We are now mid-way through the 2015 Summer Movie Season. There have been some BIG ONES. The following is the highest Box Office performance of summer movies thus far in the US alone:
In a previous blog/commentary regarding Caribbean Diaspora member and Hollywood great, Sidney Poitier, it was declared that …
“Movies are an amazing business model. People give money to spend a couple of hours watching someone else’s creation and then leave the theater with nothing to show for the investment; except perhaps a different perspective”.
This foregoing statement sets the foundation for appreciation of one movie in particular from the foregoing list, Disney’s Tomorrowland: A World Beyond which admonishes us to:
Feed the right wolf.
There are two wolves. One bright and hopeful and one dark and cynical. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed.
This quotation from the movie aligns with the reality of the Caribbean – art imitating life. The region is in crisis due to calamities and socio-economic changes in the region … and globally. The region has not even kept pace with the “push-and-pull” factors drawing many Caribbean citizens to flee…and abandon their beloved homelands. Already that brain drain among the college-educated population is up to a 70% rate among the entire region, with some communities experiencing alarmingly higher rates: Jamaica 85%; Guyana 89%.
The region is now at the cross-roads: maintain the status quo and watch the societal abandonment and decline continue (dark and cynical) … or … foster change and grant the Caribbean region a new (bright and hopeful) future.
Which wolf/future will win?
The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts the option of fostering a bright and hopeful future. It provides turn-by-turn directions on how to arrest the societal abandonment and elevate the region’s economic, security and governing engines.
The book describes how/when/why to feed the right wolf!
This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic agency seen as the Caribbean’s best hope to avert the current path of disaster, human flight and brain drain, and grant the Caribbean a meaningful future for its youth.
“Find the ones who haven’t given up. They are the future.” So says George Clooney at the end of Brad Bird’s latest Disney offering Tomorrowland, inspired as much by Disney’s ubiquitous theme parks (from which it derives its inspiration) as it does Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and … Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
In fact, this may be the first children’s film that directly addresses – so darkly, so interestingly, so strangely – global warming among other mankind-created global calamities. I can’t recall the last kiddie flick that depicted so darn many mushroom clouds, or had such a nihilistic sentiment at its gooey center. Good for Brad Bird.
Clearly a passion project for the director, the film suffers, alas, from a narrative lumpiness. It is composed almost like a junior novella, with very abrupt chapter breaks, and an unclear sense of the overall purpose until the crackerjack final act.
Regardless, the journey is an entertaining and worthwhile one, at least philosophically. As I find myself personally at a crossroads in life – looking back at what erroneously seemed an idyllic small-town, all-American way-of-life and now dreaming of a much-needed present/future state when we all can embrace empathy, kindness, and love, regardless our geographically defined boundaries – the film hit a raw nerve for me.
Ostensibly, the film is about Britt Robertson’s Casey Newton, a young, overeager space-loving kid horrified that America has given up on all dreams of galactic exploration. Casey discovers a magic pin that gives her glimpses of a sparkling utopia where we all live hand-in-hand, driving electric cars, zipping to-and-fro in bullet shaped sky-trains, and all wearing flowing garb designed in collaboration between Vera Wang and Judy Jetson (?). (Oh, and everybody in the future is fit. No fast food, no gluten, and, yeah, I bet vegan. Go figure.)
In truth? The film is really about George Clooney’s Frank Walker, a bright-eyed young boy born of nuclear optimism now a middle-aged sot calcified by millennial atrophy. He sees a world that he hoped would be (pushed to be), its limitless potential now squandered by petty greed and intentional hate. The classic baby boomer dilemma.
Casey sparks a reluctant optimism in Frank, as they meet cute, amidst a gaggle of murderous robots blowing up Frank’s steampunk farmhouse. They travel to Tomorrowland in hopes of preventing global catastrophe. Tomorrowland, you see, is an alternate dimension designed as a free-thinking societal construct, intended to gather humanity’s best and brightest in order to effect great change, but now turned to seed. Hugh Laurie, all glowering smarm, is its chief magistrate.
Robertson, who unfortunately has the acting range of a peanut, mugs and screams shamelessly, but Clooney with his oily charm is the perfect antidote. It takes quite a bit of screen time for him to finally emerge, but when he does the film starts firing on all cylinders.
Tomorrowland (the place … in the film) is a marvel of design, taking many cues from but never limited by the aesthetic of Disney’s theme park Tomorrowland(s) as well as the original designs for EPCOT – all swooping spirals, glittering towers, and burnished concrete.
As I understand it, Walt Disney and Ray Bradbury were pals, and they and their creative legacies share a similar take on the “future,” a concept as nebulous as it is thrilling. For these mid-century marvels, the future is a pearly veneer with a toxic venom ever curdling underneath. Both men telegraphed a healthy agnosticism and distrust of humanity – see Bambi, for one – with a deep desire to see us collectively rise above our own insularity and self-absorption … once and for all. Fat chance.
Brad Bird does a fine job capturing and forwarding this idea in Tomorrowland. The film is not perfect, a bit tedious at times, but it is a worthwhile summer blockbuster exercise in challenging how stunted we have become. At one point Casey says something to this effect: “There are two wolves. One bright and hopeful and one dark and cynical. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed. Feed the right wolf.”
The Go Lean roadmap synchronizes with the theme of the movie Tomorrowland. On Page 21, Go Lean presents a series of community ethos – the fundamental spirit that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a society – that must be adapted to forge change in the Caribbean; listed as follows:
Impact the Future (Page 26)
Impact the Greater Good (Page 37)
Life imitating art; art imitating life.
This is what movies help us to appreciate; many times, they allow us to look at ourselves and take a retrospective view. Which wolf are we feeding?
The CU/Go Lean roadmap seeks to forge change on Caribbean society with a new level of collaboration to contend with global/regional threats and to fix the defective societal engines. In fact, the prime directives of the CU/Go Lean roadmap are pronounced as these declarative statements:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book opens with a quest for regional integration, with the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 14), including these pronouncements:
i. Whereas the earth’s climate has undeniably changed resulting in more severe tropical weather storms, it is necessary to prepare to insure the safety and security of life, property and systems of commerce in our geographical region. As nature recognizes no borders in the target of its destruction, we also must set aside border considerations in the preparation and response to these weather challenges.
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.
The Go Lean book accepts the premise that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste (Page 8), that these challenging circumstances allow people of goodwill – as conveyed in the foregoing movie review/article: “the ones who haven’t given up … they are the future” – to emerge and forge the necessary improvements in society. These previous blog/commentaries have also drilled deeper on this vision and opportunity for change now. See the list here:
Ailing Caribbean island open to radical economic fixes
The Go Lean roadmap asserts that change must come to the Caribbean. But the book posits that this burden is too big for any one Caribbean member-state alone, and thus the collaboration efforts of the CU is necessary, as the strategy is to confederate all the 30 member-states of the Caribbean into an integrated “Single Market” – this is the only viable solution.
This is how we “feed the wolf” that is representing a bright and hopeful future.
The following list details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to “feed the right wolf”:
Community Ethos – Forging Change
Page 20
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Strategy – Strategy – Caribbean Vision
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Growing the Caribbean Economy to $800 Billion
Page 67
Tactical – Separation of Powers – CU Agencies versus Member-States
Page 71
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Was to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Global Box Office – Imitating Life
Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Appendix – Hollywood Box Office Model
Page 345
Considering the review of the movie in the foregoing article, we see that Caribbean “life can imitate art” of that movie. The moral of that story can be an inspiration for us all in the region. This vision is conceivable, believable and achievable!
The Go Lean roadmap has a simple motive: enable the Caribbean to be a better place to live, work and play. If not now then for the future, for our Tomorrowland. 🙂
“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” – Classic Murphy’s Law!
The age of technology has overcome us; computerized systems are impacting every aspect of modern life.
This is good!
This is bad!
The famous criminal Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks, and his response was simple, eloquent, and humorous:
Because that’s where the money is.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that wherever and whenever there is economic prosperity, “bad actors” will always emerge. This fact should be no surprise; it should be expected forthright. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU would function as a facilitator for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean, charged to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the region. There will be the need to facilitate the full breadth and depth of Information & Communications Technologies (ICT).
The “bad actors” or threats to societal engines could be intentional or accidental, man-made or natural. This is duly documented in the current news story of heightened computer glitches that have disrupted major players in the American business eco-system … on the same day.
This has disrupted the business as usual. Is it chance or is it choice?
This is yet to be ascertained; see the news article here:
Title: NYSE re-opens after trading stopped amid United Airlines, WSJ.com tech issues Reporting by: Kylie MacLellan; Editing by: Dominic Evans
Trading was halted for more than two hours on the New York Stock Exchange floor Wednesday after an internal technical issue was detected – which then set off speculation that a cyber-glitch at United Airlines and a temporary online outage at the Wall Street Journal newspaper were connected.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama had been briefed on the glitch that took out trading on the floor of the NYSE by White House counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and chief of staff Denis McDonough.
He also said despite indications that it was not a cyber-breach, the administration was “keenly aware of the risk that exists in cyber space right now.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson tried to allay fears, saying, “It appears from what we know at this stage that the malfunctions at United and at the stock exchange were not the result of any nefarious actor.”
He added, “We know less about the Wall Street Journal at this point except that their system is back up again as is the United Airline system.”
The CU/Go Lean roadmap provides for comprehensive oversight in this arena of ICT; to protect against bad actors and bad happenstance.
The overriding theme of the foregoing news article is that cyber-security is not automatic, and not easy; it takes heavy-lifting on behalf of skilled stakeholders to ensure the appropriate protections are in place. The Go Lean roadmap asserts that some empowerments for the Caribbean may be too big for any one member-state alone; that there will be the need for a deputized technocracy like the CU to provide the remediation and mitigations for regional progress. The roadmap calls for vesting the CU with the authority to establish and execute a comprehensive security apparatus that also covers cyber-threats and computer glitches.
The Go Lean book relates (Page 127) how ICT can be a great equalizer in competition with the rest of the world. This embrace of ICT must include e-Government (outsourcing and in-sourcing for member-states systems) and e-Delivery, Mobile, Social Media, Postal/Electronic Mail, e-Learning and wireline/wireless/satellite initiatives.
In fact, this the Go Lean book posits that mastery of these technology endeavors are necessary to fulfill the CU prime directives, defined by 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, authorized by a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance, including a separation-of-powers between CU federal agencies and member-states governments, to support these engines.
The book contends, and this foregoing news report confirms, that bad actors and/or bad happenstance will always emerge to disrupt business as usual in the region. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:
x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.
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.
xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.
So while the CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, with a heavy emphasis of technology, the Go Lean roadmap posits that the security dynamics (and cyber-security) of the region must also be embedded with federal oversight.
The Go Lean strategy of confederating a unified entity made up of the Caribbean to provide homeland security and intelligence gathering-and-analysis for the Caribbean, allows for a one-stop solution for regional assurances. Homeland Security for our Caribbean homeland has a different scope than for our American counterparts. Though we must be on defense against military intrusions like terrorism & piracy, we mostly have had to contend with natural and man-made concerns like hurricanes, earthquakes, oil/chemical spills and narco-terrorism. But now we must also add these cyber-threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, like tourism. These cyber-attacks and breaches can undermine the integrity of our institutions and establishments, as previously reported in this prior blog/commentary:
… imagine a “hack” that harvests credit card account numbers used at area hotels; if those fall into the wrong hands, the experience could tarnish the goodwill of the Caribbean brand.
Considering this threatening “what if” scenario described here or the actual incidences in the foregoing news article, there is the need to be on alert against this ‘Clear and Present Danger’.
The Caribbean appointing “new guards” – a security pact or Homeland Security Department – to ensure public safety includes many strategies, tactics and implementations considered “best-practices”. The Homeland Security Department must be on a constant vigil against “bad actors”, man-made or natural. This necessitate being pro-active in monitoring, mitigating and managing risks. Then when “crap” does happen, the “new guards” will be prepared for any “Clear and Present Danger“. The Go Lean book describes an organization structure with Emergency Management functionality, including Unified Command-and-Control for Caribbean Disaster Response, Anti-crime, enterprise corruption, corporate governance and military preparedness.
These incidences create the need for intelligence gathering and analysis to manage the right resource for the right time and right place. (The same as buildings with elevators must get and maintain appropriate “permits”, the Go Lean‘s corporate governance vision calls for IT and Data Center Best-Practice compliance). The Go Lean roadmap thusly calls for a permanent professional security force plus a robust intelligence (including cyber-security) agency. The CU Trade Federation will lead, fund and facilitate this security effort from “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap, with the full facilitation and accountability.
This security effort is defined in the Go Lean book and blog commentaries as Unified Command-and-Control (UCC). The book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to establish and succeed with Unified Command-and-Control in the Caribbean region:
Economic Principle – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection
Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering
Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens
Page 23
Community Ethos – Cooperatives
Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing
Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Tactical – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Treasury Department – Publicly Traded Corporate Governance
Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security – Unified Command & Control
Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management
Implementation – 10 Trends in Implementing Data Centers
Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – www.myCaribbean.gov
Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid – Aid to Security Apparatus
Page 115
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization
Page 119
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #3: Homeland Security Pact
Page 127
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #8: Cyber Caribbean Equalization
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Model the EU – Sharing
Page 130
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Intelligence
Page 134
Planning – Lessons from East Germany – Regional Security
Page 139
Planning – Lessons from the American West – Law & Order Mitigated Wild-West
Page 142
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Better Corporate Governance
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership
Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime
Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Gun Control
Page 179
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism
Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis
Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters
Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Ensure Better Corporate Governance
Page 200
Appendix – Model of Cutting-edge Data Center
Page 285
Appendix – Emergency Management for Information Technology Continuity
Page 338
Other subjects related to ICT, security empowerments and UCC for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:
10 Things We Want from the US: #5 – Intelligence Gathering
Cyber-security is now a constant threat globally – see Appendix* below – with headlines emerging almost daily. There are also film and TV shows with plot-lines that parallel this commentary; “art is now imitating life”.
Since the threat of computer glitches can disrupt everyday life, this subject area must now be assumed in the Social Contract between Caribbean citizens and their governments. Cyber-security is too big for any one Caribbean member-state to tackle alone, so rather, shifting the responsibility to the region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy of the CU will result in greater production and greater accountability. This mission aligns with the quest to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play.
The Caribbean region cannot allow a few “bad actors”, high-tech or low-tech, to disrupt the peace and integrity of Caribbean institutions. Everyone – residents, Diaspora, visitors, businesses and governments – are hereby urged to lean-in to this plan for confederacy, collaboration and convention, the Go Lean roadmap. 🙂
The New York Stock Exchange came to a standstill for nearly four hours Wednesday and hours earlier, the computer system for United Airlines also froze. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Here a prediction for Greece: Things will get worse before they get worse!
This commentary has previously asserted that there are 3 kinds of people in the world:
1. Those who make things happen 2. Those who watch things happen 3. Those who wonder “What happened?”
Many people are now waking up to the harsh realities that a Failed-State – Greece – is emerging, right in front of their eyes. Unfortunately, this applies to people in the Caribbean as well.
On Sunday (July 5, 2015), a referendum was put to the Greek people to vote whether to accept further bail-out monies with harsh austerity measures from the international community … or go at it alone. They chose the latter!
Now they are waking up to the reality that the “cupboards are bare”; and many international trading partners will not trade with them. Many people are now wondering “What happened?”
See the news article here (and a related VIDEO from just before the referendum) conveying the harsh realities that many in Greece are now faced with:
Title: The economic consequences of Syriza By: C.R. and S.N. | London And Athens
AFTER the party in Syntagma Square celebrating the landslide victory for the “no” campaign in Sunday’s referendum comes the hangover. They went wild “because we are tired of everything, from all the lies, from paying for the rich, and from years of austerity, especially for young”, as one partying Athenian told us. To be fair, with youth unemployment rates of over 50%, many have had little to celebrate for a long time. Young Greeks support the aggressive stance taken towards the country’s lenders by Syriza and its leader, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tspiras, whose position in domestic politics has been strengthened as a result of the referendum.
But two days after the close of the polls the fact remains that Greece’s real economy is in a mess. Capital controls imposed after Mr Tsipras called the referendum on June 26th have kept banks closed. Ordinary Greeks have been limited to cash withdrawals from ATMs of just €60 ($67) a day (which is now in effect down to €50 as smaller notes have disappeared from circulation). Many cash machines in Athens have run completely out of money.
Firms have also been hit particularly hard. Foreign bank transfers have been banned by the Greek government, with few exceptions. Greek credit is no longer accepted outside the country. That has hit firms that rely on foreign credit to import goods, as well as the Greek tourists who found themselves stranded when their credit cards stopped working. Supplies of food and some medicines are running short (see picture); a black market for cancer drugs has even emerged. As we reported on Sunday:
Greece relies almost entirely on foreign imports for its pharmaceutical supplies. But since capital controls imposed last Sunday brought the country’s banking system to a sudden halt, some suppliers have stopped delivering key medication because they cannot get paid…As things stand, she has another week’s worth of insulin in stock for diabetics but will then have to start turning her patients away. “Do you know what that means?” she asks, trying to keep a proud face, “Do you know what insulin does?”
Unsurprisingly, as a result, Greek economic growth—which began to falter shortly after Syriza came to power in January—has collapsed. Consumption has slumped by 70% since capital controls were imposed, according to the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce, a business group. Individuals and firms are hoarding cash at the same time that essential goods are becoming unavailable—a toxic mix for any economy. The decision taken yesterday by the European Central Bank—to keep in place the cap on emergency lending to Greek banks, and to increase the discount applied on Greek bonds accepted as collateral—will tighten the short-run financial crunch.
Greece is running short of time; in the next few days either a new deal will be done that allows the ECB to reopen the liquidity spigots or bank failures will lead to Grexit. In either case, the damage done by this period of uncertainty and financial drought will be severe.
Economic history suggests that economies can be surprisingly resilient when hit by shocks, such as the temporary imposition of capital controls or a reduction in the supply capacity of the economy. The Cypriot economy, for instance, started to grow again just one year after it imposed capital controls in 2013. And as Britain’s experience of general strikes indicates, temporary one- or two-week supply disruptions do not tend to have much impact on output after about a year. Leaving a single currency may also not be a complete disaster; countries such as Ireland (which left the British pound in 1928) have managed it before. And many countries ditching fixed-exchange rates—such as Britain in 1931 and 1992—exited long recessions almost immediately after they bit the bullet.
But there are three main reasons why economists think that the Greek economy will be wounded for far longer than other unfortunates. First, current uncertainty is probably damaging future demand as well as current demand; future tourist bookings have fallen by around a third since capital controls were imposed, for instance, which matters greatly given that the sector produces almost one-sixth of the country’s GDP. And with summer bookings so vital, the likely conclusion of the crisis in early July could not have been timed worse. Second, most countries that experience fast recoveries from supply-side shocks and fixed-exchange rate exits are able to count on a solvent and liquid banking system, which is needed in order to fund investment and growth through loans.
But Greece’s, which is about to collapse because of capital controls and deposit flight, is in a less comfortable position. The speedy introduction of new economic reforms post-Grexit, combined with capable macroeconomic management, could nonetheless cushion the Greek economy against the worst effects of exit and lead to a rapid bounceback. Yet few outside Greece reckon that the Syriza government has the inclination or competence to execute the transition smoothly and responsibly. Whatever Greece’s political fate, its economy is bound to get much worse before it gets better.
Source: The Economist Magazine – Online Edition – July 6, 2015 http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/07/greeces-economy
Published on Jul 3, 2015 – For the past five years, Greece has been struggling with a financial crisis that has led the country to the brink of an exit from the euro and an economic collapse.
Add this word to your vocabulary: Grexit; meaning a Greek Exit from the European Union.
This experience in Greece is a cautionary tale for the Caribbean, as so many aspects of Greek life parallel those of the Caribbean:
The harsh reality of Greece is a reminder of another crisis, the Great Recession of 2008. The events this week – with the referendum – mirrors September 15, 2008 when the American Investment Bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, thus bringing the US (and the world’s economy) to the brink of disaster. This 2008 consideration is part-and-parcel of the book Go Lean…Caribbean which serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to provide new oversight for the Caribbean region’s economic, security and governing engines. The book was conceived as a result of this 2008 crisis, by stakeholders intimate with the anatomy of the 2008 crisis – People who make things happen – and composed from a position of strength, while in the location of one of the most successful communities to endure the Great Recession crisis: Omaha, Nebraska.
The pretext of the Go Lean roadmap is simple, and applies equally to Greece and the Caribbean:
The lessons learned, and codified, in the pages of the Go Lean book can now be enhanced with the examination of the realities of Greece. This examination must consider the reality of the economic, security and governing aspects of Greek society.
This country now has new leadership – the political party Syrizawas swept into office on 25 January 2015 – trying to forge change in a dysfunctional environment. Until recently, the Minister of Finance for this sovereign nation was Yanis Varoufakis. (He resigned on July 5th, after the passage of the Referendum). To project transparency, Mr. Varoufakis presented the arguments in favor of their request for more compromise from the European Central Bank, the IMF, and other creditors demanding more austerity from Greece; he vocalized the following:
Our political mandate is to find an honourable, workable compromise. Is it so difficult to do so? We do not think so. A few days ago Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s Chief Economist published a piece entitled ‘Greece: A Credible Deal Will Require Difficult Decisions by All Sides.’ He is right, the three operative words being ‘by all sides’. Dr Blanchard added that: “At the core of the negotiations is a simple question. How much of an adjustment has to be made by Greece, how much has to be made by its official creditors?”
That Greece needs to adjust there is no doubt. The question, however, is not how much adjustment Greece needs to make. It is, rather, what kind of adjustment. If by ‘adjustment’ we mean fiscal consolidation, wage and pension cuts, and tax rate increases, it is clear we [Greece] have done more of that than any other country in peacetime.
The public sector’s structural, or cyclically adjusted, fiscal deficit turned into a surplus on the back of a ‘world record beating’ 20% adjustment
Wages fell by 37%
Pensions were reduced by up to 48%
State employment diminished by 30%
Consumer spending was curtailed by 33%
Even the nation’s chronic current account deficit dropped by 16%.
No one can say that Greece has not adjusted to its new, post-2008, circumstances. But what we can say is that gigantic adjustment, whether necessary or not, has produced more problems than it solved:
Aggregate real GDP fell by 27% while nominal GDP continued to fall quarter-in-quarter-out for 18 quarters non-stop to this day
Unemployment skyrocketed to 27%
Undeclared labour reached 34%
Banks are labouring under non-performing loans that exceed 40% in value
Public debt has exceeded 180% of GDP
Young well-qualified people are abandoning Greece in droves
Poverty, hunger and energy deprivation have registered increases usually associated with a state at war
Mr. Varoufakis’ appeal has been rejected. Greece is now at the precipice. They are willing to change and correct many inequities. But maybe, this is too little, too late? They want to work to build up their communities, not necessarily build up their neighboring countries. They are willing to accept the Grexit.
In this status quo is the primary lesson for the Caribbean. Are we now willing to change and correct the inequities in our society?
The Go Lean book declares: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” – quoting noted Economist Paul Romer. The opportunity exists now to forge change in the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, as this cautionary guidance is gleaned from the Greek crisis.
The roadmap calls for a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean into a Single Market of 42 million people; thereby allow an adequate size to absorb economic shocks and downward trends. The Go Lean roadmap provides the details for the creation of 2.2 million new jobs and GDP growth to accumulate to $800 Billion. This vision is at the root of the Go Lean roadmap, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):
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 following details from the book Go Lean … Caribbean are the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to effect the turn-around of the Caribbean societal engines – to learn from Greece:
Who We Are – SFE Foundation and 2008 Role
Page 8
Anecdote: Puerto Rico – The Greece of the Caribbean
Page 18
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Money Multiplier
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds
Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 Member-States into a Single Market
Page 47
Strategy – Mission – Build and foster local economic engines
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Fortify the stability of our mediums of exchange
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Dissuade further Brain Drain
Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union
Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Implementation – Assemble all Member-States
Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up
Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt
Page 114
Planning – Ways to Model the European Union (EU)
Page 130
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices
Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from Omaha
Page 138
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class
Page 223
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba
Page 236
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti
Page 238
Appendix – Caribbean Failed-State Indicators and Definitions
Page 271
Greece will become a Failed-State before it is all said-and-done. We hope that this country, and their European neighbors, can secure their society to assure peace and the protection of human rights.
Greece will recover…eventually! Their disposition will go from bad to worse – see Appendix VIDEO – but then they can reboot, much like Cyprus did just recently, as detailed in the foregoing news article. Take their tourism for example:
Travel and tourism contributed a total of €28.3 billion ($31.3 billion) to the economy in 2013—or 16.3% of GDP. But after one to two years, after the country returns to local drachma currency and it stabilizes after devaluation, destinations in Greece will be cheaper than its competitors. This will eventually be an advantage. – http://www.economist.com/node/21657058
Greece will be a European Failed-State … and will “bounce-back” … eventually.
We also have Failed-States in the Caribbean: Think: Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba; plus a host of countries just slightly behind them. We have to foster our own turn-around strategies for our region.
The Go Lean roadmap declares that the responsibility for fixing the Caribbean though must fall first-and-foremost on the Caribbean, its people and institutions.
The Caribbean must also reboot and “bounce back”; to “step back from the precipice”. The effort is not easy; the Go Lean book describes it as heavy-lifting. But the returns will be worth the investment. This is true for Greece … and the Caribbean.
This is the goal of the Go Lean roadmap: not to wonder what happened, or watch things happen, but rather to make the things happen … that make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
Poor economic conditions are forcing a brain drain among a country’s professionals. Yes, we understand all too well.
This is the crisis for Greece! This is the crisis for the Caribbean, as well!
This is a consistent theme in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book posits that the events in Greece are relevant for the Caribbean, North America and the world economy as a whole. What’s worse is that many Caribbean member-states are in the same situation.
Greece is the weak link in the Eurozone; it is inching closer to defaulting on its debt. The country has been in a long standoff with its European creditors on the terms of a multibillion-dollar bailout. If the country goes bankrupt or decides to leave the 19-nation Eurozone, the Greek debt crisis could create instability in the region and reverberate around the globe. (Since this debt crisis began in 2010, most international banks and foreign investors have sold their Greek bonds and other holdings; they are not as vulnerable to what happens in Greece now).
“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” – states the Go Lean book quoting noted Economist Paul Romer. The opportunity therefore exists to forge change in the economic, security and governing engines of communities, in response to crises.
This story (see VIDEO below) shows that the rest of the world are all paying attention to this crisis in Greece, but few are thinking of the impact on the professional classes. This is of paramount interest to the planners of a new Caribbean, the publishers of the Go Lean book. The purpose of the book is to position the region at the corner of preparation and opportunity, so as to benefit from change. The issue from this article is more pressing for the Caribbean, as we share, as a region, a very high brain drain/emigration rate, estimated at 70%. See article here and VIDEO below:
Greece is in the midst of the worst brain drain in modern history, experts say.
“This is unprecedented in terms of the numbers of educated people that are leaving,” said Lois Labrianidis, a professor of economic geography at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki.
The country is hemorrhaging talent, as professionals in medicine, engineering and academics flee for a better economic climate and more stable employment. The pain has been particularly severe in the health care sector of Greece: Many of the country’s doctors have left or are making plans to do so.
“I don’t feel safe and secure for the future of my family here,” said Spyridon Kotsaris, an Athens orthopedic surgeon who has been planning for months to leave Greece with his wife and two daughters, preferably to Germany or Switzerland.
“We want a better life,” he said. “A better life means we are all together and feel more secure.”
In all, nearly 300,000 people have left Greece since 2010, nearly 3 percent of the country’s population before the crisis, according to government statistics. That includes as many as 5,000 doctors, with about 3,500 of them ending up in Germany, where Europe’s financial crisis has had less impact.
“It’s not that big of a concern for me financially, because I work in Germany,” said Alexios Theodorou, a Greek general surgeon working at a hospital in Gummersbach in North Rhine-Westphalia. Mr. Theodorou left Greece five years ago, as the crisis was beginning.
“My paycheck is secured,” he said. “But that doesn’t make my concern about the future any less, as I have much family in Greece. Greece is where I still call home.”
In some ways, the loss of so much young talent may be more devastating to Greece in the long term than abandoning the euro, if that happens. That has left some who sought a better life feeling increasingly bittersweet about the decision to leave.
“I feel sad seeing my country going through this rough time,” Mr. Theodorou said. “We, the people who left, are not to blame for the situation, but we sometimes feel guilty that we are leaving, that we left the people there to handle their problems.”
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a super-national institution with federal powers to forge change in the Caribbean region. One mission is incentivizing the return of the far-flung Caribbean Diaspora. Another mission is to dissuade further human flight/brain drain. The numbers don’t lie: we need population growth not population contraction.
The CU recognizes that the population numbers must work in favor of societal progress. Greece has lost 3% of its population since the start of this crisis in 2010, so this negative trend cannot be understated. There are many social safety nets that depend of the actuarial fact of population expansion, not contraction. Consider unemployment and pensions: for unemployment, workers pay into a fund and the temporarily unemployed file claims against that fund. Likewise with pensions: young workers pay into a fund, and the older-retired workers draw claims against that fund.
Thus, population contractions are definitely among the indices for a Failed-State status (Page 271).
The confederation of the CU is a reversal of the unfortunate trends inflicted on the Caribbean. The vision is to forge a Single Market of 42 million people in the 30 Caribbean member-states. Then the Go Lean roadmap provides the details for the creation of 2.2 million new jobs and GDP growth to accumulate to $800 Billion. This vision is at the root of the Go Lean roadmap, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):
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.
According to the foregoing New York Times article and the VIDEO below, Greece is in “hot water”. They need a remediation plan. Go Lean is the plan … for the Caribbean, not Greece. But we get to apply lessons learned from the experiences in Greece.
The following details from the book Go Lean … Caribbean are the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies prescribed to manifest the reboot and empowerment efforts for the Caribbean economy, society and life in general:
Who We Are – SFE Foundation and 2008 Role
Page 8
Anecdote: Puerto Rico – The Greece of the Caribbean
Page 18
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Money Multiplier
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds
Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 Member-States into a Single Market
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy – Greek Sovereign Debt Case Study
Page 64
Implementation – Assemble all Member-States
Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change
Page 101
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate
Page 118
Planning – Ways to Model the European Union (EU)
Page 130
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices
Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008
Page 136
Planning – Lessons Learned from East Germany – Eventuality of Failed-States
Page 139
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit – The Need for Turn-around
Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Entitlements – Austerity Lessons
Page 158
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – Euro-Zone Budget Deficits Model
Page 168
Advocacy – Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Impact the Diaspora
Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class – Enforce the Social Contract
Page 223
Appendix – Failed-State Indicators and Definitions
Page 271
Broken economies can be fixed!
This is not the first economic crisis to be observed-and-reported on by Go Lean planners. The Go Lean book is a product of 2008 Financial Crisis and Great Recession. From this fallout, this roadmap was composed, by individuals intimate with the details of the crisis … and its causes; (Page 8). Their motivation: love of homeland.
While love of the Caribbean homeland is a strong motivator – as Greek expatriates in the below VIDEO express love of their homeland – the realities of a broken economy will still cause a brain drain. These flight-abandonment realities creates the need for a societal reboot in economics, security and governance. This is the quest of Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap, to reboot the region’s societal engines; employing best-practices and better strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives, identified with these statements:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate challenges/threats to the region’s public safety.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
There are many Go Lean blog/commentaries that have echoed these points of societal abandonment. Here is a sample of related commentaries:
From the cradle-to-the-grave, the needs of a community – whether it is in the Caribbean, Greece or anywhere – cannot be casually dismissed. A crisis ensues, people respond, they make a choice: fight or flight.
In Greece, despite this great beauty, they are choosing flight:
In the Caribbean too!
We can do better! We must do better. Though success is not guaranteed, it can be forged with the adoption and application of best-practices. This requires the full participation – time, talent and treasuries – of all stakeholders: residents and Diaspora alike. This effort is not easy, but rather strenuous; the Go Lean book calls it “heavy-lifting”.
Strenuous, heavy-lifting – Yes – but the returns are worth the effort: making the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
This is the goal of the Go Lean roadmap. Everyone is urged to lean-in! 🙂
In part of a large brain drain that could affect Greece for decades, thousands of doctors have left the nation for Germany since the financial crisis began five years ago.
Perhaps this was arguable in the past? Today? Hardly … see VIDEO here; (excuse the profanity):
VIDEO: America, the Greatest? –
Published on Oct 21, 2012 – Jeff Daniels, who portrays news anchor Will McAvoy in the HBO Series “The Newsroom”, delivered a stunning, hard-hitting, accurate, and intelligent monologue/response when asked why America is the greatest country in the world. A sobering outlook on the state of the USA. (CAUTION ON THE ADULT LANGUAGE).
Even in the past when the “Greatest” label was arguable, it didn’t apply to everyone! America was the Greatest Country, maybe, if you were:
White, Anglo-Saxon, Rich, Male and Straight
But if you were any of the following, then God help you:
Yes, building a multi-cultural society is not easy. The book Go Lean … Caribbean describes the challenge as heavy-lifting. America has failed at this challenge, hands-down. In previous blog- commentaries, many defects of American life were detailed, (including the propensity for Crony-Capitalism). See the list of defects here: Housing, education, job hunting, prisons, drug crime prosecutions, and racial profiling.
But despite this list and the reality of this subject, America tries …
This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried.
The social science of Anthropology teaches that communities have two choices when confronted with endangering crises: fight or flight. The unfortunate reality is that we have chosen the option of flight; (we have no ethos for fighting for our homeland).
The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that no society can prosper with a high abandonment rate – reported at 70% for educated classes. The primary mission of the Go Lean book is to “battle” against the “push-and-pull” factors that draw so many of our Caribbean citizens away from their homelands to go to the US. While we cannot change/fix America, we can…
Lower the “push” factors!
The purpose of the Go Lean book is to fix the Caribbean, to be better than America. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to pursue the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through empowerments in economics, security and governance. It is the assertion that Caribbean citizens can stay home and effect change in their homelands more effectively than going to America to find the “Greatest Country in the World”. The book therefore asserts that the region can turn-around from failing assessments by applying best-practices, and forging new societal institutions to impact the Greater Good for all the Caribbean. This point was pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 10 – 14) with these acknowledgements and statements:
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.
xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like … Detroit, Indian (Native American) Reservations… On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/ communities like New York City, … Canada, the old American West and tenants of the US Constitution.
This is the quest of Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap, to reboot the region’s societal engines; employing best-practices and better strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate challenges/threats to the region’s public safety.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book stresses key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of Caribbean society. These points are detailed in the book as follows:
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states/ 4 languages into a Single Market
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Build and foster local economic engines
Page 45
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy to $800 Billion GDP
Page 68
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance
Page 71
Implementation – Assemble All Regionally-focus Organizations of All Caribbean Communities
Page 96
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – American Model:Kennedy’s Quest for the Moon
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better
Page 131
Planning – Lessons Learned New York City – Managing as a “Frienemy”
Page 137
Planning – Lessons Learned from Detroit – Turn-around from Failure
Page 140
Planning – Lessons Learned from Indian Reservations – Pattern of Ethnic Oppression
Page 141
Planning – Lessons Learned from the American West – How to Win the Peace
Page 142
Planning – Lessons Learned from the US Constitution – America Tries – Each Generation Improves
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 Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
The threats of the repressive American past have not always been domestic; there have been times when American dysfunction have reached across borders, including Caribbean countries, and disrupted the peace and progress. This is an important lessons for the Caribbean to learn from considering the history of “American Greatness”; the following previous blog/commentaries apply:
Travel away from your children for an extended time period and you would notice something amazing: Change.
It turns out that change is constant; children grow. But you have to take a step back to notice the difference.
This is the experience of Disability Advocate Iris Adderley. She is a proud Bahamian – oldest child with 10 siblings who mostly all still live in the Bahamas – who served her country well; especially during the early days of nation-building (independence status was obtained in 1973). In a job assignment with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Ms. Adderley spent many years abroad (Coral Gables, FL and Dallas, TX) promoting the Bahamas around the world as a tourist and convention destination. She was continuously called upon to sell a vision of the Bahamas that she discovered later to be out-dated, and irrelevant. The country had changed … and even declined, it seemed, in her absence.
Ms. Adderley returned to the Bahamas in the year 2000, but not to the homeland she had left behind, rather to this newly changed community. The changes were not all good. To complicate matters, she was now returning as a quadriplegic, a permanent disability.
Ms. Adderley endured a life-threatening car accident in Metropolitan Dallas in 1982, where she lived and worked for her Ministry of Tourism assignment. But she does not consider her injury as a national sacrifice. It was just “time and unforeseen occurrence” befalling her; (see Bible reference of Ecclesiastes 9:11 in the Appendix below). This taught her a very important lesson that everybody is vulnerable to injury and illness and can be rendered disabled. This new reality became her new advocacy, a quest to make sure people with disabilities have equal rights and opportunities to contribute to society. (This quest also applies as a population ages, the prevalence of disabilities increases proportionally; think Diabetes amputations, Hip replacements, etc.).
This conclusion aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, that with just a reasonable accommodation, persons with disabilities can live a full and engaging life … and help to elevate their communities and make “home” better places to live, work and play.
What reasonable accommodations?
For starters, Ms. Adderley expressed that if her injury had occurred in her Caribbean homeland that she would now be dead!
The world is better … that she has survived.
The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is designed to elevate the region’s economic, security and governing societal engines. This includes healthcare. The CU roadmap calls for improvements to the region’s emergency management apparatus. There is a plan to deploy a network of 6 cutting-edge Trauma Centers throughout the Caribbean. With this mitigation and remediation, the region can more competently respond to trauma emergencies, like life-threatening auto accidents.
It is only reasonable to expect that Caribbean society would have caught up to finally being able this deliver on the social contract at this level, considering that Ms. Adderley trauma transpired 33 years ago.
Unfortunately, the experiences of so many in the Bahamas, specifically and the Caribbean as a whole, is that these countries are structured only for the lowest common denominator (LCD); anyone one with needs above-and-beyond this LCD level is just “out-of-luck”.
This is unacceptable … and unreasonable for Caribbean contributors like Iris Adderley. This is also unacceptable … and unreasonable for the planners of the new Caribbean. We must deliver better on the social contract, the implied covenant where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. Blatant failures on the delivery of this social contract lead to an undesirable destination: abandonment!
Ms. Adderley lived in the most advanced country in the world, in the US State of Texas. She would have been excused if she wanted to remain there for her sustained existence, considering her health disposition. But she showed a national sacrifice ethos and repatriated back to her Caribbean homeland. This is heroic!
In a structured interview, Iris Adderley made the following contributions to this discussion of the roadmap to elevate her community:
Bold = Author
What are the details of your advocacy?
There should be a stronger manifestation of “Human” and “Woman’s” rights in the Bahamas. It is deplorable that the country is so deficient in these offerings. Earlier in my career, I took the assignment in Dallas so as to leave the Coral Gables Office of the Ministry of Tourism because the spirit of gender discrimination was just so acute. I felt I could make a bigger impact in a more reasonable environment. I was proven correct and did indeed have a greater impact professionally there. Returning to the Bahamas in 2000 I wanted to nurture that same advocacy at home, but this time with a supplemental agenda for persons with disabilities.
What are your responsibilities now?
I serve as a Consultant at the Disability Affairs Division of the Ministry of Social Services and Community Development. I help to guide public policy to benefit those with disabilities in the country, even blending my prior role as a Tourism promoter by trying to create a great environment for persons with disabilities to come visit our shores and enjoy our hospitality.
What would you do if your project had 50% more funding?
Create rehabilitation centers, if not throughout the whole country, then at least in the capital city of Nassau. Persons with disabilities need help and support to get back to the point where they can contribute to society. Increased funding would allow more cultural education to message that persons with disabilities have the same rights in any society, to be more inclusive of the day-to-day affairs.
What do you want to see in The Bahamas in … 5 years?
More fulfilment of Sir Lynden’s Vision; (the first and longest-serving Prime Minister after majority rule, Sir Lynden O. Pindling). The young people need to know who we are as a people, where we came from and that we were a nation of beautiful, strong black people.
I want to see Bahamians own more of the Bahamas. This means diversifying from the main industries of tourism and financial services; all we’re doing there is servicing other people’s assets; we are not really owning or creating anything.
What do you want to see in The Bahamas in … 20 years?
The Bahamas needs a National Strategic Plan. This needs to reflect the values and best-practices that have been honed from experiences from around the world. The Bahamas has a global Diaspora – mostly of an elderly disposition now – their participation should be invited.
What features of North America/Europe would you like to see here?
The social safety nets (health, schools, food for the poor) are to be admired, especially in many European countries. Those communities extend themselves to care for their elderly, poor, sick and disabled citizens.
How would you feel if your children emigrate?
Though I don’t have any children directly, I’m blessed with many nieces, nephews and loving family members. So many of them are bright young all-stars and go-getters, studying abroad in colleges and universities. Unfortunately, far too often, these ones are not setting their sight on a return home to the Bahamas. Some would even rather go to a Latin American country than to come back here to the Bahamas. This is sad, as it does not reflect the great sacrifices that so many in the previous generations made to forge opportunities for this next generation.
Where do you consider to be the best place to live?
At one point, my answer would have been the Bahamas; but I’ve gotten to see the real country as it exists today; this is not what we sold to tourists in promotions and advertisements. The country has changed … downward. Instead of our next generation offering reassurance and hope, I am more troubled at their lack of proper training. We cannot expect greatness from the status quo of most of this generation today..
What areas are you most disappointed in when considering the last 20 years?
The lack of discernment is especially disappointing. Many times the wise course is presented to Bahamians, but they seem to like to ignore wisdom and instead proceed down a destructive path. I guess the proverb is true: “A prophet is not accepted at home”.
Your wisdom is discerned here Ms. Adderley!
The points from this Disability Advocate align with the CU/Go Lean roadmap. Our directive is similar: to elevate Caribbean society, including those persons with physical disabilities. The declarative statements of the prime directive are as follows:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to prepare and protect stakeholders for natural, man-made and incidental emergencies.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The book posits that one person, despite their field of endeavor, can make a difference in the Caribbean, and its impact on the world; that there are many opportunities where one champion, one advocate, can elevate society. In this light, the book features 144 different advocacies, one specifically for Persons with Disabilities (Page 228). We need advocates, vanguards and sentinels like Iris Adderley to ensure equal opportunities for all these relevant stakeholders.
The Go Lean roadmap specifically encourages the region, to lean-in to elevate society with these specific community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Minority Equalization
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Gerontology/Aging Factors
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 Member-states
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Repatriate the Diaspora, young and old …even those disabled
Page 46
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact
Page 122
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Homeland Security Pact
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Minority and Human Rights
Page 134
Planning – Lessons from US Constitution – Equal Protection for all Minorities
Page 139
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Healthcare – Caribbean [Persons] with Disabilities
Page 156
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – For All Citizens
Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Medical / Heath Endeavors
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Ensure Rights for the Disabled Classes
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime – Hate Crime Qualifiers
Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Homeland Security – Emergency Management
Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Art & Science
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Caribbean [Persons] with Disabilities
Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Elder-Care – Caribbean [Persons] with Disabilities
Page 225
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women
Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Persons with Disabilities – ‘Americans with Disabilities Act’ Model
Page 228
Appendix – Trauma Center Definitions
Page 336
The Caribbean region wants a more optimized society … for all citizens. We want to mitigate human rights and civil rights abuses, and empower all for a better life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Go Lean book posits that economic measures and security measures must be in tandem for any societal empowerment effort. According to the foregoing interview/profile, after 30 years, our region is still behind with regards to servicing the needs of one specific minority group: persons with disabilities. We must do better!
Early in the book, the pressing need to optimize facilitations for this population group was pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13), with these opening statements:
ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans …
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. … the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.
xviii. Whereas all citizens in the Federation member-states may not have the same physical abilities, reasonable accommodations must be made so that individuals with physical and mental disabilities can still access public and governmental services so as to foster a satisfactory pursuit of life’s liberties and opportunities for happiness.
The Go Lean book explicitly acknowledges that optimizing the needs of persons with disabilities is not easy; this requires strenuous effort, heavy-lifting. These persons with disabilities normally are not able to contribute as much to Caribbean society as they draw on the public resources. This is unfortunate! Other societies have provided great models and amenities for facilitating fuller lives for those with disabilities: motorized wheelchairs, cars equipped with hand controls, Braille and TeleType (TTY and/or TDD) devices. This is the quest of the CU/Go Lean roadmap to engage more people – even those persons with disabilities – into this effort to optimize Caribbean society. More innovations are forthcoming; see VIDEOs in the Appendix. This vision is only reasonable, but prudent, as this population can generate a positive Return on Investment (ROI); as demonstrated by Iris Adderley in the foregoing interview.
Many subjects related to this profile of role model Iris Adderley have been blogged in previous Go Lean…Caribbean commentary; they are sampled here:
American Human Rights Leaders Slams Caribbean Poor Record
The CU/Go Lean roadmap is designed to empower and enhance the economic engines for the full participation and benefit of all Caribbean people. This includes the number of citizens that may have some physical challenges (deaf, blind, lame/mobility, etc.) or mental challenges. The CU’s vision is that this population group represents a critical talent pool that is under-served and underutilized; they are therefore included in the Go Lean roadmap. Tactically there is the call for a Caribbean [Persons] with Disabilities (CDA) provision to be embedded in the Caribbean Union confederation treaty; the request is to have the edict of reasonable accommodations legally embedded in statures.
In addition to the economic missions, the CU treaty would also address security needs, with the mission to fortify homeland security and to mitigate societal threats and risks, including a solution for emergency management and medical trauma arts and sciences.
Lastly, the CU treaty addresses remediation for regional governance. The local governments are thusly spurred to adapt and enforce access standards for all public edifices and private structures providing commerce to the general public. This reasonable accommodations mandate is modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) feature in US federal law.
This roadmap is a fully comprehensive plan with consideration to all aspects of Caribbean life. All stakeholders – citizens, businesses, and institutions – are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap.
Yes, with all “hands on deck”, persons with disabilities as well, the Caribbean can truly become a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
2.Bible Reference – Ecclesiastes 9:11:
“I have seen something further under the sun, that the swift do not always win the race, nor do the mighty win the battle, nor do the wise always have the food, nor do the intelligent always have the riches, nor do those with knowledge always have success, because time and unexpected events overtake them all.” — New World Translation
Published on Mar 28, 2014 – Hugh Herr is building the next generation of bionic limbs, robotic prosthetics inspired by nature’s own designs. Herr lost both legs in a climbing accident 30 years ago; now, as the head of the MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group, he shows his incredible technology in a talk that’s both technical and deeply personal — with the help of ballroom dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost her left leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and performs again for the first time on the TED stage.
Published on Nov 5, 2012 – A father who lost his arm in an accident six years ago has been given a new lease of life by a hi-tech bionic hand which is so precise he can type again. Nigel Ackland, 53, has been fitted with the Terminator-like carbon fibre mechanical hand which he can control with movements in his upper arm. The new bebionic3 myoelectric hand, which is also made from aluminium and alloy knuckles, moves like a real human limb by responding to Nigel’s muscle twitches. Incredibly, the robotic arm is so sensitive it means the father-of-one can touch type on a computer keyboard, peel vegetables, and even dress himself for the first time in six years. More info about this amazing prosthetic can be found here http://bebionic.com
Published on October 13, 2011 – Berkeley Bionics has rebranded. The company is now known as Ekso Bionics and eLEGS has become Ekso. To clarify, the device is an exoskeleton and the brand of the exoskeleton is Ekso, by Ekso Bionics.
This is well represented in the historicity of the Spanish Inquisition (see Appendix * below), the campaign by the Roman Catholic Church to weed out the Jews and Muslims in Spain! This bad history of ethnic cleansing was at its worst in the 15th Century. See the tongue-in-cheek comedy VIDEO in the Appendix.
How does a community repent, forgive and reconcile from such a bad legacy?
Easier said than done!
For starters, do not proceed as if the events never happened. This is the lesson now being learned in modern day Spain. See the news article here:
MADRID (AP) — The tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios — which means “Camp Kill Jews” — on Monday officially changed its name back to Castrillo Mota de Judios (“Jews’ Hill Camp”) following a referendum and regional government approval.
The village, with about 50 inhabitants, voted to change the name in 2014 after the mayor argued that the term was offensive and that the village should honor its Jewish origins.
Documents show the villages’ original name was “Jews’ Hill Camp” and that the “Kill Jews” name dates from 1627, after a 1492 Spanish edict ordering Jews to become Catholics or flee the country. Those who remained faced the Spanish inquisition, with many burned at the stake.
The name change was approved by the regional government of Castilla y Leon and published in the region’s official gazette.
Although Jews were killed in the area, researchers believe the village got its recent name from Jewish residents who converted to Catholicism and wanted to reinforce their repudiation of Judaism to convince Spanish authorities of their loyalty.
Others suspect the change may have come from a slip of the pen.
Although no Jews live in the village today, many residents have ancient Jewish roots and the town’s official shield includes the Star of David.
Spain’s lower house of parliament this month approved a law setting a citizenship path for the descendants of Jews who were forced to flee the country centuries ago.
Spain also has an ancient southeastern town called Valle de Matamoros, which translate as “Kill Muslims Valley.” The town has said it has no plans to change its name. Matamoros is also a surname in Spain.
There is a need to reconcile a lot of bad episodes in Caribbean history. Think:
Haiti
Cuba
Guyana’s border with Venezuela
Belize’s border with Guatemala
The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that any attempt at unification of the Caribbean 30 member-states region must consider the ancient and modern conflicts some member-states have with others. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). A mission of the roadmap is to reverse the societal abandonment and invite the repatriation of the Diaspora by flashing the “Welcome Home” signs. But “old parties” returning can also open “old wounds”. Therefore an additional mission is to facilitate formal reconciliations, much like the model in South Africa with their Truth & Reconciliation Commissions (TRC). This mission will assuage these Failed-State indicators and threats (Page 272):
“Revenge seeking” groups
Group Grievances
The foregoing article depicts a bad episode in history and the best-practices to repent, forgive and reconcile.
The approach is simple, correct the bad “community ethos” from the past. The Go Lean book defines “Community Ethos” as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; the dominant assumptions of a people or period. The Spanish town in the foregoing article continued to laud the bad actions of “killing Jews” by the continued use of that name. Though none of the villains or victims are alive today, it is just a bad spirit to imbrue from one generation to another. This town name “Camp Kill Jews” is such a bad image to uphold.
The CU/Go Lean vision to elevate Caribbean society must consider the issue of image. There is the need for a sentinel role for Caribbean image, as there are a lot of times that Caribbean life and people are denigrated in works of media arts: film, TV, books, magazines. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the CU to assume that role. Using cutting edge delivery of best practices, the CU will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book speaks of the Caribbean as in crisis and posits that this crisis can be averted, that it is a “terrible thing to waste”. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to optimize the entire Caribbean economic/security/governance eco-system. This vision is defined early in the book (Page 12) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:
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.
xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.
The Go Lean book details a lot more, a series of assessments, community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to optimize the image of the Caribbean region:
Community Assessment – Dutch Caribbean – Integration & Secessions
Page 16
Community Assessment – French Caribbean – Organization & Discord
Page 17
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives
Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds
Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations
Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating a Non-Sovereign Union of 30 Member-states
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Keep the next generation at home; Repatriate Diaspora
Page 46
Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department – Economic & Diplomatic Relations
Page 80
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Judiciary – Truth & Reconciliation Courts
Page 90
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up – Relationships with South & Central American Neighbors
Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Deliver
Page 109
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate
Page 118
Anatomy of Advocacies
Page 122
Planning – Ways to Improve Image
Page 133
Planning – Improve Failed-State Indices
Page 134
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract
Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions
Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Controlling Image
Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Reconciliations
Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba – Reconciliations
Page 236
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Haiti – Reconciliations
Page 238
Advocacy – Ways to Impact The Guianas – Venezuelan Foreign Policy Synchronizations
Page 241
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Belize – Guatemala Grand Bargain
The foregoing news article conveys that many Spanish/European communities had not come to grips with their discriminatory past. So there is the need for outreach. This relates to anti-Semitism and the historic abuses cast on the Jewish people. For the African Diaspora, the majority population of 29 of the Caribbean member-states, the experience is even more egregious. (French territory St. Barthélemy is the sole demographic exception).
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. There is reason to believe that these empowerment efforts can be successful. The Go Lean roadmap conveys how single causes/advocacies have successfully been forged throughout the world (Page 122 – Anatomy of Advocacies). We can succeed here as well.
(This movement does not campaign for reparations from slavery nor colonization).
The CU will address past, present and future challenges of human rights abuses and defamation to the Caribbean image.
The Caribbean can succeed in the advocacy to improve the Caribbean image in the region and around the world. There are previous blog commentaries that delve into aspects of Caribbean image:
The foregoing consideration helps us to appreciate that reconciliation is possible only when the persons doing the wrong accept the forgiveness being offered and repents for what they have done. We applaud the tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios for showing the world their “Mea Culpa”; this is the best-practice for reconciliation.
This is now a new ethos for the Caribbean, to reconcile conflicts from the past; to repent, forgive and hopefully forget the long history of human rights abuses from the past. All of this effort, heavy-lifting, will make the region a better place to live, work and play. We urge all to lean-in to this roadmap.
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.
The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam. This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain.
Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs’ decision to found the Inquisition such as increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing conversos, profiting from confiscation of the property of convicted heretics, reducing social tensions, and protecting the kingdom from the danger of a fifth column (clandestine activities involving acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers of an external force).
The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of declining influence in the previous century.
The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier and possibly exaggerated accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Although records are incomplete, estimates of the number of persons charged with crimes by the Inquisition range up to 150,000, with 2,000 to 5,000 people executed.
Published on Dec 8, 2012 – From Mel Brooks’ “History of the World Part 1”. This is a comedic parody, with song-and-dance! Category: Entertainment; License: Standard YouTube License
The book Go Lean…Caribbean describes a new regime for Caribbean economic circles: a world where most payments are conducted via electronic means. While this may be the future for the Caribbean, frankly it is already the reality for North America and Western Europe!
In the Caribbean, we are behind the times; we party like its 1969!
Electronic Payments schemes are no longer optional. These must be deployed, as soon as possible, to forge the change necessary to elevate Caribbean society. The trend has started; see the news article here of a card payment scheme deployed recently in the Bahamas:
MORE than 4,000 residents of New Providence are now part of the Department of Social Services’ modernised food assistance programme.
Officials announced yesterday the approval of an extra 1,501 clients from the Horseshoe Drive Centre to the programme, joining 780 clients registered at the Wulff Road Centre, 874 at the Fox Hill Centre and 1,660 at the Robinson Road Centre, bringing the total to 4,365 in possession of the new pre-paid debit card.
Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin said that although the new pre-paid cards do not resolve all of the issues and problems that exist in the department’s food programme, they allow “clients that are truly in need the ability to shop and purchase needed food items with ease and comfort”.
Mrs Griffin explained that the cards provide users with the ability to not only to limit their contact with centres, but gives them more freedom by allowing them to determine how much they spend in one location and the ability to shop at different establishments in one payment period.
According to the Yamacraw representative, all three are features not allowed by the previous voucher system operated by the department.
“It was a long, hard road getting to this point but with the addition of each centre, we gained more experience and improved the processes involved,” said Mrs Griffin.
She added: “We now turn our efforts to the introduction of the card in Grand Bahama and the FamilyIslands as we intend for this payment method to be utilised throughout the Bahamas.”
Officials from the department indicated that the implementation process is already under way in Grand Bahama with people registered for assistance now being reassessed.
The department suggested that the new cards would first be issued at the Eight Mile Rock Centre and then throughout Freeport.
In November, officials introduced the new debit card in conjunction with Bank of The Bahamas (BOB).
It is designed to curb abuse of the food coupon system, and is seen as a key reform to how the government distributes aid to poor Bahamians.
Mrs Griffin said last year that the card was one feature of wide-ranging upgrades to the Bahamas’ social safety net, a programme being financed with $7.5m from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
In January, the government had approved a five per cent increase in the Department of Social Services’ food assistance budget to counteract the impact of VAT on the poor.
Last June, the Department of Statistics said that since 2001, poverty levels in The Bahamas have risen by 3.5 per cent, while more than 40,000 people in the country live below the poverty line – defined as an annual income of less than $5,000 a year.
Other examples abound. The Go Lean book (Page 353) identifies the system deployed in American states and territories (including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) branded EBT (Electronic Benefits Technology).
We must therefore examine models used around the world to facilitate these payment systems. The Go Lean book specifically draws attention to the model of the Mastercard/Visa Interchange and Clearinghouse; (Page 172). The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation 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 $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
This Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap defines that despite coins and notes, the regional currency, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), will be heavily-targeted as a cashless currency. So the CCB will settle all C$ electronic transactions in the style of the MasterCard-Visa Interchange & Clearinghouse. See the definition in the Appendix below. The book relates (Page 172) how this activity would be a fundamental revenue source for Caribbean governance; as the Mastercard/Visa model now enjoys interchange and clearance fees in excess of 1% – 2% of transaction amounts; (pricing is based on different transaction/industry/card types + flat fees). The Appendix summarizes total revenue for a recent year at $30 Billion for US operations alone. Yes, the pennies add up!
According to the foregoing news article, why would the Bahamas government pay interchange fees to the American entity that is the Mastercard/Visa clearinghouse. The money on deposit originates in the Bahamas, the currency is Bahamian Dollars and the merchants are Bahamian. Why is there a need to share the transaction revenue outside the border with an American entity?
This subject and application vividly depicts the need for a local Caribbean solution of the technology and processing for card transaction interchange. This is the quest of the Go Lean…Caribbean roadmap.
However, this issue is about more than just technology, it relates to economics as well. A previous blog/commentary related how electronic payments provide the impetus for M1, the economic measurement of currency/money in circulation (M0) plus overnight bank deposits. A mission of Go Lean is to increase M1 values, thereby facilitating the dynamic called the “money multiplier” – creating money “from thin-air”. This is a BIG deal!
The Go Lean/CU/CCB movement declares: “Move Over Mastercard/Visa!”
We must model the Mastercard/Visa clearinghouse and learn lessons from their good, bad and ugly history.
It is argued that this interchange is classic Crony-Capitalism, the use of the public trust for the pursuit of private profits. This is evident with their monopolistic integration of bankcard processing despite being two separate for-profit entities (association/ cooperative of banks). This is a familiar charge against this clearinghouse; they have been constantly accused of these abusive practices:
Price-fixing Regulators in several countries have questioned the collective determination of interchange rates and fees as potential examples of price-fixing. Merchant groups in particular, including the U.S.-based Merchants Payments Coalition and Merchant Bill of Rights, also claim that interchange fees are much higher than necessary,[14] pointing to the fact that even though technology and efficiency have improved, interchange fees have more than doubled in the last 10 years. Issuing banks argue that reduced interchange fees would result in increased costs for cardholders, and reduce their ability to satisfy rewards on cards already issued.
Consumer welfare A 2010 public policy study conducted by the Federal Reserve concluded the reward program aspect of interchange fees results in a non-trivial monetary transfer from low-income to high-income households. Reducing merchant fees and card rewards would likely increase consumer welfare.[15] The Merchants Payments Coalition is fighting for a more competitive and transparent card fee system that better serves American consumers and merchants alike. Because swipe fees are hidden, consumers are unable to weigh the benefits and costs associated with choosing a particular form of payment. Eliminating hidden swipe fees is advocated as a means to realize an open market system for electronic payments.[16]
Creating the optimized CU/CCB governance is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The strategy is to implement the CCB and C$ currency with a regulatory framework fortified by best-practices, technology and infrastructure, to facilitate the electronic payments needs of the Caribbean community.
The roadmap posits that to adapt and thrive in the new global marketplace there must be more strenuous management, technocratic optimizations, of the region’s governance … and payment systems. This is the charge of Go Lean roadmap, opening with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 – 13) and these pronouncements:
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…
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 foregoing article, demonstrates that this region is ready for a local payment-card clearinghouse solution. 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 – 10 Big Ideas –Currency Union / Single Currency
Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Interstate Commerce
Page 129
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies
Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Black Markets – e-Payments
Page 165
Advocacy – Government Revenue Options – Interchange Fees
Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives – Cooperative Banking
Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism – Smartcard scheme
Page 193
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – e-Government Services
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce – Card Culture
Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations – Credit Card Banking
Page 199
Appendix – Alternative Remittance Modes – Prepaid Card Option
Page 270
Appendix – Electronic Benefits Transfers in the Caribbean Region
Page 353
The points of effective, technocratic payment system stewardship, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people, the banking establishments and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. We must “protect our own house” and work towards our own future. We do not need Mastercard/Visa clearinghouse to do what we can do ourselves; see the VIDEO here.
Uploaded on May 18, 2010 – Visa Bankcard TV Commercial demonstrating the substitution for cash, depicting characters from the Disney-PIXAR movie, TOY STORY 3: Woody and the gang tries to save Buzz.
The responsibility to transform the Caribbean’s payment systems should be that of Caribbean stakeholders; our duty and accountability alone. This is the attitude that leads to the ultimate goal: to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee paid between banks for the acceptance of card based transactions. Usually it is a fee that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank”) pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) however there are instances where the interchange fee is paid from the issuer to acquirer, often called reverse interchange.
In a credit card or debit card transaction, [(like Mastercard and Visa)], the card-issuing bank in a payment transaction deducts the interchange fee from the amount it pays the acquiring bank that handles a credit or debit card transaction for a merchant. The acquiring bank then pays the merchant the amount of the transaction minus both the interchange fee and an additional, usually smaller, fee for the acquiring bank or independent sales organization (ISO), which is often referred to as a discount rate, an add-on rate, or passthru. For cash withdrawal transactions at ATMs, however, the fees are paid by the card-issuing bank to the acquiring bank (for the maintenance of the machine).
These fees are set by the credit card networks,[1] and are the largest component of the various fees that most merchants pay for the privilege of accepting credit cards, representing 70% to 90% of these fees by some estimates, although larger merchants typically pay less as a percentage. Interchange fees have a complex pricing structure, which is based on the card brand, regions or jurisdictions, the type of credit or debit card, the type and size of the accepting merchant, and the type of transaction (e.g. online, in-store, phone order, whether the card is present for the transaction, etc.). Further complicating the rate schedules, interchange fees are typically a flat fee plus a percentage of the total purchase price (including taxes). In the United States, the fee averages approximately 2% of transaction value.[2]
In recent years, interchange fees have become a controversial issue, the subject of regulatory and antitrust investigations. Many large merchants such as Wal-Mart have the ability to negotiate fee prices,[3] and while some merchants prefer cash or PIN-based debit cards, most believe they cannot realistically refuse to accept the major card network-branded cards. This holds true even when their interchange-driven fees exceed their profit margins.[4] Some countries, such as Australia, have established significantly lower interchange fees, although according to a U.S. Government Accountability study, the savings enjoyed by merchants were not passed along to consumers.[5] The fees are also the subject of several ongoing lawsuits in the United States.
Interchange fees are set by the payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard.
In the US Card issuers now make over $30 billion annually from interchange fees. Interchange fees collected by Visa[6] and MasterCard[7] totaled $26 billion in 2004. In 2005 the number was $30.7 billion, and the increase totals 85 percent compared to 2001.
The music business is first and foremost a business – Unknown Author
Caribbean people love music. The promoters of the roadmap for a new Caribbean, based on the book Go Lean…Caribbean, love music. The book identifies 169 genres of music pervasive in the Caribbean region, think Reggae, Merengue, Soca, Compas (Haiti). But the book and the news article/VIDEO below relate that the challenge in the music business is the business functionalities itself. Consider these additional quotations from musical greats about this current and historic dilemma:
Music is spiritual. The music business is not. – Van Morrison
Music and the music business are two different things. – Erykah Badu
I happened to come along in the music business when there was no trend. – Elvis Presley
The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business. – Billy Corgan
At the end of the day, there’s only a few major stars in the music business, and then there’s all these people that are aspiring to be that. – John Legend
One of the stars of contemporary music, Taylor Swift (see Appendix below), has now reached-out and reached-in to impact this industry, the music business. She has used her financial wherewithal, immerse popularity, huge influence and massive following to force change in this industry. Despite the historical abuse, this one person is making a difference … here and now!
This aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which posits that one person can advocate in a community and transform it for change. The book serves asa roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU seeks to empower the economic engines of the region, including the music and performing arts industry. The book vividly depicts how Caribbean music is great, but the Caribbean music industry is in shambles. It is difficult for artists and stakeholders to make a living in this industry in this region. This assessment is not due to any lack of music consumption or music appreciation, but rather due to the lack of a music retailing eco-system.
As depicted in the following VIDEO, most music consumption now take place via the electronic media (internet downloads, streaming, mobile devices, etc.). This is a trend that has been undermining the music industry for 2 decades now, and yet the industry stakeholders have been slow to adapt to this transforming world. This is a parallel reality for Caribbean life in general: Agents of Change (Technology, Globalization) have “rocked” the societal engines, and yet the region has still not adapted adequately. The same as one person, Taylor Swift, is hereby making an impact; this commentary asserts that a similar transformation can occur here at home, in many different arenas in society. See this source news article and VIDEO here:
Update 12:00 a.m. Monday: A tweet posted late Sunday on the account belonging to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president who oversees Internet services and software, said: “#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period.” An Apple spokesman confirmed that the company has changed course.
Taylor Swift announced she won’t allow her latest album, “1989,” to be included in the new streaming service, Apple Music, because she says Apple won’t pay artists during the initial three-month trial period.
I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.
In an article in The Wall Street Journal last year, Swift wrote that she remained optimistic about the music industry, saying “In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace.”
In Sunday’s message to Apple, the pop-culture superstar said she is speaking for “every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much.” She wrote:
I realize that Apple is working towards a goal of paid streaming. I think that is beautiful progress. We know how astronomically successful Apple has been and we know that this incredible company has the money to pay artists, writers and producers for the 3 month trial period… even if it is free for the fans trying it out.
Swift, who has been photographed in the past while listening to her music on an Apple device, closed with: “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
Swift’s label, Big Machine Records, confirmed she wrote the letter and that she is withholding the album from Apple Music.
The issue of Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) and its effects on community commerce has been exhaustingly considered by the Go Lean movement (book and blog/commentaries). The old business models simply do not work anymore. There is the need to employ leading edge technologies to facilitate a better model for this new world of electronic commerce. This point has been of sharp debate in public forums. Consider a sample of the comments here from many on this Wall Street Journal article; across the board, they are both pro-and-con:
11:40 am June 21, 2015 – Dan wrote: These “artists” are paid entirely too much already. Produce a product once, and get paid every time it’s used.
11:42 am June 21, 2015 – Kevin wrote: Taylor got paid more than every CEO except 3 last year. Where’s the outrage from the left demanding she charges less for her albums to reduce inequity?
11:48 am June 21, 2015 – Fair is fair! wrote: Apple is marketing their sight. No reason the artists should pay Apples marketing.
Good for you Taylor to stand up for your fellow artists!
11:54 am June 21, 2015 – Steve wrote: I love Apple in many ways, but believe they should pay the artists during the free trial period. It doesn’t matter if the artist is already the highest paid or not. It is the principal, this progressive company which revolutionized the way we listen to music a decade ago, should adhere to. It should be a win / win situation for all involved.
12:24 pm June 21, 2015 – Michael Ball wrote: Apple is sitting on one of the biggest war chests on the planet. There is no reason that any artist should be forced into underwriting Apple’s R&D.
This is just bad behavior. Good on Taylor for calling them out. Takes a big voice to take down a big bully.
And to “Dan” above: that’s also the economic model of the software business… Do you take issue with that, as well?
12:35 pm June 21, 2015 – Johnny Nevo wrote: GREAT!!! I always loved her, but THIS is the best.. Screw Apple. Apple is attempting to CONTROL the music business… like in the old days of Payola. Without even hearing it I will buy this CD. I remember a great anecdote from a Bob Dylan . Club owner says to Bob, “you got a great sound, but you have to play here for FREE, to get some experience.”
The music industry, in the US and here at home, needs reform and to transform. The first step is to recognize that intellectual property is property. Far too often, people think that unless they can touch-and-feel, that the value appreciation is not the same. This is how our society values chattel goods. It is what it is!
The required change calls for a new “community ethos”:
“that fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period” – Go Lean … CaribbeanPage 20.
Early in the book, the contribution that intellectual property (music, film, electronic games, art exhibition, literature, etc.) can make to a society is pronounced as an ethos for the entire region to embrace. This is featured in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 15) with these statements:
xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
Like Taylor Swift, the Caribbean has also featured transformative musical artist; (think Bob Marley, he impacted the music, culture and economics of the region). It would be sad if such intellectual property was not properly compensated in the world of commerce. This must be fixed, for the success of future generations of talented, inspirational and influential artists – musical geniuses – to follow. But it is only justice that past artists get due compensation for their talents and hard work as well. The music business dictates income, jobs and economic opportunities for its stakeholders. The opening Declaration of Interdependence addressed these concerns explicitly, (Page 13):
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
The Go Lean/CU roadmap asserts that change has come to the Caribbean. The people, institutions and governance of the region are all urged to “lean-in” to this roadmap for change. We know there are musical talents in the Caribbean, a “new” Taylor Swift or a “new” Bob Marley; these ones are waiting to be fostered. But these ones need the eco-system of a music industry that is effective and efficient! Not the Crony-Capitalism of the past; (or according to the foregoing article, the crony practices that were proposed by Apple)!
One woman, in this case … made a difference! Her advocacy reminds us of the famous quotation:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke.
“Kudos” to Taylor Swift!
The prime directive of the book Go Lean…Caribbean is to elevate the regional society, but instead of impacting America, the roadmap focus is the Caribbean first. In fact, the declarative statements are as follows:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs, many in the arts and encompassing intellectual property.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant societal engines against economic crimes, like digital piracy.
Improvement of Caribbean governance – with appropriate checks-and-balances – to support these engines.
The roadmap specifically encourages the region, to lean-in to open advocacy with these specific community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies:
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
Page 23
Community Ethos – Security Principles – Intelligence Gathering
Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide
Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness – Appreciation of the Arts
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good – Needs of the many outweigh the few
Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Single Market of 30 Member-States with optimized economic engines
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Foster Currency System to allow for Electronic Payments
Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Enact a Security Apparatus Against Economic Crimes & Threats
Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Department of Commerce – Communications & Media Authority
Page 79
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Department of Commerce – Performance Rights Organization
Page 81
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact
Page 122
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Cyber Caribbean
Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership – Individual Contributions
Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime – Federal Jurisdiction for Economic Crimes
Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis – Policing the Internet
Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce
Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations – e-Purse and Internet Commerce
Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – And the Media Industries
Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts – Respect for Intellectual Property
Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Music – Payment Eco-System
Page 231
Appendix – Trade S.H.I.EL.D. – For Interdictions in Digital Piracy
Page 264
Appendix – Caribbean Musical Genres – 169 in the 30 Member-States
Page 347
Appendix – Copyright Infringement – Catching a Thief in Music
Page 351
The Caribbean region wants a more optimized economic and security apparatus, to protect citizens, their property and institutions; including the owners of intellectual property. This includes, among others, software developers, artists and musicians.
The music industry has often been victimized by Crony-Capitalism and the eventual “abuse of power”. We must do more now; we must do better. This Go Lean book posits that “bad actors” – even music company executives – will emerge to exploit inefficient economic, security and governing models.
The Go Lean book explicitly acknowledges that optimizing the needs for artists and their art is not an easy feat; this requires strenuous effort; heavy-lifting. This is the quest of the CU/Go Lean roadmap: an optimized technocracy with better oversight for the regional industrial footprint, including the music/art-related industries.
Other subjects related to art, music and intellectual property for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentary, as sampled here: commentaries:
10 Things We Do Not Want From the US – #9: Cultural Neutralizations
Caribbean music is great! Caribbean music business…not so much!
This is not just a Caribbean issue. Yet, we can show the world a better model. But our goal is not to change the world; only change the Caribbean; to make our homelands better places to live, work and play. 🙂
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989; age 25) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed with the independent label “Big Machine Records” and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift’s self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. Her third single, “Our Song,” made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the “Hot Country Songs” chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. In 2015, Taylor Swift has become the youngest woman ever to be included on Forbes most powerful women list. She made number 65 on the Forbes annual list of the most powerful women in the world.
Swift’s second album, Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me,” Fearless became the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States. The album won four Grammy Awards, making Swift the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Swift’s third and fourth albums, 2010’s Speak Now and 2012’s Red, both sold more than one million copies within the first week of their U.S release. Speak Now’s song “Mean” won two Grammy Awards, while Red’s singles “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” were worldwide hits. Swift’s fifth album, the pop-focused 1989, was released in 2014. It sold more copies in its opening week than any album in the previous 12 years, and made Swift the first and only act to have three albums sell more than one million copies in the opening release week. The singles “Shake It Off”, “Blank Space”, and “Bad Blood” have all reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Swift is known for narrative songs about her personal experiences. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift’s other achievements include seven Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums—including 27.1 million in the U.S.—and 100 million single downloads. Swift has also had supporting roles in feature films including Valentine’s Day (2010) and The Giver (2014).
As of March 2011, it was reported that Swift had 5.7 million followers. That figure is now posted at 59,300,000. See here:
The field of Economics is unique! We all practice it every day, no matter the level of skill or competence. There is even the subject area in basic education branded Home Economics, teaching the students the fundamentals of maintaining, supporting and optimizing a home environment. Most assuredly, economics is an art and a science, albeit a social science.
In a previous blog/commentary, Scotman’s Adam Smith was identified as the father of modern macro-economics. Though he lived from 1723 to 1790, his writings defined advanced economic concepts even in this 21st Century. His landmark book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations qualified the divisions of income into these following categories: profit, wage, and rent.[4] We have previously explored profit-seeking (a positive ethos that needs to be fostered in the Caribbean region) and rent-seeking (a negative effort that proliferates in the Caribbean but needs to be mitigated), so now the focus of this commentary is on the activity of wage-seeking, and the concepts of governance and public choice theory to allow for maximum employment.
This is hard! Change has come to the world of wage-seekers – the middle classes are under attack; the labor-pool of most industrialized nations have endured decline, not in the numbers, but rather in prosperity. While wage-earners have not kept pace with inflation, top-earners (bonuses, commissions and business profits) have soared; (see Photo).
As a direct result, every Caribbean member-state struggles with employment issues in their homeland. In fact, this was an initial motivation for the book Go Lean…Caribbean, stemming from the fall-out of the 2008 Great Recession, this publication was presented as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region to create 2.2 million new jobs, despite global challenges.
Needless to say, the global challenge is far more complex than Home Economics. The Go Lean book describes the effort as heavy-lifting; then proceeds to detail the turn-by-turn directions of a roadmap to remediate and mitigate wage-seeking.
The roadmap channels the Economic Principles and best-practices of technocrats like Adam Smith and 11 other named economists, many of them Nobel Laureates. A review of the work of these great men and woman constitute “Lessons in Economic Principles”. Why would these lessons matter in the oversight of Caribbean administration? Cause-and-effect!
The root of the current challenge for wage-seekers is income equality; and this is bigger than just the Caribbean. It is tied to the global adoption of globalization and technology/ automation – a product of global Market Forces as opposed to previous Collective Bargaining factors. This relates back to the fundamental Economic Principle of “supply-and-demand”; but now the “supply” is global. This photo/”process flow” here depicts the ingredients of Market Forces. When there is the need for labor, the principle of comparative analysis is employed, and most times the conclusion is to “off-shore” the labor efforts, and then import the finished products. This is reversed of the colonialism that was advocated by Adam Smith; instead of the developed country providing factory labor for Third World consumption, the developed nation (i.e. United States) is now in the consumer-only role, with less and less production activities, for products fabricated in the Third World. This reality is not sustainable for providing prosperity to the middle classes, to the wage-seekers.
As a community, we may not like the laws of Economics, but we cannot ignore them. The Go Lean book explains the roles and significance of Economic Principles … with this excerpt (Page 21):
While money is not the most important factor in society, the lack of money and the struggle to acquire money creates challenges that cannot be ignored. The primary reason why the Caribbean has suffered so much human flight in the recent decades is the performance of the Caribbean economy. Though this book is not a study in economics, it recommends, applies and embraces these 6 core Economic Principles as sound and relevant to this roadmap:
People Choose: We always want more than we can get and productive resources (human, natural, capital) are always limited. Therefore, because of this major economic problem of scarcity, we usually choose the alternative that provides the most benefits with the least cost.
All Choices Involve Costs: The opportunity cost is the next best alternative you give up when you make a choice. When we choose one thing, we refuse something else at the same time.
People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways: Incentives are actions, awards, or rewards that determine the choices people make. Incentives can be positive or negative. When incentives change, people change their behaviors in predictable ways.
Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices and Incentives: People cooperate and govern their actions through both written and unwritten rules that determine methods of allocating scarce resources. These rules determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced. As the rules change, so do individual choices, incentives, and behavior.
Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth: People specialize in the production of certain goods and services because they expect to gain from it. People trade what they produce with other people when they think they can gain something from the exchange. Some benefits of voluntary trade include higher standards of living and broader choices of goods and services.
The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future: Economists believe that the cost and benefits of decision making appear in the future, since it is only the future that we can influence. Sometimes our choices can lead to unintended consequences.
Source: Handy Dandy Guide (HDC) by the National Council on Economic Education (2000)
The Go Lean book describes the end result of the application of best-practices in this field of economics over the course of a 5-year roadmap: the CU … as a hallmark of technocracy. But the purpose is not the edification of the region’s economists, rather to make the Caribbean homeland “better places to live, work and play” for its citizens. This branding therefore puts emphasis on the verb “work”; the nouns “jobs” and “wages” must thusly be a constant focus of the roadmap.
This Go Lean book declares that the Caribbean eco-system for job-creation is in crisis … due to the same global dilemma. The roadmap describes the crisis as losing a war, the battle of globalization and technology. The consequence of the defeat is 2 undesirable conditions: income inequality and societal abandonment, citizens driven away to a life in the Diaspora. This assessment currently applies in all 30 Caribbean member-states, as every community has lost human capital to emigration. Some communities, like Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have suffered with an abandonment rate of more than 50% and others have watched more than 70% of college-educated citizens flee their community for foreign shores. Even education is presented as failed investments as those educated in the region and leave to find work do not even return remittances in proportion to their costs of development. (See Table 4.1 in the Photo)
The Go Lean book therefore posits that there is a need to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize the labor/wage-seeking engines so as to create more jobs with livable wages. Alas, this is not just a Caribbean issue, but a global (i.e. American) one as well. See the following encyclopedic references for wage-seeking and Collective Bargaining to fully understand the complexities of these global issues:
A wage is monetary compensation paid by an employer to an employee in exchange for work done. Payment may be calculated as a fixed amount for each task completed (a task wage or piece rate), or at an hourly or daily rate, or based on an easily measured quantity of work done.
Wages are an example of expenses that are involved in running a business.
Payment by wage contrasts with salaried work, in which the employer pays an arranged amount at steady intervals (such as a week or month) regardless of hours worked, with commission which conditions pay on individual performance, and with compensation based on the performance of the company as a whole. Waged employees may also receive tips or gratuity paid directly by clients and employee benefits which are non-monetary forms of compensation. Since wage labour is the predominant form of work, the term “wage” sometimes refers to all forms (or all monetary forms) of employee compensation.
Determinants of wage rates Depending on the structure and traditions of different economies around the world, wage rates will be influenced by market forces (supply and demand), legislation, and tradition. Market forces are perhaps more dominant in the United States, while tradition, social structure and seniority, perhaps play a greater role in Japan.[6]
Wage Differences Even in countries where market forces primarily set wage rates, studies show that there are still differences in remuneration for work based on sex and race. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007 women of all races made approximately 80% of the median wage of their male counterparts. This is likely due to the supply and demand for women in the market because of family obligations. [7] Similarly, white men made about 84% the wage of Asian men, and black men 64%.[8] These are overall averages and are not adjusted for the type, amount, and quality of work done.
Real Wage The term real wages refers to wages that have been adjusted for inflation, or, equivalently, wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages. Because it has been adjusted to account for changes in the prices of goods and services, real wages provide a clearer representation of an individual’s wages in terms of what they can afford to buy with those wages – specifically, in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought.
See Table of European Model in the Appendix below. (The European Union is the model for the Caribbean Union).
Collective Bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.[1]
The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically representing a company’s shareholders) or may negotiate with a group of businesses, depending on the country, to reach an industry wide agreement. A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between an employer and one or more unions.
The industrial revolution brought a swell of labor-organizing in [to many industrialized countries, like] the US. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed in 1886, providing unprecedented bargaining powers for a variety of workers.[11] The Railway Labor Act (1926) required employers to bargain collectively with unions. While globally, International Labour Organization Conventions (ILO) were ratified in parallel to the United Nations efforts (i.e. Declaration of Human Rights, etc.). There were a total of eight ILO fundamental conventions[3] all ascending between 1930 and 1973, i.e. the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (1949).
The Go Lean book presents a roadmap on how to benefit from the above Economic Principles – and how to empower communities anew – in the midst of tumultuous global challenges. This roadmap addresses more than economics, as there are other areas of societal concern. This is expressed in the CU charter; as defined by these 3 prime directives:
Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
Early in the Go Lean book, the responsibility to create jobs was identified as an important function for the CU with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 14):
xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores.…
xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.
According to an article from the Economic Policy Institute, entitled The Decline of Collective Bargaining and the Erosion of Middle-class Incomes in Michigan by Lawrence Mishel (September 25, 2012), the challenges to middle class income are indisputable, and the previous solution – Collective Bargaining – is no longer as effective as in the past. (The industrial landscape of Michigan had previously been identified as a model for the Caribbean to consider). See a summary of the article here (italics added) and VIDEO in the Appendix:
In Michigan between 1979 and 2007, the last year before the Great Recession, the state’s economy experienced substantial growth and incomes rose for high-income households. But middle-class incomes did not grow. The Michigan experience is slightly worse than but parallels that of the United States as a whole, where middle-class income gains were modest but still far less than the income gains at the top. What the experience of Michiganders and other Americans makes clear is that income inequality is rising, and it has prevented middle-class incomes from growing adequately in either Michigan or the nation.
The key dynamic driving this income disparity has been the divergence between the growth of productivity—the improvement in the output of goods and services produced per hour worked—and the growth of wages and benefits (compensation) for the typical worker. It has been amply documented that productivity and hourly compensation grew in tandem between the late 1940s and the late 1970s, but split apart radically after 1979. Nationwide, productivity grew by 69.1 percent between 1979 and 2011, but the hourly compensation of the median worker (who makes more than half the workforce but less than the other half) grew by just 9.6 percent (Mishel and Gee 2012; Mishel et al. 2012). In other words, since 1979 the typical worker has hardly benefited from improvements in the economy’s ability to raise living standards and, consequently, middle-class families’ living standards have barely budged since then. This phenomenon has occurred across the nation, including in Michigan.
This divergence between pay and productivity and the corresponding failure of middle-class incomes to grow is strongly related to the erosion of collective bargaining. And collective bargaining has eroded more in Michigan than in the rest of the nation, helping to explain Michigan’s more disappointing outcomes.
Research three decades ago by economist Richard Freeman (1980) showed that collective bargaining reduces wage inequality, and all the research since then (see Freeman 2005) has confirmed his finding. Collective bargaining reduces wage inequality for three reasons. The first is that wage setting in collective bargaining focuses on establishing “standard rates” for comparable work across business establishments and for particular occupations within establishments. The outcome is less differentiation of wages among workers and, correspondingly, less discrimination against women and minorities. A second reason is that wage gaps between occupations tend to be lower where there is collective bargaining, and so the wages in occupations that are typically low-paid tend to be higher under collective bargaining. A third reason is that collective bargaining has been most prevalent among middle-class workers, so it reduces the wage gaps between middle-class workers and high earners (who have tended not to benefit from collective bargaining).
Collective bargaining also reduces wage inequality in a less-direct way. Wage and benefit standards set by collective bargaining are often followed in workplaces not covered by collective bargaining, at least where there is extensive coverage by collective bargaining in particular occupations and industries. This spillover effect means that the impact of collective bargaining on the wages and benefits of middle-class workers extends far beyond those workers directly covered by an agreement. … Source:http://www.epi.org/publication/bp347-collective-bargaining/
The siren call went out 20 years ago, of the emergence of an “Apartheid” economy, a distinct separation between the classes: labor and management. Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (1993 – 1997 during the Clinton Administration’s First Term) identified vividly, in this 1996 Harvard Business Review paper, that something was wrong with the U.S. economy then; (it is worst now):
That something is not the country’s productivity, technological leadership, or rate of economic growth, though there is room for improvement in all those areas. That something is an issue normally on the back burner in U.S. public discourse: the distribution of the fruits of economic progress. For many, the rise in AT&T’s stock after it announced plans [on January 3, 1996] to lay off 40,000 employees crystallized the picture of an economy gone haywire, with shareholders gaining and employees losing as a result of innovation and advances in productivity.
Has the distribution of the benefits of economic growth in the United States in fact gone awry? Is the nation heading toward an apartheid economy—one in which the wealthy and powerful prosper while the less well-off struggle? What are the facts? What do they mean? Are there real problems—and can they be solved? …
Deploying solutions for the problem of income equality in the Caribbean is the quest of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The book identified Agents of Change (Page 57) that is confronting the region, (America as well); they include: Globalization and Technology. A lot of the jobs that paid a “living wage” are now being shipped overseas to countries with lower wage levels, or neutralized by the advancement of technology. Yes, computers are reshaping the global job market, so even Collective Bargaining may fail to counter any eventual obsolescence of wage-earners, their valuation and appreciation; (see EncyclopedicArticle # 2). The Go Lean book, and previous blog/commentaries, therefore detailed the campaign to not just consume technology, but to also innovate, produce and distribute the computer-enabled end-products. Therefore industries relating to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/Medicine) are critical in the roadmap. Not only do these careers yield good-paying direct jobs, but also factor in the indirect job market, and the job-multiplier rate (3.0 to 4.1) for down-the-line employment (Page 260) opportunities.
The Go Lean… Caribbean book details the creation of 2.2 million new jobs for the Caribbean region, many embracing ICT/STEM skill-sets. This is easier said than done, so how does Go Lean purpose to deliver on this quest? By the adoption of certain community ethos, plus the executions of key strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. The following is a sample from the book:
Assessment – Puerto Rico – Extreme Unemployment – The Greece of the Caribbean
Page 18
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification
Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier
Page 22
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations
Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future
Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship
Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property – Key to ICT Careers
Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research and Development – Germaine for STEM jobs
Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Close the Digital Divide – Vital for fostering ICT careers
Page 31
Strategy – Mission – Education Without Further Brain Drain
Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology
Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization
Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – East Asian Tigers Model
Page 69
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – High Multiplier Industries
Page 70
Tactical – Tactics to Forge an $800 Billion Economy – Trade and Globalization
Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Commerce Department – Patents & Copyrights
Page 78
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – As Job-creating Engines
Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization – Technology: The Great Equalizer
Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade
Page 128
Planning – Ways to Model the EU
Page 130
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 – Income Equality Now More Pronounced
Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy
Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs
Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – e-Learning Options
Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Markets and Unions – Collective Bargaining Best-Practices
Page 164
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration – STEM Resources
Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Credits, Incentives and Investments
Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce – Optimize Remittance Methods
Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Help the Middle Class – Exploit Globalization
Page 223
Appendix – Growing 2.2 Million Jobs in 5 Years
Page 257
Appendix – Job Multipliers – Direct & Indirect Job Correlations
Page 259
Appendix – Emigration Bad Example – Puerto Rican Population in the US Mainland
Page 304
The CU will foster job-creating developments, incentivizing many high-tech start-ups and incubating viable companies. The primary ingredient for CU success will be Caribbean people, so we must foster and incite participation of many young people into fields currently sharing higher job demands, like ICT and STEM, so as to better impact their communities. A second ingredient will be the support of the community – the Go Lean movement recognizes the limitation that not everyone in the community can embrace the opportunity to lead in these endeavors. An apathetic disposition is fine-and-well; we simply must not allow that to be a hindrance to those wanting to progress – there are both direct jobs and indirect jobs connected with the embrace of ICT/STEM disciplines. The community ethos or national spirit, must encourage and spur “achievers” into roles where “they can be all they can be”. Go Lean asserts that one person can make a difference … to a community (Page 122).
Other subjects related to job empowerments for wage-seekers in the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:
10 Things We Don’t Want from the US – Job Discrimination of Immigrations
The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet, but “man cannot live on beauty alone”, there is the need for a livelihood as well. This is the challenge, considering the reality of unemployment in the region; the jobless rate among the youth is even higher.
The crisis of income inequality for the US is a direct result of free trade agreements, like NAFTA, and China’s Preferential Trading Status. Despite this status, we can benefit from the realities of globalization; jobs are being moved to conducive locations with lower labor costs. We should invite these investors to look for cheaper labor options, here in the Caribbean region (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, etc.). This is the same reality as in Europe with different wage levels for the different countries (see Appendix below); the Caribbean also has these wage differences.
The Go Lean roadmap seeks to foster higher-paying job options: Call Centers, Offshore Software Development Centers, R&D Medical campuses, light-manufacturing and assembly plants for “basic needs” products (food, clothing shelter, energy, and transportation) for Caribbean consumption. This is the successful model of Japan, China and the “East Asia Tigers” economies; these are manifestations of effective Economic Principles.
The Go Lean book therefore digs deeper, providing turn-by-turn directions to get to the desired Caribbean results: a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
2014 Annual values (in national currency) for a family with two children with one average salary, including tax credits and allowances.[1] Net amount is computed after Taxes, Social Security and Family Allowances; the result is provided in both the National Currency and the Euro, if different. The table, sorted from highest Net amount to the lowest, is presented as follows:
State
Gross
Net (Natl. Curr)
Net (Euro)
Switzerland
90,521.98
86,731.20
71,407.21
Luxembourg
54,560.39
52,041.36
52,041.36
Norway
542,385.96
415,557.87
49.,741.20
Denmark
397,483.78
289,292.48
38,806.20
Iceland
6,856,099.69
5,872.114.66
37,865.07
UNITED STATES
56,067
45,582
37,671
Sweden
407,974.45
335,501.45
36,874.37
Netherlands
48,855.70
36,648.71
36,648.71
United Kingdom
35,632.64
28,960.38
35,925.65
Belgium
46,464.41
35,810.55
35,810.55
Italy
41,462.67
24,539.93
35,539.93
Germany
45,952.05
36,269.23
35,269.23
France
38,427.35
30,776.75
34,776.75
Ireland
34,465.85
34,382.63
34,382.63
Austria
42,573.25
33,666.04
33,666.04
Finland
42,909.72
32,386.59
32,386.59
JAPAN
4,881,994.24
4,132.432.02
29,452.16
Spain
26,161.81
22,129.78
22,129.78
Greece
24,201.50
17,250.24
17,250.24
Slovenia
17,851.28
15,882.53
15,882.53
Portugal
17,435.71
15,140.25
15,140.25
Estonia
12,435.95
11,176.87
11,176.87
Czech Republic
312,083.83
306,153.76
11,118.31
Slovakia
10,342.10
9,778.16
9,778.16
Poland
42,360.01
34,638.77
8,278.27
Hungary
3,009,283.93
2,530.280.97
8,196.30
Turkey
28,370.00
21,072.12
7,250.00
————-
Appendix Video – Collective Bargaining and Shared Prosperity: Michigan, 1979 – 2009 http://youtu.be/PcT4jK89JmE
Published on September 27, 2012 – This VIDEO depicts the positive effects of Collective Bargaining on the quest for income equality in the US State of Michigan; and the sad consequence of the widening income inequality when Collective Bargaining is less pervasive.
This reflect the “Observe and Report” functionality of the Go Lean…Caribbean promoters in the Greater Detroit-Michigan area.
