caribjournal.com/2015/02/16/the-state-of-arubas-economy/

The Caribbean country of Aruba needs to focus on growing its economy and creating jobs. The Go Lean book asserts that this effort is too big a task for just one Caribbean member-state alone, that Aruba needs to convene, confederate and collaborate with the other regional member-states. As such, the Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

The Go Lean book (Page 3) makes this simple assertion regarding the state of Aruba and all the Caribbean economy: the region is in crisis. There is something wrong in these island and coastal states, that despite the greatest address in the world, instead of the world “beating a path” to these doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out. Aruba fails to keep its young people at home. In fact, the anecdotal experience (one story after another) is that young people abandon this island as soon as they finish high school; many never to return again, except for occasional visits. (Aruban natives – plus all Netherland Antilles states – have Dutch citizenship, sharing the same Dutch passport as the Kingdom of the Netherlands).

A mission of the Go Lean roadmap is to minimize the “push-and-pull” factors that contribute to this alarmingly high rate of societal abandonment – one report reflects a 70% brain drain rate for the overall Caribbean. The book stresses (early at Page 13 & 14) the need to be on-guard for these “push-and-pull” factors in these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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

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

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

xxvi.      Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism… – impacting the region with more jobs.

This commentary previously related details of the “push-and-pull” factors for Caribbean emigration to North America and Europe, and the region’s own job-creation efforts. Here is a sample of earlier blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3834	State of the Caribbean Union
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3780	National Sacrifice: The Missing Ingredient – Caribbean people not willing to die or live in sacrifice to their homeland
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3446	Forecast for higher unemployment in Caribbean in 2015
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3050	Obama’s immigration tweaks leave Big Tech wanting more
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	American “Pull” Factors – STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1683	British public sector workers strike over ‘poverty pay’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1596	Book Review: ‘Prosper Where You Are Planted’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1433	Caribbean loses more than 70 percent of tertiary educated to brain drain
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1296	Remittances to Caribbean Increased By 3 Percent in 2013
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1256	Traditional 4-year College Degree are Terrible Investments for the Caribbean Region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841	Having Less Babies (Population) is Bad for the Economy

The Go Lean book and these accompanying blogs posit that the economic failures in the Caribbean in general and Aruba in particular is the direct result of the lack of diversity in industrial development. The region depends too heavily on tourism. Aruba though, made some diversification attempts with oil refinery installations; according to Wikipedia:

With its location near Venezuela, the island became an attractive spot for oil refineries. The Lago Oil and Transport Company, owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), opened in 1929 near the transshipping port of San Nicolaas. Following in their footsteps, the Eagle Oil Refinery opened soon after. Over the next few decades, the oil industry took over as Aruba’s primary economic force.

During World War II, considerable expansion was done to the Lago Refinery, becoming one of the largest refineries in the world – only bested by Royal Dutch Shell Isla refinery on nearby Curaçao – and a major producer of petroleum products for the Allied war efforts.

The Eagle Oil Refinery shut down and was dismantled in the late 1950s. But the Lago refinery kept going until 1985, when the demand for oil fell and Exxon closed it. In 1991, the Coastal Corporation bought it, scaled down operations, and reopened it. Coastal Corporation later sold the refinery to Valero Energy Corporation in 2004. Its reopening didn’t raise Aruba’s oil industry to its previous heights although it did revive that sector and continued to be a key contributor to the country’s economy until 2009 when it was closed.

Aruba is now applying a strategy to “double-down” on tourism; see Appendix-VIDEO below. The Go Lean roadmap asserts that this strategy is flawed; that while prudence dictates that the Caribbean nations expand and optimize their tourism products, the Caribbean must also look for other opportunities for economic expansion. The requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state like Aruba. Rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. The roadmap will facilitate economic growth and job creation.

This is the charge of the Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap, to do the heavy-lifting, to implement the organization dynamics to impact Caribbean society here and now with economic growth and jobs. The following are the community ethos, strategies, tactics and operational advocacies to effectuate this goal:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influences Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – The Consequences of Choice Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Make the Caribbean the Best Address on Planet	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Repatriate Diaspora	Page 46
Strategy – Mission – Dissuade Human Flight/“Brain Drain”	Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Union versus Member-States	Page 71
Implementation – Assemble CariCom, Dutch, French, Cuba and US Territories	Page 95
Implementation – Enact Territorial Compacts for PR & the Virgin Islands	Page 96
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up	Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Implementation – Ways to Promote Independence	Page 120
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California – New Markets	Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Extractions	Page 195
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Impact DutchTerritories	Page 246

This Go Lean book accepts that the current State of Aruba’s Economy does not have to be a permanent disposition. The roadmap presents a plan for greater energy independence, energy security and energy generation in the region – there will be the need to capitalize on Aruba’s core-competence with oil refineries. So under the Go Lean roadmap, Aruba’s economy will do better; the same as all of the Caribbean will do better. This roadmap is a 5-year plan to effect change, to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play.

As for the Dutch Caribbean territories, even though they are no longer considered colonies, but rather constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they are effectively just welfare states dependent on Amsterdam; and a feeder for low-cost labor in Holland. They are inconsequential within the Dutch sphere of influence. There are parasites not protégés!

We must do better!

Now is the time for Aruba, the Dutch Caribbean and all of the Caribbean, the people and institutions, to lean-in to this Go Lean … Caribbean roadmap. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix – VIDEO: Aruba – One Happy Island – http://youtu.be/p7NdI0jmvXA

Published on Mar 28, 2012 – Our white-sand beaches, cooling trade winds and warm, friendly people are just a few reasons why so many people return to Aruba year after year. Discover everything that makes this One Happy Island…

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