Transform – Page 48 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: Transform

Caribbean Ghost Towns: It Could Happen…Again

Posted on February 11, 2015 in Economics, Government, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean is in crisis today; but even more so, if left unchecked, the crisis gets worst tomorrow (near future). We are at the point, and have been here for some time, where we are completely dysfunctional as a society; we are at the precipice. How else would one explain why citizens from the most beautiful addresses on the planet are “breaking down the doors” to get out, either through legal means or illegal ones?

“Things will always work themselves out” – Popular fallacy.

There is no guarantee of our survival. Communities and societies do fail; success is not assured; the work must be done, we must “sow if we want to reap”.

The reality of ghost towns, in the Caribbean and around the world, is a reminder to failing communities of where the road ends. Consider the definition of ghost towns here:

A ghost town is an abandoned village, town or city, usually one which contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighborhoods which are still populated, but significantly less so than in years past; for example those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.^[1]

Some ghost towns, especially those that preserve period-specific architecture, have become tourist attractions. Some examples are Bannack, Montana; Calico, California; Centralia, Pennsylvania; and Oatman, Arizona in the United States; Barkerville, British Columbia in Canada; Craco in Italy; ElizabethBay and Kolmanskop in Namibia; and Pripyat in Ukraine. Visiting, writing about, and photographing ghost towns is a minor industry. A recent modern-day example is Ōkuma, Fukushima, which was abandoned due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. (Also see Battleship or Hashima Island in the Appendix-VIDEO below).

There is a ghost town that is an incumbent de jure capital: Plymouth in the Caribbean island of Montserrat*. This city was abandoned in 1997 due to volcanic eruptions and is now part of an Exclusion Zone.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_town retrieved February 11, 2015)

The book Go Lean … Caribbean stresses reboots, reorganizations and general turn-around of failing economic engines in favor of winning formulas. The book quotes a noted American Economist Paul Romer with this famous quotation:

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”.

The encyclopedic reference of ghost towns continues:

Ghost towns may result when the single activity or resource that created a boomtown (e.g., nearby mine, mill or resort) is depleted or the resource economy undergoes a “bust” (e.g., catastrophic resource price collapse). Boomtowns can often decrease in size as fast as they initially grew. Sometimes, all or nearly the entire population can desert the town, resulting in a ghost town.

The dismantling of a boomtown can often occur on a planned basis. Mining companies nowadays will create a temporary community to service a mine site, building all the accommodation shops and services, and then remove it as the resource is worked out. A gold rush would often bring intensive but short-lived economic activity to a remote village, only to leave a ghost town once the resource was depleted.

In some cases, multiple factors may remove the economic basis for a community; some former mining towns on U.S. Route 66 suffered both mine closures when the resources were depleted and loss of highway traffic as US 66 was diverted away from places like Oatman, Arizona onto a more direct path.

The Middle East has many ghost towns that were created when the shifting of politics or the fall of empires caused capital cities to be socially or economically non-viable, such as Ctesiphon, (a once great city of ancient Mesopotamia; today’s modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and the northeastern section of Syria).

The Go Lean book posits that many Caribbean communities suffer from a mono-industrial complex (Page 3), therefore the risk is high for the same ghost town eventuality like so many other towns have experienced. Yes, ghost towns could happen in the Caribbean … again.

In fact, the 2nd city in the Bahamas, Freeport, on the island of Grand Bahama is experiencing a sharp decline in it’s economic output – where tourism is the primary industry – calculated at 66 percent decline from 2004 to 2013 for air arrivals. They are now near a failed-city status.

Freeport’s tourism, which used to top over a million visitors a year – with air arrivals and cruise passengers – has considerably diminished since 2004, when two major hurricanes, Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne, hit the island; then the following year (2005), Hurricane Wilma reiterated more destruction to Freeport’s economic engines – many hotels shuttered their doors for good. Since then, several cruise ships also stopped their weekly visits to the island. Much of the remaining tourist industry is centered on the seaside suburb of Lucaya; in fact the city is often promoted as Freeport/Lucaya. Most remaining hotels on the island are located along the southern shore in Lucaya. The primary shopping venues for tourists used to be the popular International Bazaar near downtown Freeport, but now the focus has shifted to the Port Lucaya Marketplace, an outdoor mall-like complex near the beach-side hotel-resorts.

What of the current disposition of the International Bazaar in the downtown area? Unfortunately, the adjoining hotel-casino-resort, Royal Oasis, closed after the above hurricanes and never re-opened. A local Bahamas photography magazine thusly dubbed the International Bazaar as a “ghost town”. (Retrieved February 11, 2015; article entitled: “The International Bazaar – The Lost Shopping Mecca”):

What happened to this marvelous structure? I do not know. What is its fate? I still do not know. What I do know: it is a sad day when one of the Bahamas’ greatest attractions has been reduced to a ghost town. What I can tell you is that it seems as if the excitement has moved from the Bazaar to Port Lucaya. It is now the New Shopping Mecca of Grand Bahama.

Photo Caption: Freeport’s International Bazaar in it’s “Hey Day”

Photo Caption: Freeport’s International Bazaar Ghost Town Today

See TripAdvisor.com comments of disappointed visitors:

In fact, many more comments abound on the internet with “ghost town” comparisons for Freeport.

Freeport must now reboot, or face the eventuality: Ghost Town!

This sad reality of Montserrat and Freeport is an omen for the rest of the Caribbean.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is structured to turn-around failing Caribbean communities; it is proffered to provide economic, security and governance solutions for all 30 member Caribbean states, including Montserrat and Freeport. This mandate is detailed early on in the book’s Declaration of Interdependence, as follows (Page 12 & 13):

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

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 Go Lean book posits that failing Caribbean communities can be rescued, that if “we do what we have always done, we get what we have always got”. Therefore Caribbean communities must adopt different community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to bring about change, empowerment and turn-around . The following is a sample:

Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around – Recycling and Demolition Industries	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Foster Local Economic Engines to Diversify the Economy	Page 45
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries	Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Meteorological and Geological Service	Page 79
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Self-Governing Entities	Page 80
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Re-boot Freeport	Page 112
Planning – Big Ideas – Virtual “Turnpike” Operations to Ensure Continued Relevance	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices	Page 134
Planning – Lessons from East Germany	Page 139
Planning – Lessons from Detroit – Model of City needing Turn-around	Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Improve for Natural Disasters – Volcanoes and Hurricanes	Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Casualty Insurance to Rebuild	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Appendix – Job Multipliers	Page 259

Natural disasters are an inevitability in the Caribbean: earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes. We must insure and assure the business continuity of our communities’ economic engines. To recover, rebuild and reboot communities like Montserrat and Freeport after disasters, the burden or heavy-lifting should be spread across the full region, as leverage for all 30 member-states.

In order to avoid the pitfalls and eventuality of “ghost towns”, communities must diversify their economy. The Go Lean book also describes this heavy-lifting effort to facilitate this goal. The book describes the turn-by-turn directions for all the community stakeholders to follow to reach this goal, categorizing the effort as these 3 prime directives:

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

In summary, ghost towns abound throughout the world, (see Appendix-VIDEO below), and can happen again here in the Caribbean region. A mono-industrial economy is bad; disaster remediation and mitigations are good; diversity is good!

The CU will take the lead … for optimizing economic, security and governing engines. (Starting with a diversification from tourism). Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to this CU/Go Lean roadmap to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———

Appendix – *Plymouth, Montserrat

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory located in the Caribbean. The island is located in the Leeward Islands chain of islands.^[2] Montserrat is nicknamed The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.^[3]

Plymouth was the capital of the island of Montserrat. For centuries it had been the only port of entry to the island. On 18 July 1995, the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano, in the southern part of the island, became active. Eruptions destroyed this Georgian era capital city and two-thirds of the island’s population was forced to flee.^[6] The town was overwhelmed and was abandoned. The volcanic activity continues, even today, mostly affecting the vicinity of Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and the eastern side of the island around the former W.H. Bramble Airport, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on 11 February 2010.

An Exclusion Zone that extends from the south coast of the island north to parts of the BelhamValley was imposed because of the size of the existing volcanic dome and the resulting potential for pyroclastic activity. Visitors are generally not permitted entry into the exclusion zone, but an impressive view of the destruction of Plymouth can be seen from the top of Garibaldi Hill in IslesBay. Relatively quiet since early 2010, the volcano continues to be closely monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

A new town and port is being developed at Little Bay, which is on the northwest coast of the island. While this construction proceeds, the centre of government and businesses rests new Village of Brades in the northen extremes of the island.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat retrieved February 11, 2015)

———

VIDEO: Battleship Island: Japan’s Ultimate Ghost Town – http://youtu.be/wHbQMhmsGPc

Uploaded on Dec 30, 2011 – This island – also known as Hashima Island is among the Japanese chain – sits 9 miles off the coast of Nagasaki. It was the administrative and residential base for undersea coal mines. As a ghost town it serves as a filming location for many projects, including serving as the inspiration for the external filming sets for the film Skyfall – James Bond 007. For more stunning images of this Holy Grail of all industrial ruins, see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/picturenarrative/sets/72157628124548378/with/6388285131/

Share this post:

Disaster, Freeport, History, Image, Montserrat, Tourism, Transform

How to Train Your ‘Dragon’ – Freeport Version

Posted on January 30, 2015 in Government, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The term ‘dragon’ has a deep and rich meaning in all of literature; see Appendix A for a list of different cultures with dragon mythologies.

Needless to say, there is no such creature, apart from the adorable Komodo Dragon, a big lizard native to South Pacific and Australasia region.

Even in scripture, the great Enemy, Satan the Devil is depicted as a Dragon; (Revelation 12:9). This commentary is not labeling any one person as a “Dragon”, but rather assigning the term “Dragon” to a “Dependence on Foreign Investors” or DFI.

So figuratively, the term “dragon” refers to an adversarial creature. This is where the relevance is to this commentary for the promotion of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book calls for the elevation of Caribbean economics, security and governance. It assesses many “dragon-like” challenges that stand in the way of progress and have resulted in near wholesale abandonment of so many communities.

One city of focus for this commentary is the 2^nd city in the Bahamas, Freeport/Lucaya. This town is now undergoing a crisis in all three challenge factors (economics, security, and governance), and yet the book maintains that this “dragon can be trained’ see VIDEO below. Part of this crisis is the fact the certain tax-free provisions, real property tax and Business License, of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (that led to the private development of Freeport) will expire on August 4, 2015. The national government is pondering renewal and extension; the ongoing stalemate, exacerbates the municipal crisis.

The book opens with the declaration that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. For the Caribbean region there is not just one issue, but rather many negative/downward triggers, all which are addressed in the Go Lean book. While these challenges abound through out the region, Freeport’s exposure to these following triggers are more heightened than elsewhere:

Climate Change and threats from natural disasters
Decline of the American Middle Class, since the 2008 financial crisis
Decimation of the tourism product – measured decline in amenities like Golf and Casino Gambling.
Failure to diversify the economy with any industrial base
Emergence of powerful elite, the One Percent.
Bureaucratic hindrance of Foreign Direct Investors
Security threats from border encroachments of illegal immigrants.
Security threats of immigrants assimilating their adopted societies.

Harsh realities have now come to fruition in the Caribbean, but the town of Freeport have been hard hit with the full force of all of these dynamics. The book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the engines of commerce so as to make all the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. While all the Caribbean needs to create jobs, this town of Freeport, has a greater need, more so than others.

Ship-building, in its many genres, is being promoted for adoption and incubation. This is just one of the advocacies identified, qualified and proposed in the Go Lean book. In total, there are 144 advocacies, catalogued in the areas of Community Ethos, Strategy, Tactics, Implementations, Planning, Economics, Government, Industries, Social, and Locations.

Normally DFI refer to Direct Foreign Investment, but in this case the “Dependence on Foreign Investors” is portrayed as a negative factor or pest – a dragon – unless “trained”, caroled and controlled to harness the energy in a positive way.

Consider these news articles that describe the business climate and players for the Freeport landscape:

1. Freeport Plutocratic Benefactor – Sir Jack Hayward:

Sir Jack Hayward, British Businessman, Property Developer, Philanthropist and Sports Team Owner was memorialized by fans of his football team Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.. He passed away last week (January 13) at age 91. He was loved and hated in different circles, some even compared his racism to Adolf Hitler – perhaps a hyperbole. Sir Jack was also a principal owner in the Grand Bahama Port Authority*. So he wielded power as to the municipal affairs and economic development of this city.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/wolves-football-pundit-barry-glendenning-8481522

2. Fleeing a “sinking ship”:

Sir Jack Hayward Jack arrived in Grand Bahama in 1956 to promote the development of Freeport and became a Vice-President of the Grand Bahama Port Authority; eventually he assumed the Chairmanship of the Board of Directors (after 2004). Until the convalescence before his death, he continued to play an active role in Freeport. Sir Jack was in negotiations to sell his family’s 50 per cent stake in the GBPA Group of Companies. Now that provisions of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA) need renewal from the national government, multiple “dragons” are now circling the City of Freeport.

http://www.tribune242.com/news/2015/jan/28/sir-jack-port-sale-talks-passing/

3. At the precipice:

Community leaders in Freeport have declared that it would be “disastrous” if the national government fail to pursue HCA extension and allow the levy of real property taxes on GBPA licensees; “this would be another nail in Freeport’s coffin”. Freeport is now at the precipice – dragons are circling.

http://www.tribune242.com/news/2015/jan/08/freeport-disaster-if-property-tax-imposed/

4. Roadmap for economic empowerments:

The Go Lean roadmap is not a work of fiction or mythology; it is based on the reality of the Caribbean disposition. It is what it is, the book declares. It is only by accepting reality that real solutions can be forged: discovered, designed and deployed. The book, and accompanying blogs posit that “dragons can be trained”. The sad state of affairs in Freeport can be turned around by the embrace of a “double down” strategy on the island’s nascent ship-building industry.

http://grandbahamashipyard.com/facilities/drydocks/

The current disposition for Freeport, Grand Bahama is dire. But there is a glimmer of hope with this industrial development of ship-building. A previous blog/commentary pushed hard on the idea of ship-building/ship-breaking for the Caribbean region; now this commentary advocates adding ship-breaking to the ship-building model for Freeport, and then “double-down” on this industry space … with incubators, stimulus grants, angel investors, R&D and other initiatives. This is the heavy-lifting described in the Go Lean book.

In this vein, 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. We want to explore all the strong benefits of the ship-building/ship-breaking industry. This aligns with the CU charter; as defined by these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic.
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 this pronouncement 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.

The CU will facilitate the region’s eco-system for Self-Governing Entities (SGE) for shipyards. This approach calls for the establishment of industrial parks, corporate campuses and research parks in bordered territories; these structures would be inviting to the super-rich (One-Percent) and their resources. These entities would be governed solely by the technocratic CU. The approach is not to punish the One-Percent for their success nor cower to any special interests group at the expense of the greater population.

This roadmap explains how all 30 Caribbean member-states can elevate the economic engines (direct and indirect spin-off activities), by allowing the CU to assume jurisdiction for SGE’s in the region and the Exclusive Economic Zone (the 1,063,000 square miles of the Caribbean Sea). Freeport is ideal for SGE’s for ship-building/ship-breaking yards, with its vast array of canals and waterways.

The Go Lean book also details the principle of job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line for each direct job on a company’s payroll. The shipyard industry has a job-multiplier rate of 3.0. So the creation of 15,000 direct jobs for the shipyard industry in the Caribbean region can have the multiplier effect of 45,000 jobs. That economic impact is the result of “training the dragons”.

How would the Caribbean create 45,000 jobs in the course of the 5-year roadmap? By adoption of different community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample:

Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principle – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around – Recycling and Demolition Industries	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Facilitate a Shipbuilding Industry	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 – Self-Governing Entities	Page 80
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Re-boot Freeport	Page 112
Planning – Big Ideas – Confederation with Sovereignty	Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Processes and Systems	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Develop/Grow a Ship-Building Industry	Page 209
Appendix – Job Multipliers	Page 259

The CU will foster industrial developments in support of alternative options to tourism. An important ingredient is the willingness of the people to engage. The CU/Go Lean will message to the Caribbean people, that the region is ready for this industrial challenge of ship-breaking.

The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but jobs are missing. With jobs, communities like the City of Freeport will be able to retain more of their citizens and suffer less abandonment. It’s all about people; Freeport has lost people and populations in the last few decades. The imagery of pests – dragons – come to mind that sneak away with young people during the night.

Time now for a change; time to train the dragons!

Whereas dragons are mythical, the Caribbean disposition, and Freeport’s, is no fairytale, no myth; this is real life. 🙂

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO: How To Train Your Dragon: “Official Trailer” – http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1158218777/

This commentary asserts that Freeport, Grand Bahama would be analogous to the fictitious Town of Berk in the movie.

This movie/snippet is owned by Dreamworks Entertainment. No copyright infringement intended. Apologies for the references to Nordic Culture, and any negative stereotypes projected.

Appendix A – Cultures with Dragon Mythology

Nordic (Viking)
Greek
Slavic (Romania, Russia)
Egypt
Ancient India
Persian
Jewish
Chinese dragon
Japanese
Korean
Bhutan
Manipur
Vietnam

————–

Appendix B– * Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA)

The Port Authority is a privately held corporation that acts as the municipal authority for Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas. The GBPA was created by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement of 1955. The GBPA is horizontally integrated with property development, municipal services, airport ( world’s largest privately owned airport), harbor operations, and shipyard concerns.

The Grand Bahama Port Authority is jointly owned by Sir Jack Hayward (50%) and the family of the late Edward St. George (1928 – 2004).The Ownership Structure also features a partnership with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa on the container port operations, and the resort area in the Lucaya section of the City.

Share this post:

Bahamas, Crony-Capitalism, Freeport, History, Jobs, SGE, Ships, Transform

[Top]

Sir Sidney Poitier – ‘Breaking New Ground’

Posted on January 28, 2015 in Ethos, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

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

But no one wants to live in a world without this art-form, without movies. Those few hours can entertain, engage and transform; sometimes even “break new ground” and change the world. So movies and movie stars can be extremely influential in modern society. This is the power of the arts, and this art-form in particular.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean stresses the arts as equally as it does the sciences, for empowering and transforming Caribbean society. While the Caribbean may not have any Nobel Prize winning scientist, we do have an Academy Award winning artist/actor, Sidney Poitier from the Bahamas. He has been able to capitalize on the influence of this art-form for over 65 years and pursued the Greater Good. So his accomplishments transcend the movie screen and impacts real-life.

For this accomplishment, he has been honored and knighted by British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II as a “Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)”. We thusly refer to him now as Sir Sidney Poitier.

He has also received a similar accolade from the US President, the highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom*.

He has received many more honors and awards; see Appendix A for a sample list of Top Honors.

In focus for this commentary is his 1964 Oscar win for the 1963 movie Lilies of the Field. This was a big deal for Sir Sidney and the entire African Diaspora – people of color. Or as the BBC reported then: “he broke new ground”.

No new ground is being broken in Hollywood this year. The biggest stunner of the 2015 Academy Award nominations for films released in 2014 was that not a single actor of color or female director was included, sparking immediate criticism about Hollywood’s failure to include minorities in its most elite ranks. While this is a valid criticism, Hollywood may actually mirror society in general, where minority participation may be lacking in so many attendant functions – senior positions – of this business eco-system.

(Click on the Photo to Enlarge)

While there may be some catch-up that this industry must still make, there are times when the movie-business will “boldly go where no one has gone before”. The Sir Sidney 1964 break-through was one such moment.

With a date-of-birth of February 20, 1927 (age 88 on his next birthday), what does this screen legend do on his downtime? In addition to serving as patriarch of his family of 6 daughters and 6 granddaughters, he summons world leaders to him for consultation. (Sir Sidney serves as the Bahamas non-residential Ambassador to Japan). See this VIDEO here of his entertaining the Prime Minister of the Bahamas in a recent visit.

VIDEO – Downtime with Sir Sidney Poitier – http://youtu.be/xYv5QUT_zKI

Published on Jan 21, 2015 – In a special interview with ZNS News, legendary actor Sir Sidney Poitier challenged Bahamian political leaders to take the country to the next level.

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean recognizes the life contributions of Sir Sidney as an role model for excellence in the arts and also as an advocate of civil rights and social justice. He definitely demonstrates a love for his Caribbean (Bahamas) homeland and seeks to impact its development on the world scene. Though not a direct quotation, he has called for the elevation of Caribbean life and culture. This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to help the region become a better place to live, work and play. There is a role for the arts (including film-making) in this empowerment roadmap.

Unlike the current dread of “Black and Brown” among the Oscar nominees, 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 assisting each other to advance in our own lives, in our individual communities and in the Caribbean as a whole. The book posits that a unified Caribbean Single Market of 42 million people and a GDP of $800 Billion can foster a “domestic” film industry, much like the formations of Bollywood in India (Page 346) and Nollywood in Nigeria. Deeper exploration of this amazing business model (movies/show-business) can create jobs and garner local returns from the necessary investments.

These previous blog/commentaries drilled deeper on this quest to better foster show-business; below are some examples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City …’ on Music and Show-business
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3568	Forging Change: Music Moves People
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3292	Art Basel Miami – a Testament to the Spread of Culture
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3078	Bill Cosby – Sir Sidney’s Frequent Co-Star – Accusations abound
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726	Caribbean Role Model for the Arts/Fashion – Oscar De La Renta: RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2415	How ‘The Lion King’ roared into history
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1909	Role Model Berry Gordy – No Town Like Motown
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1037	Humanities Advocate – Maya Angelou: RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Caribbean Music Man: Bob Marley – The legend lives on!

The quest is to elevate Caribbean society with many industrial developments, including the arts. This was stressed in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13) with this statement:

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.

This impact and overall benefit of this roadmap is pronounced in the CU‘s prime directives, identified with these 3 statements:

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

The roadmap specifically encourages the region, to lean-in and foster the next generation of Sidney Poitier’s with these specific community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:

Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 24
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Celebrate the arts, people and culture of the Caribbean	Page 46
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Tourism and Film Promotion & Administration	Page 78
Implementation – Integration of Region in Single Market of 42 million people	Page 95
Anatomy of Advocacies – Ability to Change the World	Page 122
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Caribbean Single Market	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image	Page 129
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Foster Performing Arts	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 222
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Appendix – A Summary of Bollywood Movies	Page 346

The Go Lean posits that the CU should foster the genius potential in Caribbean artists and incubate the related industries of show-business. The roadmap pronounces that with the participation of many advocates on many different paths for progress, the Caribbean can truly become a better place to live, work and play. We, along with the whole world, owe a debt to Sir Sidney for leading us along this path.

Yes, Hollywood must change and acknowledge more diversity; but this is out-of-scope for this roadmap. The Caribbean must change … to adapt to a changing world. This is within our scope. While no Caribbean member-state may be able to compete and excel alone, together and collaboratively, we can stand up proud and present the world the beautiful contributions of Caribbean people and art. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———

APPENDIX A – Sidney Poitier Honors & Awards

1958 British Academy Film Award for Best Foreign Actor for The Defiant Ones
1958 Silver Bear for Best Actor (8^th Berlin Film Festival) for The Defiant Ones^[39]
1963 Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
1963 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
1963 Silver Bear for Best Actor (13^th Berlin Film Festival) for Lilies of the Field ^[40]
1974 Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)
1982 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award ^[41]
1992 AFI Life Achievement Award
1995 Kennedy Center Honors
1997 Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
1999 SAG Life Achievement Award
2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
2001 NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award
2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
2002 Honorary Oscar – “For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence”
2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom^[42]
2011 Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute^[43] honoring his life and careers

——–

APPENDIX B – * Presidential Medal of Freedom

This award is bestowed by the President of the United States and is — along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal, bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award of the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.^[3] (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom)

Share this post:

Arts, Bahamas, Play, Transform

[Top]

Art and Science of Collaboration

Posted on January 26, 2015 in Ethos, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The book Go Lean…Caribbean opens with the thesis (Page 3) that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state. So rather, solutions should be sought by accepting interdependence; shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy that can result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book therefore advocates that all Caribbean member-states (independent & dependent-territory) lean-in to this plan for confederacy, convention and collaboration.

Confederacy refers to the federation, the legal structure that will represent/include all 30 Caribbean member-states in an integrated entity to forge the required solutions.

Convention is easy! Convening … means “showing up”.

On the other hand, collaboration is hard! For the purpose of this commentary, collaboration is defined as “a group of people who represent different aspects of an issue, working together to explore their differences and come up with solutions that couldn’t be achieved on their own”. This effort is definitely heavy-lifting, especially in this age of complexity where it is difficult to build consensus and compromise. This effort is hard, but not impossible! To succeed, the required hard-work or heavy-lifting must be guided by prudence and best practices.

It is hereby acknowledged that collaboration is an art and a science. The following summary applies:

Art

Consider the perspective of a constitutive communication approach:

Everyone involved in a collaborative effort has a different perspective…

How we see ourselves and others, and how others see us…

What we say is less important than how we say it…

Science

Collaborative Advantage – Good things that come from the success of the effort

Collaborative Inertia – Bad things that can come from a lack of this effort, the natural state of affairs

Collaboration Design

Structure – Get the right people in the right setting

Process – How people interact

This Art and Science of Collaboration is gleaned from this featured VIDEO here:

VIDEO – The Collaborative Challenge: Making Quality Decisions Together in the Age of Complexity – http://youtu.be/iN_A7keXtVg

Published on Dec 13, 2012 – This video was developed by Matt Koschmann, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder. The purpose is to explore the topic of collaboration and explain a constitutive communication approach to enhance our understanding of collaboration.

This and many other blog/commentaries drill deeper, double-down, on this quest for collaboration as necessary for long-term Caribbean solutions. The book and blogs posit that collaboration in spirit equals sharing in action. As a result, a lot of focus has been concentrated on sharing schemes, the Sharing Economy, that would be apropos for Caribbean implementation.

The quest to elevate Caribbean society includes embracing collaboration and sharing tools. If we are able to marry the efforts of all member-states in unison, a lot can be accomplished and the impact can be profound. This impact is pronounced in the CU‘s prime directives, identified with the following 3 statements:

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

The Go Lean book promotes “sharing” and collaboration as a community ethos, so as to mitigate the perils of “going at it alone”. This alludes to the emergence of the Sharing Economy that now proliferates due to advances in technology. These previous blog/commentaries detailed some examples:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2571	More Business Travelers Flock to Airbnb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1364	Car-Sharing Uber Demonstrations Snarl Traffic from London to Berlin
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=486	Incubator firm (Temasek) backs Southeast Asia cab booking app GrabTaxi

The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU. This roadmap posits that many issues and challenges for a Sharing Economy can only be managed with feasible economies-of-scale; thusly there is the need to master the art and science of collaboration. While the stakeholders, 30 member-states and 42 million people, should be able to unify and resolve many common problems, it is not the general public that is expected to lean-in to these principles, but rather their leaders: politicians and civil servants. This is part of the Go Lean effort to improve leadership and foster better leaders.

This is the theme of another book, a Bible-like publication on collaboration, The Collaborative Organization by Jacob Morgan. This author is the principal and co-founder of Chess Media Group, a management consulting and strategic advisory firm on collaboration. This 2012 publication serves as a strategic guide for executives and decision makers seeking to deploy emerging technologies and strategies in the workplace.

The About the Book summary from the Author is published as follows:

I believe that Collaborative Organizations can make the world a better place. We keep talking about and hearing about the value of collaboration for businesses but that’s selling it short. Collaboration can positively impact the lives of people inside and outside of the workplace. If we can create greater engagement among employees, make their lives easier at work, connect them to people and information from anywhere, and provide a place of growth and learning then we go far beyond just business benefit. Employees will feel less stressed out at work and at home, argue less with their spouses, feel a greater sense of purpose and belonging at work, and have more time to spend with their loved ones and families.

I realized that while this idea was unique and powerful it was not enough to drive action within the enterprise. I knew that in order to go from idea to action that business leaders needed something more. This is why I wrote The Collaborative Organization which is the first comprehensive strategy guide to emergent collaboration in the workplace. This book was written not just to benefit the organizations but the employees as well.

The book is supported by data from a research project that Chess Media Group (my firm) conducted and includes dozens of case studies as well as mini guest contribution pieces from executives and leaders who are leading collaboration at their organizations. Inside this strategy guide you will learn:

How to map uses cases to feature requirements

How to evaluate and select the right collaboration tools for your organization

How to structure collaboration teams to lead this initiative

How to deploy tools and prioritize features

How to gain and sustain employee adoption

Measuring success

How to evaluate your organization’s maturity in collaboration

How to structure governance

How to market and roll out this initiative to your company

How to evaluate and mitigate risks

and much more

(Source: http://www.thecollaborativeorganization.com/about-the-book/)

In line with the foregoing VIDEO, the Go Lean book details the applicable community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies as a roadmap to foster this empowerment among the business and governmental leaders in the region to fully explore collaboration and the Sharing Economy:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices & Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – Nurturing Leaders	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship – Incubator Support	Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Confederate 30 Caribbean Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Customers / Stakeholders – Governments, Businesses, and Citizens	Page 47
Strategy – Competition – Shared Systems –vs- Premise based	Page 51
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Foster a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Shared Portal: www.myCaribbean.gov	Page 74
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Caribbean Postal Union (CPU)	Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Bicameral Legislature – Compromise Conferences	Page 91
Implementation – Year 1 / Assemble Phase – Consolidate Organs into CU	Page 96
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers – CoLocation Operations	Page 106
Implementation – Assume Mail Operations – Collaborate/Share for all Caribbean	Page 108
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization – Level Playing Field with ICT	Page 129
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Shared/Single Currency – Cooperative Central Bank	Page 127
Planning – Lessons Learned from the West Indies Federation – Collaboration Quest	Page 135
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Share e-Government systems	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership	Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Manage Federal Civil Service	Page 173
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Improve Homeland Security – Shared-Collaborative Defenses	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Reform Banking – Cooperative/Collaborative Central Bank	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Foundations – NGOs to Share Delivery of Social Agenda	Page 219

The roadmap posits that the CU should foster and incubate features of the Sharing Economy and other expressions of collaboration. The Go Lean book quotes the assessment of a scholar (Kent State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Kwame Nantambu) on Caribbean affairs and the need for collaboration (Page 135): “History has shown that only when a people come together to address issues that affect them collectively can they ever hope to resolve their problems. Caribbean people have common problems so that common sense should dictate that the only way to solve those problems is to come together collectively to address them. There is no other option.”

The Caribbean must change … to adapt to a changing world. We cannot compete alone, but together, collaboratively, we stand a fighting-chance to “snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat”. Failure is not an option; our Caribbean children are counting on us. Otherwise, more and more of them will be Canadian children, and American children, and British children, and so on…

The trends are already there. The Go Lean book opens with the declaration (Page 3) that the Caribbean is already in crisis. For some member-states, their population has declined or been flat for the last 3 decades. This is only possible if despite new births and the absence of war, people are fleeing. This scenario, human flight, is a constant threat to prosperity for all the Caribbean despite their colonial legacies. 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.

As echoed in the foregoing VIDEO: “if there was ever a time to think differently about how we do things, this is it!

A collaborative approach to forging solutions to this common problem is perhaps our best hope. We can do the heavy-lifting; we can make the Caribbean, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Share this post:

Power, Sales, Transform

[Top]

Success Recipe: Add Bacon to Eggs

Posted on January 25, 2015 in Ethos, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Question: In a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what’s the difference between the Chicken and the Pig?
Answer: The Chicken is involved, but the Pig is committed!

The book Go Lean…Caribbean opens (Page 5) with the acknowledgement that despite having the “greatest address in the world”… the people of the Caribbean have no commitment, shared or National Sacrifice in support of their beautiful homelands.

This term National Sacrifice was introduced in a previous blog, and defined as the willingness to die for a greater cause; think “King/Queen and Country”. The blog/commentary posits that this spirit is currently missing in the recipe for fomenting the Caribbean homeland. This despite the fact that no one is being called on to “die”, but rather to simply live-work-play in their homeland.

The publishers of the Go Lean book wants to forge change in the Caribbean; they want to change the attitude of commitment for the entire community, country and region. This is not a wild fantasy as this has been done before in the US during WW II. But the Caribbean region has an alarmingly high societal abandonment rate, where 70% of college educated population in the English states have left in a brain drain, while the US territories have lost more than 50% of their overall populations.

Surely there is no debate that Caribbean people’s commitment to their homeland is lacking. Consider more fully the Chicken-Pig fable here:

Encyclopedic Referenced Source
Title: The Chicken and the Pig
The fable of The Chicken and the Pig is about commitment to a project or cause. When producing a dish made of ham and eggs, the pig provides the ham which requires his sacrifice and the chicken provides the eggs which are not difficult to produce. Thus the pig is really committed in that dish while the chicken is only involved, yet both are needed to produce the dish.

The fable of the Chicken and the Pig is used to illustrate the differing levels of project stakeholders involved in a project. The basic fable runs:^[1]

A Pig and a Chicken are walking down the road.
The Chicken says: “Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!”
Pig replies: “Hmmm, maybe, what would we call it?”
The Chicken responds: “How about ‘ham-n-eggs’?”
The Pig thinks for a moment and says: “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!”

Logically, this story/fable is at times presented as a riddle.

Interpretation and lessons
The fable has been used mostly in contexts where a strong team is needed for success, like in sports or in “Agile Software Development”^*.

Agile Project Management
The fable was^[2] referenced to define two types of project members by the Scrum Agile Management System:^[3] pigs, who are totally committed to the project and accountable for its outcome, and chickens, who consult on the project and are informed of its progress. By extension, a rooster or gamecock, can be defined as a person who struts around offering uninformed, unhelpful opinions. This analogy is based upon the pig being able to provide bacon (a sacrificial offering, for which the pig must die in order to provide) versus a chicken which provides eggs (non-sacrificial).

For a Scrum project the Scrum Master and Team are considered as people who are committed to the project while customers and executive management are considered as involved but not committed to the project.

As of 2011, the fable has been removed from the official Scrum process.^[4]

Sports
The fable also is used as an analogy for levels of commitment to a game, team, etc. For example, variations of this quote have been attributed to football coach Mike Leach who said, on the officials in the 2007 Tech-Texas game in Austin: “It’s a little like breakfast; you eat ham and eggs. As coaches and players, we’re like the ham. You see, the chicken’s involved but the pig’s committed. We’re like the pig, they’re like the chicken. They’re involved, but everything we have rides on this.”^[5]
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia – Retrieved 01-25-2014 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig

———-

* Agile Software Development (Scrum) – a group of software development methods in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, continuous improvement, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); a confederation to bring change and empowerment, to the Caribbean region; to make the region a better place to live, work and play for all stakeholders (residents, visitors, businesses, and institutions).

This quest relates a commitment so vital to a community that everyone should be willing to sacrifice and lean-in for the desired outcome. This shared sacrifice was previously advocated in Bermuda (one of the 30 member-states) in the following editorial/commentary:

News Article Title: The fallacy of Bermuda’s shared sacrifice
By: Anthony Richardson, Guest Columnist
Bermudians often latch on to catch phrases and before long there is a unique Bermudian variation or the phrase is taken out of context. A recent incarnation is the notion of ‘shared sacrifice’.

To help explain the correct context, I had to search the recesses of my mind and ask several friends. And then I found the answer… the fable of the Chicken and the Pig dating back to 1950.
…
If you think the sacrifice is shared, try asking the pigs after breakfast!!

As a typical Bermudian, I want to add my own variation to the fable:

There was a sick farmer who needed eggs, bacon and milk to survive.
All the farm animals got the chance to decide whether or not the farmer would get his breakfast.
The cows and chickens spoke first — milk and eggs… no problem.
Then some of the other animals spoke – the farmer should try just eggs and milk.
Others — what will happen if he dies? The goats spoke — we will provide milk if needed. The turkeys spoke — are we sure he is sick, did he get a second opinion, has he been sick before, what caused the sickness; provide the bacon so he can get better!!
The donkeys tried to speak but were shouted down.
Next the pigs spoke – we understand that the farmer is sick. How much bacon is needed? We will provide it if absolutely necessary. Our only request is to meet privately to decide how we will provide the bacon!!
Then the farmer spoke. I am getting worse, please hurry up and decide.
He noticed a small group of animals standing aside and asked what they thought. They were speaking quietly. Apparently brain storming, conducting focus groups, talking to the elder animals and doing some online research. After a brief pause, they said we have at least one ‘outside the box’ suggestion. Is turkey bacon an option!!
The turkeys were completely stunned and ran for the barn.

Bermuda’s lessons:

• There is no dispute that the farmer is sick (Bermuda will run out of cash) but not unto death (Bermuda will not go bankrupt). Any new borrowing will be expensive.

• The proposed sacrifice for the pigs, chickens, cows and other animals are not shared equally (public service salaries, government programmes, parliamentary salaries and the private sector).

• Do not shout down the donkeys; listen to the quiet observers and consider all options — genuine shared sacrifices… involve the community in the solution (OBA, PLP, employers, grocers, IB, banks, BELCo etc).

• There are some turkeys amongst us (lots to say until we realize the need for personal sacrifices equal to the pigs).

• The farmer’s good health is critical to the survival of the farm.

What kind of animal are you? Chicken, Cow, Pig, Goat, Donkey, Turkey or general farm animal?

I repeat my recommendation for Premier Cannonier and PLP Leader MP Bean to jointly chair the Tripartite Economic Committee (‘The TEC’) arising from Public Employees’ salary negotiations.

Turkey bacon anyone?!
Bermuda Sun Daily Newspaper – Posted 10-25-2013; Retrieved 01-25-2014 – http://bermudasun.bm/Content/OPINION/Opinion/Article/The-fallacy-of-Bermuda-s-shared-sacrifice/4/135/71440

This Go Lean roadmap is realistic as to reasons why people have left their homeland: the Caribbean is in crisis. The book details that there is something wrong in the homeland, that while it is 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, this is due mainly to the lack of economic opportunities. The Caribbean nations must expand and optimize their economic landscape to offer more opportunities to their citizens, especially the youth.

So the purpose of the Go Lean book/roadmap is more than just the embedding of new community ethos, but rather the elevation/empowerment of Caribbean society. In total, the Caribbean empowerment 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 protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance and industrial policies to support these engines.

The roadmap details the following community ethos, plus the execution of these strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to forge permanent change of commitment and shared sacrifice for the homelands in the region:

Definition – Lean in Business / Production / Service Delivery	Page 4
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 – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact a Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
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 – Mission – Enact a Defense Pact to Defend the Homeland	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers Between CU & Member-States Governments	Page 71
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government Improvement Process	Page 93
Implementation – Assemble – Incorporating all the *existing* regional organizations	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – Confederation Without Sovereignty	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from the West Indies Federation – Lack of Popular Support	Page 135
Planning – Ways to Measure Progress and Correct Course – Six Sigma Quality Delivery Process	Page 147
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports – Community Commitment and Oversight	Page 229

Previously Go Lean blog/commentaries have considered repercussions and consequences of good and bad community ethos. The following sample applies:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3780	National Sacrifice – The Missing Ingredient
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3533	Bad Ethos: No Fear of Failure – Case Study: Bahamasair
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830	Bad Ethos: Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2809	A Lesson in Bad Community Ethos: East Berlin/Germany
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480	A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – Fully Committed US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1918	Philadelphia Freedom – A Community Ethos
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=623	Only at the Precipice, Do Communities Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=353	Book Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Want from the US – # 10: Sports Professionalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=228	Egalitarianism versus Anarchism – Community Ethos Debate

The purpose of this subject is more than sacrifice, it also relates to delivery. The Go Lean roadmap details the turn-by-turn deliveries over a 5-year period. The right people and process must be engaged to deliver on time, within budget and with a measurable quality. This area of technocratic delivery – project management – also requires a commitment from stakeholders and not just involvement. This point has been elaborated in this VIDEO here:

VIDEO 1: Commit Like a Pig – https://youtu.be/39O9y9g4CO8

[Edited Dec 6, 2016] Published on Jun 21, 2015 – Commitment and trust are the backbone of all organization. Commitment is like the bacon in an egg and bacon breakfast, the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed!

This commentary therefore also focuses on the art and science of Group Work. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the strategy of a confederation of all 30 Caribbean member-states. The structure allows for a full commitment by all states and communities. There is no re-distribution of the region’s economic pie, but rather the creation of a new pie, that is then shared and promoted for the Greater Good of all regional citizens. The tactical approach calls for 2 pies, a separation-of-powers between this CU Federal agencies – the new pie – and existing member-states. The roles/responsibilities assumed by the CU pose no conflict with the states; for example Air Traffic Control or Meteorological & Geological Administrations. This CU structure will require a commitment, shared and national sacrifice.

The lack of commitment/sacrifice was the flaw in the previous regional integration movement, in particular the West Indies Federation, circa 1958 – 1962. According to the Go Lean book (Page 135) that ill-fated Federation only had luke-warm acquiescence from it’s 10 member-states; no one wanted to sacrifice or dedicate their time, talent or treasuries to the cause of regional integration. As a result the West Indies nation-states carried on alone. Now after 50 years, the learned-lessons and conclusion is that the region could have been much more successful than the current failed or failing dispositions.

Is this too harsh a criticism? Refer back to the societal abandonment rate. Not only are West Indian people not willing to die for their country, they are not even willing to live for their country … or in their country.

Time now for a re-boot and remediation! Let’s try this (regional integration) again. This time, we try “pork-esque” commitments, rather than a “chicken-esque” involvement.

All in all, there is a certain community ethos associated with populations that have endured change. That ethos involves commitment more so than involvement. As for the publishers of the Go Lean…Caribbean book and those inclusive in this movement, here is our declaration: “We are Pigs”! For the chicken in that “bacon and eggs” fable, it only takes some involvement to just lay the eggs; but it takes total committment for the pig to provide bacon as there is no going back!

VIDEO 2: Chicken or Pig? A Self-Empowerment Story – http://youtu.be/O2JAQMahlBc

Published on Jun 4, 2012 – Self-empowerment equals success and to be fully self-empowered, you need to be fully committed to living your purpose. Discover the power of your purpose today and find out if you’re the chicken or the pig in your life story.

Now is the time to lean-in, full commitment and “present some bacon”, to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. All the mitigations and empowerments in this roadmap require people and institutions to fully commit.

Oink-oink 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Share this post:

Model, Transform

[Top]

RBC EZPay – Ready for Change

Posted on January 23, 2015 in Economics, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

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

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

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

Roseau, Dominica – RBC Royal Bank today unveiled its new RBC EZ Pay Wireless Terminals, a wireless device that can be used to complete credit card transactions anywhere where a cellular phone can be used.

“This product is ideal for car rental companies, as well as for use at restaurants, tour and taxi operators, local outdoor markets, trade shows and even community and festive events,” said Mr. Yuri Lazare, Country Head, Dominica. “We are proud to be the pioneers of this technology in Dominica, providing a payment solution that is limitless in terms of where it can be used; effortless in that it is so easy to set up and use; and completely wireless, allowing merchants to accept payments wherever their customers are.”

RBC is the first financial services company in Dominica to offer this innovative product, which has many features. RBC EZ Pay is a high-speed, cordless point-of-sale terminal with an integrated antenna and printer. It has the ability to process Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club and Discover credit cards. It also has a backlit display, a secure network and a rechargeable/removable battery.

“Retailers who have previewed the RBC EZ Pay Wireless Terminal like it because it provides flexibility to set up temporary payment locations, such as at sidewalk sales and special events. The device also gives restaurant owners the flexibility to take payment from their customers wherever they are seated, even on outdoor patios or bars,” said Dave Legge, Manager for Commercial Financial Services, Eastern Caribbean. “With this system, car rental companies and other on-the-go vendors can now accept credit payments, which can help expand their business.”

This new product launch continues the long tradition of leadership that RBC has displayed in Dominica. “In March this year, RBC celebrated 95 continuous years of doing business in Dominica and we look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come” said Mr. Yuri Lazare, Country Head Dominica. “We appreciate the many opportunities we have had to play a role in the national development of the country. Today’s launch is historic and evidence of our dedication to delivering innovative product solutions that create an environment in which Dominicans can maximize their entrepreneurial potential.”

Business persons interested in learning more about this new product and obtaining pricing can visit our Roseau branch or call Ermine Darroux at 255 – 1803.
Dominica News Online – Website for Daily Newspaper- (Posted 06/11/2010; Retrieved 01/23/2015) –
http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/business/rbc-unveils-rbc-ez-pay-wireless-terminals/

This point is detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). This 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 protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

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

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

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

An additional economic benefit is the mitigation of Black Market “under-the-table” transactions that proliferate in a cash-only environment. These neutralize government revenue schemes: sales tax, VAT, etc.

Though the foregoing article refers to the Royal Bank of Canada, the currency in focus here is not the Canadian dollar, but rather the new Caribbean dollar. This Canadian bank, along with others – Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) / FirstCaribbean – support local currencies, like the Bahamian dollars, Jamaican dollars, T&T dollars, etc. In fact, in whichever country RBC operates, they transact in local currency. The Go Lean roadmap calls for that same participation with the new C$ regional currency.

If the Caribbean member-states already have currencies, why is there the need to transform to a new currency regime?

The Go Lean book posits that the Caribbean is in crisis, and that this “crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. The region has been devastated by currency mis-management over the decades; (for example, the Jamaica dollar was trading 87-to-1 at the end of 2009 and conditions have only worsened since then). In most cases, local Caribbean currencies have been pegged to the US Dollar, but even American stewardship have hurt Caribbean fortunes, the dollar has lost value compared to other bread-basket currencies (Euros, British Pound Sterling, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan, etc.), meaning that the global buying power has dwindled more and more for the average Caribbean resident due to no fault of his own. These internal and external currency factors have contributed to the Caribbean economic crisis, and the urgent need for reform, re-boot and remediation.

The book posits that to adapt and thrive in the new global marketplace there must be more strenuous management, technocratic optimizations, of the region’s currencies. This is the charge of Go Lean roadmap, opening with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13) and these pronouncements:

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

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

Creating the CU/CCB governance is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The strategy is to implement the bank and C$ currency with the appropriate regulatory framework, tools and infrastructure, to facilitate the electronic schemes identified above.

The foregoing article, demonstrates that this regional bank (RBC) is ready for this change, but evidence abounds that the other banks are equally competitive. See VIDEO sample below for the bank-neutral “The Square Credit Card Reader”.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the proper controls for electronic payments/virtual money in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Economic Principles	Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Principle	Page 22
Community Ethos – “Light Up the Dark Places”	Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Central Banking	Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Central Bank Cooperative	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image	Page 129
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies	Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Black Markets	Page 165
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism – Smartcard scheme	Page 193
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Appendix – Alternative Remittance Modes	Page 270

The points of effective, technocratic banking/currency stewardship, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3814	Lessons from the Swiss unpegging the franc
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Lessons Learned – Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2930	‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2074	MetroCard – Model for the Caribbean Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1350	PayPal expands payment services to 10 markets
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=906	Bitcoin virtual currency needs regulatory framework to change image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies

There are so many benefits to deploying the e-Payment functionality of the C$:

More Cruise Tourism Spending
Fostering e-Commerce
Increase of M1
Mitigation of Black Markets

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people, the banking establishments and governing institutions, to lean-in for these empowerments described in the Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap. The benefits are too alluring, and far overdue, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

VIDEO – How To Use The Square Credit Card Reader With Your Phone. Get It For Free. http://youtu.be/-RtmHsLxcrA

Published on Jun 28, 2014 – Using The Reader. Take Credit Card Payments With Your Phone. Signing up, getting and how to use the Square credit card reader by Square Up with a Samsung Galaxy Note III. Tutorial. Great for small businesses.

Share this post:

Banks, Cruise, e-Commerce, ICT, Tourism, Transform

[Top]

State of the Caribbean Union

Posted on January 21, 2015 in Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

You are invited to watch the State of the Union address that President Barack Obama delivered to the US Congress on Tuesday night (January 20, 2015). You are urged to listen carefully and count the number of times the Caribbean is referred to. The answer:

Once!

The reference to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba.

That’s it!

(The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is a perpetual leased US territory; so it will not count as Caribbean-specific).

No reference to the US Territories (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands); no reference to the Dutch Caribbean; nor to the French Caribbean; and especially not to the English-speaking Caribbean member-states.

The truth of the matter is that the Caribbean is out-of-scope for Obama. It was the State of the Union of the United States of America. Not the State of the Caribbean Union. Even the US territories have to be concerned. They have a voice in the US Congress, but no vote. (A lesson in American Civics teaches that territories have Congressional representation that can vote in committees, but not vote in full Congress).

So all the President’s focus on job creation, energy independence, growing the economy, controlling healthcare costs, securing the homeland, and optimizing government was directed to his American constituency and not to the Caribbean member-states.

VIDEO Title: The State of the Union (SOTU) 2015 – http://youtu.be/cse5cCGuHmE
Watch President Obama’s 1-hour remarks during his 6^th SOTU address and learn more below.

Published on Jan 20, 2015
President Barack Obama delivers his sixth State of the Union address, at the United States Capitol, January 20, 2015.

We, the Caribbean, are required to focus on the State of our own Union.

The people, the 320 million Americans, elect a President to pursue their best interest, not the world’s best interest. Though the US tries to be a Good Neighbor, there may be times when the priorities of the US conflict with the priorities of the Caribbean, or the rest of the world. In those scenarios, the President is under charge to pursue the American best option.

The 42 million people of the Caribbean homeland are not in his scope!

The foregoing VIDEO and this commentary is being brought into focus in a consideration of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society. 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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book (Page 3) makes a simple assertion regarding the State of our Union: the Caribbean is in crisis. The book details that there is something wrong in the homeland, that while it is 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.

Why do people leave? The book identifies a number of reasons, classified as “push-and-pull”. There are economic (jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities), security and governance issues.

One mission of the Go Lean roadmap is to minimize these “push-and-pull” factors that contribute to this alarmingly high abandonment rate of Caribbean citizens – one report reflects a 70% brain drain rate.

Considering “pull” factors, the roadmap posits that the United States of America should not be viewed as the panacea for Caribbean ailments; that when the choice of any challenge is “fight or flight” that Caribbean society must now consider anew, the “fight” options. (No violence is implied, but rather a strenuous effort, heavy-lifting, to compete and win economic battles). One strong reason for cautioning Caribbean emigrants is that America is not so welcoming a society for the “Black and Brown” populations from the Caribbean. This was not addressed by Obama; he has to address the needs of all Americans – not just “Black and Brown” – racial discrimination have not been as high a priority among his initiatives, to the chagrin of many in the African-American communities, including the Caribbean Diaspora.

On the other hand, the Go Lean book does not ignore the “push” factors that cause many Caribbean people to flee. The book stresses (early at Pages 12 – 13) the need to be on-guard for “push” factors in these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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

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

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

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

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

This commentary previously related details of Caribbean emigration and their experiences (Diaspora), the “push-and-pull” factors in the US, and our region’s own job-creation efforts – State of Our Own Union. Here is a sample of earlier blogs:

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=3694	Jamaica-Canada employment program pumps millions into local economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3662	Migrant flow into US from Caribbean spikes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3446	Forecast for higher unemployment in Caribbean in 2015
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3050	Obama’s immigration tweaks – Bad for the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2547	Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2251	What’s In A Name? Plight of “Black and Brown” in the US
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1896	American “Pull” Factors – Crisis in Black Homeownership
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	American “Pull” Factors – STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
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 Due to Brain-Drain

The Go Lean book and accompanying blogs posit that for the Caribbean Diaspora, fleeing from their homelands to reside in the US is akin to “jumping from the frying pan into the fire” in terms of effort to succeed and thrive in a community. The message of the Go Lean movement is that it takes less effort to remediate the Caribbean than to fix a new adopted homeland. While the Go Lean planners may not be able to change American society, we can – no, we must – impact our own society. 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. 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 Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations	Page 32
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 – 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 – Lessons from the US Constitution	Page 145
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba	Page 236
Advocacy – Ways to Impact US Territories	Page 244
Appendix – Interstate Compacts	Page 278

This Go Lean book accepts that the current State of Our Own Union is not a permanent disposition. We can do better. This roadmap is a 5-year plan to effect change, to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. From Day One/Step One, positive change emerges. The roadmap therefore serves as turn-by-turn directions for what-how-when-where-why to apply the needed remediation, mitigations and empowerments.

The scope of this roadmap is change for the Caribbean, not change for American society – though there is the need for some lobbying of American authorities for Interstate/Foreign Compacts (Page 278).

That’s lobbying, not begging…

As for the Caribbean US territories – the great American Empire – having a voice, but no vote is disadvantageous. A Congressman from Nebraska would not negotiate with a Congressman from Puerto Rico because there is no vote to offer, compromise or “horse-trade”. American territories are therefore just traditional colonies, parasites and subjective to their imperial masters.

The Caribbean strives to be protégés, not parasites! We can be the world’s best address. How glorious the day when we can declare that as the State of the Caribbean Union!

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

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Share this post:

Image, Jobs, New Media, Sales, Security, Transform

[Top]

Lessons from the Swiss unpegging the franc

Posted on January 20, 2015 in Economics, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The financial world is all abuzz regarding the move by the Switzerland National Bank to unpeg their currency from their default value tied to the Euro.

Change is afoot:

o CNBC – VIDEO: Swiss franc soars, stocks tank as euro peg scrapped

o Business Insider-UK: The Swiss Franc Is Out of Control

o Bloomberg: Swiss Franc Stages Historic Rally as SNB Move Shocks Market

o Wall Street Journal: Swiss Franc Remains at Sky-High Levels; Swiss Stocks Regain Some Stability

o Financial Times (London): Swiss franc fallout claims more casualties

o Business Insider Editorial: The Decision To Let The Swiss Franc Cause Market Chaos

There are winners and losers from this new move.

How does it relate to the Caribbean?

The Swiss franc is not one of our focused currencies; we get little tourism from that country in particular and we do little trade. Yet this move is HUGE for Caribbean consideration.

This article is in consideration of the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) to provide better stewardship, to ensure that the economic/currency failures of the past, in the Caribbean and other regions, do not re-occur here in the homeland.

This Economist article here explains more fundamental dynamics from this global-currency strategy-play:

Title: The Economist explains: Why the Swiss unpegged the franc
By: C.W.
IN THE world of central banking, slow and predictable decisions are the aim. So on January 15th, when the Swiss National Bank (SNB) suddenly announced that it would no longer hold the Swiss franc at a fixed exchange rate with the Euro, there was panic. The franc soared. On Wednesday one Euro was worth 1.2 Swiss francs; at one point on Thursday its value had fallen to just 0.85 francs. A number of hedge funds across the world made big losses. The Swiss stock market collapsed. Why did the SNB provoke such chaos?

The SNB introduced the exchange-rate peg in 2011, while financial markets around the world were in turmoil. Investors consider the Swiss franc as a “safe haven” asset, along with American government bonds: buy them and you know your money will not be at risk. Investors like the franc because they think the Swiss government is a safe pair of hands: it runs a balanced budget, for instance. But as investors flocked to the franc, they dramatically pushed up its value. An expensive franc hurts Switzerland because the economy is heavily reliant on selling things abroad: exports of goods and services are worth over 70% of GDP. To bring down the franc’s value, the SNB created new francs and used them to buy Euros. Increasing the supply of francs relative to Euros on foreign-exchange markets caused the franc’s value to fall (thereby ensuring a Euro was worth 1.2 francs). Thanks to this policy, by 2014 the SNB had amassed about $480 billion-worth of foreign currency, a sum equal to about 70% of Swiss GDP.

The SNB suddenly dropped the cap last week for several reasons. First, many Swiss are angry that the SNB has built up such large foreign-exchange reserves. Printing all those francs, they say, will eventually lead to hyperinflation. Those fears are probably unfounded: Swiss inflation is too low, not too high. But it is a hot political issue. In November there was a referendum which, had it passed, would have made it difficult for the SNB to increase its reserves. Second, the SNB risked irritating its critics even more, thanks to something that is happening this Thursday: many expect the European Central Bank to introduce “quantitative easing”. This entails the creation of money to buy the government debt of Euro-Zone countries. That will push down the value of the Euro, which might have required the SNB to print lots more francs to maintain the cap. But there is also a third reason behind the SNB’s decision. During 2014 the Euro depreciated against other major currencies. As a result, the franc (being pegged to the Euro) has depreciated too: in 2014 it lost about 12% of its value against the dollar and 10% against the Rupee (though it appreciated against both currencies following the SNB’s decision). A cheaper franc boosts exports to America and India, which together make up about 20% of Swiss exports. If the Swiss franc is not so overvalued, the SNB argues, then it has no reason to continue trying to weaken it.

The big question now is how much the removal of the cap will hurt the Swiss economy. The stock market fell because Swiss companies will now find it more difficult to sell their wares to European customers (high-rolling Europeans are already complaining about the price of this year’s skiing holidays). UBS, a bank, downgraded its forecast for Swiss growth in 2015 from 1.8% to 0.5%. Switzerland will probably remain in deflation. But the SNB should not be lambasted for removing the cap. Rather, it should be criticized for adopting it in the first place. When central banks try to manipulate exchange rates, it almost always ends in tears.

Source: The Economist Magazine – Financial Weekly (Posted 01/18/2015) –
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/economist-explains-13

The Swiss National Bank is unlike other central banks because it is not owned by the Swiss government but is a listed company with shareholders that include Swiss administrative regions, known as cantons, as well other public bodies and private individuals. This arrangement provides a cool 1 billion francs ($1.15 billion) annually split between Switzerland’s 26 cantons in proportion to their populations and, most importantly, was considered a safe and reliable stream of income. In fact, according to the Swiss Central Bank, the dividend had been paid every year for over 100 years until a 2013 collapse in the price of gold hurt the bank’s gold asset holdings.

Here is where the lessons for the Caribbean magnify. The Swiss National Bank is a confederation, much like the Go Lean roadmap for the Caribbean Union, Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) and the Caribbean Dollar (C$). The roadmap calls for a cooperative entity of the existing Central Banks in the region; fostering interdependence for the regional Greater Good. There is now interconnectivity of the financial systems, bank/currency troubles in foreign countries easily become trouble for the Caribbean region. Though there is elasticity from these foreign financial centers, the Caribbean is big enough (42 million people in 30 member-states) to streamline its own viable currency/financial/securities market – just like the Swiss (a country of 8 million people but with a $680 Billion economy).

The Caribbean has had to learn hard lessons on currency, as many of the CU member-states have had to endure painful devaluations over the past decades – on more than one occasions. Any attempt to reboot Caribbean economic landscape must first start with a strenuous oversight of the C$ currency. Oversight would imply actions in offense and defense of our own currency. This is what the Swiss (SNB) has done in the foregoing articles. They were at the mercy of the Euro Zone, being pegged to the Euro, as the Euro moved up, the franc would move up; as the Euro moved down, the franc moved down. This parasitical elasticity undermined their independence and any discipline on their part was neutralized by the Euro Zone.

This is the exact position of the Caribbean today. Most Caribbean currencies are pegged to the US dollar. As the dollar rises and falls, so do Caribbean currencies. The US Dollar planners (Federal Reserve) do not have the Caribbean best-interest in mind; they have American self-interest in mind. Good for them; bad for us! Change has now come. A strong currency is a good thing! The Go Lean book strongly urges the region to overcome any “fear of math” because the C$ may become stronger in comparison to the US$. This is why e-Commerce and e-Payments schemes are strongly urged within the CU/Go Lean roadmap.

Early in the book, this need for regional stewardship of Caribbean currencies was pronounced (Declaration of Interdependence – Page 13) with these statements:

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

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

The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, stressed the key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to establish the regional financial eco-systems for Caribbean self-determination. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Money Multiplier	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future – Count on the Greedy to be Greedy	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Fortify the Stability of the Securities Markets	Page 45
Strategy – Provide Proper Oversight and Support for the Depository Institutions	Page 46
Strategy – e-Payments and Card-based Transactions	Page 49
Tactical – Summary of Swiss Confederation and Other Models	Page 63
Tactical – Growing the Economy – Minimizing Bubbles	Page 69
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Depository Insurance & Regulatory Agency	Page 73
Anecdote – Turning Around CARICOM – Effects of 2008 Financial Crisis	Page 92
Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank as a Cooperative	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt – Optimizing Wall Street Role	Page 114
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Single Market / Currency Union	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Model the European Union	Page 130
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008	Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from New York City – Wall Street	Page 137
Planning – Ways to Measure Progress	Page 147
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies	Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Control Inflation	Page 153
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Foreign Exchange	Page 154
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives – Caribbean Central Bank	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Electronic Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street	Page 200
Appendix – Tool-kits for Capital Controls	Page 315
Appendix – Lessons Learned from Floating the Trinidad & Tobago Dollar	Page 316
Appendix – Controlling Inflation – Technical Details	Page 318
Appendix – e-Government and e-Payments Example: EBT	Page 353

The points of effective, technocratic banking/economic stewardship, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3397	A Christmas Present for the Banks from the Omnibus Bill
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Lessons Learned – Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3028	Why India is doing better than most emerging markets
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2930	‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2090	The Depth & Breadth of Remediating 2008 – Need for Command-and-Control
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1014	Canadian View: All is not well in the sunny Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=518	Analyzing the Data – What Banks learn about financial risks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=378	US Federal Reserve Releases Transcripts from 2008 Meetings

The Caribbean dream is the coveted role of protégé to our North American and European trading partners, not the parasite role we have thus far assumed. But this is easier said than done, as the doing part requires heavy-lifting. But this plan is conceivable, believable and achievable. The Swiss, while not a member of the EU nor Euro Zone, provides such a great role model for the Caribbean:

Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and the Romansh unique dialect. Therefore the Swiss, although predominantly German-speaking, do not form a nation in the sense of a common ethnicity or language; rather, Switzerland’s strong sense of identity and community is founded on a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy,^[10] and Alpine symbolism.^[11]

Switzerland ranks high in several metrics of national performance, including government transparency, civil liberties, economic competitiveness, and human development. It has the highest nominal wealth per adult (financial and non-financial assets) in the world according to Credit Suisse and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product (GDP) on the IMF list.^[12]^[13] Swiss citizens have the second-highest life expectancy in the world. Zürich and Geneva each have been ranked among the top cities with the highest quality of life in the world; (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland).

All in all, the country is a great place to live, work and play.

On the other hand, the Go Lean book declares to “count on greedy people to be greedy” (Page 26). This situation is manifested here in the foregoing articles; investors will always exploit opportunities to maximize profits. Globalization affords options to move money from one financial “bucket” in one country to another “bucket” in another country. This exercise has affected many middle-wage jobs in developed lands. The end result, increased profits for the decision-makers, less jobs for the workers; thus a growing income inequality: so the “Rich” get richer, but the “Middle Class” get shrunk.

We have so many lessons to learn from the Swiss in this mission to elevate Caribbean economic-security-governing engines. The Swiss Confederacy (circa 1300 – 1798) facilitated management of common interests and ensured peace on their important trade routes. The Swiss has demonstrated that a Permanent Union can facilitate the Greater Good for multiple states (26) in a geographical region. That’s the Old Lesson; based on the foregoing articles, there are now many new lessons; some good, some bad. Foreign currency (Fx) brokerage houses are suffering financial setbacks because of these sudden changes with the Swiss franc; with leverage and derivatives, the Fx industry has become one big gamble. This point impresses the lesson of how Fx speculators can manipulate a country’s currency – this plight previously afflicted individual Caribbean currencies (Page 149). But now we see the Swiss using their unified command-and-control to set their currency standards for their own best interest, not the profit motives of some external stakeholders. The Swiss are no parasites! They are protégés!

Switzerland has hereby demonstrated that having command-and-control is required for economic success. Lesson learned!

The Caribbean’s 30 member-states are urged to lean-in to this Go Lean confederation roadmap. This is the turn-by-turn directions, the heavy-lifting, to move the region to its new destination: a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Share this post:

Banks, Foreign Policy, Image, Model, Transform

[Top]

National Sacrifice – The Missing Ingredient

Posted on January 15, 2015 in Ethos, Government, Social

Go Lean Commentary

The term National Sacrifice is defined here as the willingness to die for a greater cause; think “King/Queen and Country”. This spirit is currently missing in the recipe for “community” in the Caribbean homeland.

To be willing to die for a cause means that one is willing to live for the cause. Admittedly, “dying” is a bit extreme. The concept of “sacrifice” in general is the focus of this commentary.

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean wants to forge change in the Caribbean, we want to change the attitudes for an entire community, country and region. We have the track record of this type of commitment being exemplified in other communities. (Think: The US during WW II). Now we want to bring a National Sacrifice attitude to the Caribbean, as it is undoubtedly missing. This is evidenced by the fact the every Caribbean member-state suffers from alarming rates of societal abandonment: 70% of college educated population in the English states have left in a brain drain, while the US territories have lost more than 50% of their populations).

The book Go Lean…Caribbean opens with the acknowledgement that despite having the “greatest address in the world… the people of the Caribbean have beat down their doors to get out”, (Page 5).

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); a confederation to bring change, empowerment, to the Caribbean region; to make the region a better place to live, work and play for all stakeholders (residents, visitors, businesses, organizations – NGO’s and governments). This Go Lean roadmap also has initiatives to foster solutions for the Caribbean youth. The Go Lean book posits that permanent change for Caribbean society will only take root as a result of adjustments to the community attitudes, the national spirit that drives the character and identity of its people. This is identified in the book as “community ethos”; and that one such character, National Sacrifice is sorely missing in this region.

Any attempts to change Caribbean society’s community ethos must start with the youth.

At no point should it be construed that this commentary is advocating sacrificing young men (and women) on the altar of the God of War. But rather, this commentary laments the missing ingredients of wholesale commitment to any national cause. Thusly, the recommendation is for conscription/draft (Appendix B) into a National Youth Service (NYS) program for the Caribbean. Take it one step further and make the Youth Service program regional in its scope rather than “national”; with applicable exemptions for:

military/police enrollments
student/research deferments (at regional institutions)
religious/missionary assignments
medical/disability exceptions

This quest relates a commitment so vital to a community that everyone should be willing to sacrifice and lean-in for the desired outcome. This Caribbean effort is not new to the world; it is currently being championed by a Washington-DC-based global Non-Government Organization (NGO) branded the Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP). Much can be learned from analyzing their successes … and failures. See details here:

Innovations in Civic Participation – NGO – Leaders for Youth Civic Engagement (Retrieved 01/15/2015):

Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) is a global leader in the field of Youth Civic Engagement. ICP envisions a world where young people in every nation are actively engaged in improving their lives and their communities through civic participation. We believe that well-structured youth service programs can provide innovative solutions to social and environmental issues, while helping young people develop skills for future employment and active citizenship.

ICP carries out its mission through four main activities:

Incubating innovative models for youth service programs;

Creating and expanding global networks ;

Conducting research and publicizing information on youth civic engagement, especially national youth service and service-learning; and

Serving as a financial intermediary to support program innovation and policy development.

In addition to these activities, ICP regularly consults with its extensive network of over 2,500 academics, policymakers, program entrepreneurs, and other leaders in the field on program and policy work.

Contact Information:

Innovations in Civic Participation
P.O. Box 39222
Washington, DC 20016
202-775-0290

http://www.icicp.org/about-us/

A quest for a National Youth Service has previously been advocated in Sub-Saharan Africa (see Appendix C). There, the NYS was designed to explore the potential to foster youth employability, entrepreneurship, and sustainable livelihoods. This effort stemmed from an existing tradition of NYS programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, which were originally designed to cultivate a sense of national identity and mobilize skills for development in post-independence nations; (see Appendix A). Today, NYS programs operate in the context of a deepening regional youth unemployment crisis, which averages over 20 percent, according to African Economic Outlook. NYS programs engage hundreds of thousands of young people each year and have the potential to equip them with strong civic skills and prepare them for employment and livelihood opportunities.

Despite its potential as an economic strategy, little is still known about how effective NYS programs are at increasing youth employability in Africa. But there is no doubt for the commitment to community that is forged from these efforts. Young people cry, sweat, and bleed for their community, embedding a desire to sacrifice for the Greater Good.

This corresponds with the Bible precept: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” – Acts 20:35

There are NYS programs already deployed or proposed for these Caribbean member-states, (though many have been snagged or stalled):

The purpose of the Go Lean book/roadmap is more than just the embedding of new community ethos, but rather the elevation/empowerment of Caribbean society. In total, the Caribbean 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.
Improve Caribbean governance and industrial policies to support these engines.

The roadmap details the following community ethos, plus the execution of these strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to forge permanent change in the region:

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 – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact a Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
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 – Mission – Enact a Defense Pact to Defend the Homeland	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers Between CU & Member-States Governments	Page 71
Implementation – Assemble – Incorporating all the *existing* regional organizations	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – Confederation Without Sovereignty	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned from the West Indies Federation – Military Units	Page 135
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Manage Federal Civil Service	Page 173
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Appendix – 30,000 Federal Employees	Page 299
Appendix – Previous West Indies Integration – Caribbean Regiment	Page 301

Previously Go Lean blog/commentaries have considered historic references and have also stressed fostering the proper and appropriate community ethos for the Caribbean to prosper; and reported on the repercussions and consequences of bad ethos. The following sample applies:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830	Bad Ethos: Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2809	A Lesson in Bad Community Ethos : East Berlin/Germany
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480	A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2297	A Lesson in History – Booker T versus Du Bois – to Change a Bad Community Ethos
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531	A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago – World War I – Cause and Effect in Community Ethos
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841	Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy – Need People
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=623	Only at the Precipice, Do Communities Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=353	Book Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=228	Egalitarianism versus Anarchism – Community Ethos Debate

All in all, there is a certain community ethos associated with populations that have endured change. It is a National Sacrifice, a deferred gratification and focus on the future. Any losses of privileges are appreciated by the entire community, not just the affected individual or family member. This is the purpose of the US Memorial Day Holiday on the last Monday in May, honoring the military service of all our men and women in uniform, their families at home, and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in dying for their country. A quest to unite the country in remembrance and appreciation of the fallen and to serve those who are grieving is a good way to forge a community ethos of National Sacrifice.

See VIDEO here of a community’s great honor to a slain soldier:

VIDEO: Sky Mote: Community Honors a Fallen Soldier from El Dorado County with a Hero’s Welcome – http://youtu.be/MVQORRQvTpU

Published on Aug 17, 2012 – Starting with a Marine Honor Guard carrying the transfer case containing the body of Staff Sgt. Sky R. Mote of El Dorado, CA, upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Sunday Aug. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Then continuing with the great Welcome Home the community gave. His family will never forget!

Though this Fallen Soldier is mourned and missed, his sacrifice is duly acknowledged, appreciated and honored in his hometown. This community spirit creates a value system for public service and National Sacrifice.

The US is not the only country that memorializes their war dead. Those countries that do, experience less societal abandonment. The British Commonwealth of Nations (representative of 18 Caribbean member-states) shows likewise homage to their Fallen Soldiers. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is responsible for maintaining the war graves of 1.7 million service personnel that died in the First and Second World Wars fighting for Commonwealth member states. Founded in 1917 (as the Imperial War Graves Commission), the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries, and maintains individual graves at another 20,000 sites around the world.^[107] The vast majority of the latter [however] are civilian cemeteries in Great Britain. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_War_Graves_Commission).

The former British colonies did not adopt this National Sacrifice value system. As most Caribbean (notwithstanding the US Territories) member-states do not even have a (work-free) holiday to honor the sacrifices of those that fought, bled and/or died for their country.

No appreciation, no sacrifice; no sacrifice, no victory. It is that simple!

It is the recommendation of this blog/commentary that all Caribbean member-states should mandate a civilian conscription service for their citizens (1 year between ages 18 and 25); it is common for a confederation – the CU for the Caribbean – to marshal a multi-state, allied military force. Then the CU should facilitate a complete eco-system of engaging the conscripted NYS participants to serve and protect the people and resources of the Caribbean. After which, the communities should show proper appreciation and honor to those that make these sacrifices for “King/Queen and Country”, from all conscription services: military service, public and civilian.

(Many times school teachers and administrators are lowly paid; their service to their country is a great sacrifice).

Veteran-style benefits should thusly be considered for all these “national” servants. This commitment from the community would go far in forging deep loyalty within the citizenry, thus mitigating quick abandonment of the homeland.

There is a separation-of-powers between the CU federal agencies and Caribbean member-states, so the CU would have no authority on how member-states manage, appreciate or honor their civil servants; unless some CU grants/funding apply. But for CU personnel, the practice will be institutionalized to recognize the service of long-time civil servants (active or retired) and their sacrifices. So for any human resource that die in the line of duty, the funeral processions will be filled with pomp and circumstance, much like the foregoing VIDEO.

“The [servants] who perform well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard …” – Bible 1 Timothy 5:17

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. All the mitigations and empowerments in this roadmap require people to remain in the homeland. No people, no hope! A community ethos, a spirit or attitude of sacrifice for the Greater Good is a great start to forge change; no sacrifice, no victory.

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——————-

Appendix A – ICP Studies and Results

Overview of the National Youth Service Landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa

National Youth Service Project on Employability, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa: Synthesis Report

——————

Appendix B – Conscription (or Drafting)
This is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of National Service, most often military service.^[2] Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.

Conscription is controversial for a range of reasons, including conscientious objection to military engagements on religious or philosophical grounds; political objection, for example to service for a disliked government or unpopular war; and ideological objection, for example, to a perceived violation of individual rights. Those conscripted may evade service, sometimes by leaving the country.^[4] Some selection systems accommodate these attitudes by providing alternative service outside combat-operations roles or even outside the military, such as civil service in Austria and Switzerland.

As of the early 21st century, many states no longer conscript soldiers, relying instead upon professional militaries with volunteers enlisted to meet the demand for troops. The ability to rely on such an arrangement, however, presupposes some degree of predictability with regard to both war-fighting requirements and the scope of hostilities. Many states that have abolished conscription therefore still reserve the power to resume it during wartime or times of crisis.^[5] (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription)

National Service is a common name for mandatory or volunteer government service programmes. The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes. Compulsory military service typically requires all citizens, or all male citizens, to participate for a period of a year (or more in some countries) during their youth, usually at some point between the age of 18 and their late twenties. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_service)

——————

Appendix C – National Youth Service Corps in Nigeria
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is an organisation set up by the Nigerian government to involve the country’s graduates in the development of the country. There is no military conscription in Nigeria, but since 1973 graduates of universities and later polytechnics have been required to take part in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program for one year.^[1] This is known as national service year.

“Corp” members are posted to cities far from their city of origin. They are expected to mix with people of other tribes, social and family backgrounds, to learn the culture of the indigenes in the place they are posted to. This action is aimed to bring about unity in the country and to help youths appreciate other ethnic groups.

There is an “orientation” period of approximately three weeks spent in a camp away from family and friends. There is also a “passing out ceremony” at the end of the year and primary assignment followed by one month of vacation.

The program has also helped in creating entry-level jobs for many Nigerian youth. An NYSC forum dedicated to the NYSC members was built to bridge the gap amongst members serving across Nigeria and also an avenue for members to share job information and career resources as well as getting loans from the National Directorate Of Employment.

The program has been met with serious criticism by a large portion of the country. The NYSC members have complained of being underpaid, paid late or not paid at all.^[2] Several youths carrying out the NYSC program have been killed in the regions they were sent to due to religious violence, ethnic violence or political violence.^[3]

A series of bomb and other violent attacks, especially in the North, rocked the country’s stability in the period preceding the 2011 gubernatorial and presidential elections. Most common of these attacks was perpetuated by the Islamist extremist terrorist group called Boko Haram. “Boko Haram” means “Western education is a sin” in the local hausa dialect in Nigeria. The group “Boko Haram” is against western education and wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria’s northern region.

Worst hit were National Youth Service Corps members, some of whom lost their lives.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Service_Corps)

Share this post:

Diaspora, Model, Security, Transform

[Top]

Concerns about ‘Citizenship By Investment Programs’

Posted on January 14, 2015 in Ethos, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

People come to the Caribbean for so many reasons. The book Go Lean…Caribbean cataloged 3 primary reasons: 1. Live, 2. Work, and 3. Play.

This last category is so vast that it covers the full scope of tourism: sun, sand, sea, surf, savor, salsa and smoke; (savor as in foods; salsa as in dance and smoke as in cigars). This is the region’s primary economic activity. But now there are reports of a new attraction starting to emerge in certain Caribbean member-states:

Citizenship.

“Say it ain’t so?!?!”

There are reports that many newcomers are relocating to Caribbean member-states for other, sometimes nefarious, reasons: proximity (to other North American markets), legacy status (Overseas territory of European powers), favorable tax status, and lax governmental oversight. These occurrences have raised the ire of many developed nations (United States, Canada and the EU). There are concerns too for the planners of a new elevated Caribbean, the promoters of the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); the purpose of which is to elevate Caribbean society, for all 30 member-states. The book does not ignore the subject of nationality and immigration, so reports of newcomers relocating to member-states just for citizenship purposes must be fully vetted.

Consider this article on this issue in St. Kitts & Nevis:

Title #1: US, Canada and EU monitoring St Kitts-Nevis citizenship programme, says opposition
By: Ken Richards, West Indies News Network; Posted: January 6 2015 – http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-US%2C-Canada-and-EU-monitoring-St-Kitts-Nevis-citizenship-programme%2C-says-opposition-24268.html

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (WINN) — There is fresh criticism of the St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment programme (CIP), following reports that the US Department of Treasury is closely monitoring the activities of a former Iranian national who now holds a St Kitts and Nevis passport.

According to the Treasury Department, 49-year-old Hossein Zeidi was responsible for converting foreign currency into US bank notes for delivery to the Iranian government.

Zeidi is reported to be among nine individuals and entities under surveillance pursuant to various Iran-related regulations.
They are accused by the US of supporting Iranian government sanctions evasion efforts.

The US Treasury Department says that Zeidi holds a St Kitts and Nevis passport, number RE0003553.

Team Unity leader Timothy Harris is reiterating the opposition group’s concern about such developments, and the impact they are having on the CIP.

He recalled that the Americans had issued an advisory last May against the federation’s citizenship programme.

“It is therefore reasonable that that department will continue to pursue the activities of the citizenship by investment programme and of the government officials in particular,” Harris told WINN FM.

“We know for sure that the US Treasury Department continues to be interested in the CIP programme, continues to be interested in the cavalier manner in which our passports are being sold like black pudding on a Saturday,” the MP who heads the opposition alliance said.

According to Harris, Canada and the European Union are also monitoring the St Kitts and Nevis programme.

The US Treasury Department gave no details as to how Zeidi had in his possession a St Kitts-Nevis passport, but the twin island Federation provides citizenship to foreigners who make significant investments in the country.

Treasury Department officials claim that the Iranian government contracted with Zeidi and Seyed Kamal Yasini to convert Iranian funds denominated in non-Iranian local currency into US dollars.

According to the Americans, these individuals and their network have to date effected the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in US dollar bank notes to the Iranian government in violation of existing sanctions.

Republished with permission of West Indies News Network

Consider too, this older article of this issue in the Turks & Caicos Islands:

Title #2: British government refutes Turks and Caicos economic citizenship claim
By: Caribbean News Now contributor Published on April 18, 2014; retrieved January 13, 2015 from: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-British-government-refutes-Turks-and-Caicos-economic-citizenship-claim-20771.html

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — Britain’s Home Office has refuted a claim by promoters of a resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) that investors are eligible to apply for a British Overseas Territory Citizen passport, thereby enabling the holder to reside in the UK.

In a press release on Monday entitled “Eligibility for British Overseas Territory Citizen passport … with Turks and Caicos resort project”, Asia Pacific Investment House claimed that “Investors in Caicos Beach Club Resort and Marina are eligible to apply for a permanent residency certificate and British Overseas Territory Citizen passport, enabling the holder to reside in the UK, making this a highly coveted investment opportunity.”

However, according to Tom Lawrence, at the Home Office Communications Directorate in London:

Eligibility for British Overseas Territory Citizenship ((BOTC) is governed by the British Nationality Act 1981. Citizenship is granted by the governor of the territory and OverseasTerritories are not able to grant BOTC status other than in accordance with that Act.

Residency and other requirements for BOTC status apply, so anyone who has not lived lawfully in the territory for a number of years is unlikely to qualify.

Criteria for the grant of BOT Citizenship include residence requirements, a good character requirement and an intention to make the principal home within the relevant territory.

Generally, the residency requirements are for a minimum of five years residence immediately preceding the application, during which total absences must not exceed 450 days with a maximum of 90 days absence in the last year. The applicant must not have been in breach of immigration rules at any time during those five years and the last year of residence must have been free of any immigration control.

BOTCs do not have the right of abode in the UK unless they later become British citizens.

“There is no direct route to BOTC and the investor will have to meet the eligibility requirements as noted,” Neil Smith, the TCI governor’s spokesman, confirmed.

Asia Pacific Investment House, which describes itself as “a leading venture capital company, registered in the offshore regime of the British Virgin Islands, with its operating HQ in Singapore’s financial district”, did not respond to requests for comment.

It is not known at this time if the British and/or TCI authorities will take action in relation to these apparently false claims targeting uninformed investors.

There is a consistent pattern here, in order to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Caribbean politicians, administrators or business/investment development specialists make promises related to easy citizenship. This is definitely a wrong community ethos!

There are other Caribbean member-states that have Citizenship by Investment Programs established (or proposed):

Antigua & Barbuda: http://www.cip.gov.ag/. *
Dominica: http://economiccitizenshipdominica.com/
Belize: http://www.investorvisa.ae/citizenship-by-investment/belize/
St Lucia (proposed): http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/08/30/st-lucia-mulls-citizenship-by-investment/#

* The first persons to attain Antigua & Barbuda citizenship under the Citizenship by Investment Programme was George Georges and his family of four, Syrian nationals.

“Other countries (Australia, Belgium, Portugal, Singapore, Spain the UK and the US) provide an alternate approach, temporary residence permits or “golden visas” to wealthy individuals in return for investment. Applicants can often receive permanent residency through such schemes by sustaining their investment through a period of two to five years, but the aforementioned Caribbean nations typically offer cheaper and almost immediate routes to full citizenship in exchange for a one-off investment. In St. Kitts & Nevis, for example, the entire process, including background checks, takes as little as 90 days”. (Source: Nearshores Americas). “Most countries withhold official data regarding the number of people who have become citizens through CIPs or the amount of FDI recouped, but Henley and Partners^$ [(Professional Residency & Citizenship Advisors with offices in 25 countries)] estimate that such schemes generate US$2 billion a year worldwide. Unsurprisingly, cash-strapped Caribbean countries that are often overly reliant on tourism have been quick to take notice”.

When factoring in the recent publicity of the harsh treatments to boat-bound refugees, these lax CIPs give the impression that citizenship in the Caribbean is For Sale; that there is no concern for human rights for certain refugees (Haitian, Cubans, Jamaicans, etc.); but let someone show up with some money then the nationality doors are wide open. This too is wrong!

In a previous blog commentary, the increased migrant flow of Caribbean refugees were detailed. Also, the current conflict in the Bahamas, with the accusations of human rights abuses from the Haitian-American Diaspora in Miami was also thoroughly addressed.

The One Percent versus the 99 Percent; the “Have’s versus the Have-Not’s”! So many Failed-State images^# come to mind. The Go Lean book qualifies the characteristics of Failed-States (Page 272-273); these 2 attributes here are most prominent:

Uneven Economic Development Along Group Lines (UED)
Rise of Factionalized Elites (FE)

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to elevate the Caribbean, in its entirety. The impressions of some “Banana Republic” – Failed-State – are unbecoming! It undermines legitimate investment in the region and the worthiness of natives from these Caribbean islands when they travel abroad. The occurrence of some “Citizenship for Hire” practice for some Caribbean state automatically draws scorn for other nearby states. Truthfully, the rest of the world does not know the difference of St. Kitts versus St. Vincent, or the Turks/Caicos Islands versus the Bahama Islands. All of these Caribbean member-states are in the “same boat”, and are judged by the same yardstick.

Change has now come to the Caribbean! This is the call for greater accountability/transparency on a regional basis.

Why should the CU be charged with responsibility in this area? Does this not relate to individual sovereignty? “Mind your own business” – may be a logical retort from member-states criticized for their citizenship/nationality practices.

The Go Lean book relates an opening declaration that the Caribbean is in crisis and that these geographic neighbors must band together – confederate – to mitigate these common problems with superlative solutions, on the regional basis. This need was pronounced early in the book in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 10 – 14) with these statements:

Preamble: While the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle us to form a society and a brotherhood to foster manifestations of our hopes and aspirations and to forge solutions to the challenges that imperil us, … our rights to exercise good governance and promote a more perfect society are the natural assumptions among the powers of the earth, no one other than ourselves can be held accountable for our failure to succeed if we do not try to promote the opportunities that a democratic society fosters.

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

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

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

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

The Go Lean book and blogs posit that the problems of the Caribbean are too big for any one member-state to tackle alone; rather there is the need for a regional technocratic solution; thus the CU. Only then can all 30 Caribbean member-states in the homeland be a better place to live, work and play for all of its stakeholders: 42 million residents; 80 million visitors; 10 million Diaspora; countless Foreign Direct Investors.

The CU, applying best-practices for advanced governance and agile deliveries would facilitate 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.
Improve Caribbean governance, with consideration for minority equalization, to support these engines.

How exactly can the CU impact the citizenship/nationality practices in the region?

The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, stressed key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies necessary to effect change in the region, to improve the regional stewardship over Caribbean society. They are detailed as follows:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives	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 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development – Invited SGE’s	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Integrate region into a Single Market Economy	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Invite empowering immigrants for economic benefits	Page 46
Strategy – Customers – Foreign Direct Investors	Page 48
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Justice	Page 77
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of State – SGE’s & One Percent Liaison	Page 80
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Ideal for FDI	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid – CariCom versus CU	Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region – Confederation without Sovereignty	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image	Page 133
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Guard against Encroachments	Page 134
Planning – Ways to Measure Progress	Page 147
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Failed-State Indices Movements	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – FDI Time, Talent & Treasuries	Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Federal Accountability	Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights	Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the One Percent	Page 224
Appendix – Failed State Indicators and Definitions for the CU	Page 271

All of the Caribbean needs to deal with these domestic issues … now! But some issues, due to image, public relations or quest for justice, should be managed with special care.

In the legal arena – juris prudence – there is an arrangement referred to as a Special Prosecutor. This allows for a detached, objective view of issues of Justice. (In the US for many decades, Naturalization and Citizenship processing was managed by the federal Department of Justice).

The Go Lean/CU roadmap has a similar proposed solution: facilitating the Proxy and e-Government processing at the CU level on behalf of member-states – thereby removing the subjectivity and bias to the citizenship/nationality process. Each state sets their criteria and the CU technocracy simply provides the processing, with full accountability and transparency; no appearance of bribery, corruption and creating eligible voters just in time for elections. Already there is an eco-system with the issuance of CariCom passports. Step One/Day One of the Go Lean roadmap is the assembly of CariCom organs into the CU Trade Federation. Any one passport issued by a CariCom country is automatically respected by other CariCom countries. So “mind your own business” cannot be considered a valid response.

If Caribbean people want change, progress, empowerment, growth, jobs, justice, security and equality, then this move of deputizing “nationality process” to the federal level is simply the “price that must be paid”.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is Big Deal for the region as real solutions can finally be realized. Then we can present to the world that while the Caribbean homeland is Not For Sale, it is truly a better place to live, work, and play. 🙂

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

————

^# Appendix: Failed-State Indicators & Definitions

a. UED – Uneven Economic Development Along Group Lines

When there are ethnic, religious, or regional disparities or inequalities, governments tend to be uneven in their commitment to the social contract. There may be group-based inequality, or perceived inequality, in areas like education and economic opportunities. Uneven economic empowerments are manifest in group-based impoverishments as measured by poverty levels, infant mortality rates, educational levels, etc. The end result may be the rise of communal nationalism, based on real or perceived group inequalities.

This indicator include pressures and measures related to:

Income Share of Highest 10%; Income Share of Lowest 10%; Urban-Rural Service Distribution; Slum Population

b. FE – Rise of Factionalized Elites

When local and national leaders engage in deadlock and brinksmanship for political gain, this undermines the social contract. The brinkmanship may be expressed with nationalistic political rhetoric by ruling elites, often in terms of communal irredentism (e.g., a “greater Serbia” to annex neighboring lands with Serbian ethnics) or of communal solidarity (e.g., “ethnic cleansing” or “defending the faith”). With the absence of legitimate leadership widely accepted as representing the entire citizenry, the result may be fragmentation of ruling elites and state institutions along ethnic, class, clan, racial or religious lines.

This indicator include pressures and measures related to:

Power Struggles; Defectors; Flawed Elections; Political Competition.

^$ Appendix VIDEO: Henley & Partners – The Firm of Global Citizens – http://youtu.be/XoBcb4qLn1s

Published on May 7, 2014 – Henley & Partners is the global leader in residence and citizenship planning … The firm also runs an industry-leading government advisory practice.

Share this post:

Foreign Policy, Image, Power, Transform

[Top]