Model – Page 9 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: Model

BHAG – Outreach to the World: Why Not a Profit Center – Encore

Posted on March 28, 2020 in Economics, Government, Planning, Strategy

The plan to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states does not ignore the rest of the world. No, it recognizes that there must be a lot of “coming and going” with other people in other places.

We honestly admit that many of our own citizens have abandoned the homeland, yet these ones still want to be engaged with Caribbean institutions and can truly still have a positive impact on our societal engines. If only we can “profit” from this engagement.

Yes, we can …

How about a plan for the Caribbean member-states to build-out their “Outreach to the World” – Embassies, Consulates and Trade Mission Offices – in such a way so as to generate traffic from consumer and commercial stakeholders – think: retail, dining, entertainment and amusements.

Generate traffic and generate profits!

This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), but this can be done; this is being done; this could be expanded upon to a heightened extent.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean presents a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life, either at home or abroad. For this March 2020, our focus is on BHAG efforts that are too big for any one member-state alone. This is entry 5-of-6 for this series, which embraces the reality of the Caribbean Outreach to the World.

The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

In addition to the 42 million people in the Caribbean member-states, there is also the Diaspora, estimated in some circles to be 10 to 26 million people; (the disparity is due to the status of first generation “legacies”; only “some” identify with the homeland). So the subject of Caribbean Outreach to the World is familiar for this movement behind the Go Lean book. In addition to the direct references to Diaspora and Trade Mission Offices in the 2013 book, there have been a number of previous Go Lean commentaries that elaborated on this theme of Outreach to this population; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19134	Caribbean Diaspora – All Member-states – Not the Panacea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17992	The ‘Best of the Caribbean’ … now live abroad
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16532	Diaspora Reckoning – Settlers -vs- Immigrants – ‘We’ never catch-up
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16395	The Caribbean – A People or A Place?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16208	Caribbean Trade and Outreach Can Transform Society
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858	Opportunities for a New Media Network to reach the Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15658	Realities and Dangers of American Immigrant Life – We need to protect our Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14746	Calls for Repatriation Strategy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13604	Outreach Goal: We Want Diaspora to Retire ‘Back at Home’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7151	The Caribbean is Looking For Heroes … to Return

In fact, this exact concept of Outreach to the World – Why Not A Profit Center has been addressed specifically in this prior Go Lean blog-commentary from May 3, 2014. It is only appropriate to Encore that 6-year old commentary now. But imagine how much progress has been made since then. For example, consider this establishment in Berlin Germany where developers have captured a Tropical Island experience indoors, open 365 days a year. Consider this VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Tropical Islans Water Park! – https://youtu.be/MRywPptaOrA

Posted March 12, 2017 – Tropical Islands is a tropical water park built in an old air ship hanger that protected air ships in bad weather. It is located about 45 minutes south of Berlin, Germany and is set in the largest freestanding hall in the world.
Category: Film & Animation

This is not the only one – there are many more “Indoor Water Parks” throughout the world; consider this list:

30 Top Indoor Water Parks around the World
i.e. #21: Castaway Bay, Cedars Point, Sandusky, Ohio, USA

Why can’t we do the same in other locations – especially our Trade Mission sites – in our Outreach to the World?!

“Can’t bring the people to the Caribbean? Then bring the Caribbean to the people.” – Yes, this is a BHAG.

See the Encore of the May 3, 2014 commentary here-now:

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Go Lean Commentary – Why not … a Profit Center?

Most Caribbean countries have Embassies, Consular Offices and/or Trade Mission Offices in world capitals. These are normally cost centers, where the governments have to maintain the cost burden for these facilities. But why do they have to be cost centers, why not profit centers?

Why not … a profit center? As in one integrated, consolidated center on behalf of all the Caribbean member-states – a classic “cooperative” model. This strategy meets a basic requirement of retail design: traffic. All the embassy, consular and trade mission activities would create impactful retail traffic demands.

This vision comes into focus as a result of the emergence of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), and the news article^[c] below. The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. The roadmap fully anticipated integrating and consolidating Trade Mission Offices (Page 116) to advance the causes of the Caribbean people in foreign countries; eight (8) cities are specified in details.

The resultant facility, and accompanying eco-system, would fulfill a CU mandate, global outreach to expand Caribbean trade within the source country, city and regional area.

From the outset of the roadmap, the intent to leverage Trade Mission Offices was pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13), as follows:

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. … The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

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

The roadmap also urges the urban design approach for mixed-use developments; (Page 234). This dictates a structure designed as retail (ground floor), mezzanine for offices, and higher levels/floors for residences (apartments, condominiums, and hotels). See a sample site in a US Midwestern city here – Photos & VIDEO:

VIDEO Midtown Crossing Commercial – https://youtu.be/3Ua3FjWLfKk

A model of a successful mixed-use development is the Omaha-Nebraska Midtown Crossing^[a].

Consider New York City; it is one of 8 mission cities envisioned. This map below and the Appendix Table lists all the addresses of the Caribbean embassies, consulates, and outreach offices in New York City^[b] – all within a 5 mile radius. Imagine if all those facilities were in one property – a mixed-use development.

Imagine too, a climate-controlled atrium with Caribbean fauna & flora; a food court showcasing cuisines from all the participating Caribbean countries, (up to 30); art galleries, convention/banquet facilities, exhibit halls, night clubs, performing arts theaters and maybe even an indoor entertainment center (for instance, modeling the legacy of Caribbean Pirates). This vision would generate multiple streams of revenue – a profit center as opposed to 30 cost centers.

This vision would benefit a lot of Caribbean stakeholders with support and outreach services – those desiring to live, work, learn, heal and play in the Caribbean. These stakeholders include:

Visitors
Caribbean Citizens (travelling abroad)
Diaspora
Foreign Direct Investors
Students

There is the need for this manifestation right now in London, England (another designated Trade Mission Office – Page 116 ); as depicted in this referenced news story^[c]:

LONDON, England (May 1, 2014) — Overseas Territory representatives from the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla met with United Kingdom business networking specialists, CaribDirect International Business Network (CIBN) in London last week, as the first networking session focusing on trade and investment gathers momentum.

These discussions, held at the offices of the Bermuda representative, focused on introducing the CaribDirect International Business Network (CIBN) concept; outlining its broad scope; revealing the economic and political opportunities available for the Caribbean Overseas Territories (OTs); and examining practical ways to work together for the benefit of the dependent territories of the Caribbean.

CIBN is an agency designed to facilitate and connect entrepreneurs and business people in the UK with Caribbean government and business representatives for trade and investment.

Representatives attending the meeting were Cayman Islands’ deputy director Charles Parchment, Montserrat director Janice Panton, BVI London Office director Kedrick Malone, Bermuda director Kimberley Durrant, CaribDirect director of policy Ron Belgrave and CaribDirect multi-media CEO David Roberts.

If only this profit center concept existed now … in London … and in New York.

The CU roadmap is designed to bring change to the Caribbean region. This commentary demonstrates that a lean, nimble organization structure can also be “at the corner of preparation and opportunity” and that opportunity can be made in turning a cost center into a profit center. This structure can optimize the Caribbean’s economic, security and governing engines – no matter the location. If the Trade Mission Offices were constituted as profit centers, the following details from the book Go Lean…Caribbean would manifest, with impacted community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; listed as follows:

Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 37
Strategy – Repatriating Caribbean Diaspora	Page 47
Strategy – Inviting Foreign Direct Investments	Page 48
Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department	Page 80
Tactical – Design Requirements for the Capital District	Page 110
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives	Page 116
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate	Page 118
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Trade	Page 128
Advocacy – Lessons from New York City	Page 137
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism	Page 190
Advocacy – Impact the Diaspora	Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living	Page 234

The Go Lean roadmap will make the outreach, and foreign support, for Caribbean stakeholders more efficient and effective. This plan would impact and change the Caribbean and the foreign world we reach out to.

All Caribbean stakeholders – citizens, businesses and governments alike – are urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap.

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

———————

Appendix – References

a. http://www.midtowncrossing.com/about/default.aspx
b. http://michaelbenjamin2012.com/2012/06/21/caribbean-region-consulates-in-nyc/
c. http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Caribbean-overseas-territories-meet-with-UK-networking-specialists-20934.html

———————

Appendix – TABLE – Caribbean States Mission Offices – New York City

Member-State	Address
Anguilla	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-0277
Antigua & Barbuda	610 Fifth Avenue, Ste 311, New York, NY 10020 Phone: 212-541-4117
Aruba	666 Third Avenue, 19th floor, New York, NY 10017 Phone 877-388-2443
Bahamas	231 East 46^th Street, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-421-6420
Barbados	820 Second Avenue, 5^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-551-4325
Belize	675 Third Avenue, Ste 1911, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-593-0999
Bermuda	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
British Virgin Islands	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
Cayman Islands	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
Cuba	315 Lexington Ave 38th Street New York, NY 10016 Ph. 212-689-7215
Dominica	800 Second Ave, Ste 400H, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-949-0853
Dominican Republic	1500 Broadway, Ste 410, New York, NY 10036 Phone: 212-768-2480
Grenada	800 Second Ave, Ste 400K, New York, NY 10017 Phone 212-599-0301
Guadeloupe	45 W 34th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10001 Phone 877-203-2551
Guyana	370 Seventh Avenue, 4^th Fl, New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-947-5110
Haiti	271 Madison Avenue, 17^th Fl, New York, NY 10016 Phone: 212-967-9767
Jamaica	767 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212-935-9000
Martinique	444 Madison Avenue, 16^th Fl, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-838-6887
Monserrat	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-0200
Netherland Antilles:Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Eustatius, Saba	1 Rockefeller Plaza 11th Floor, New York, NY 10020 212-246-1429
Puerto Rico	666 5th Avenue # 15l, New York, NY, 10103-1599. Phone: 212-333-0300
St. Barthelemy	934 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10021 Phone: 212-606-3601
St. Kitts & Nevis	414 East 75^th Street, New York, NY 10103 – 212-535-5521
St. Lucia	800 Second Avenue, 9^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 – 212-697-9360
St. Maarten	675 Third Avenue, Ste 1807, New York, NY 10017 – 800-786-2278
St. Vincent & The Grenadines	801 Second Avenue, 21^st Fl, New York, NY – 212-687-4490
Suriname	1 UN Plaza, 26^th Fl, New York, NY 10017 – 212-826-0660
Trinidad & Tobago	125 Maiden Lane, Unit 4A, 4^th Fl, New York, NY 10038 Ph. 212-682-7272
Turks & Caicos Island	845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Phone: 212-745-8272
US Virgin Islands	45 W 34th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10001 Phone 877-203-2551

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BHAG – One Voice: Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance

Posted on March 27, 2020 in Government, Planning, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Face the truth, the “little one” is often invisible and ignored …

… but a Bible prophecy gives hope that the small inconsequential one can someday become significant and actually have a voice that is heard by the “powers that be”. Here is that prophecy from the Bible, from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament); it is a great inspiration:

A little one shall become a thousand, And a small one a strong nation.- Isaiah 60:22 New King James Version

Here is another great directive from The Bible – this time from the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament), from Act 8:6:

And the people with one accord ^G3661 gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

“One Accord”, in this case, does not refer to the vehicle from the Japanese Auto Company Honda …

… rather, it refers to the Art & Science of speaking in unison. This harmonizes with the source Greek word that is used in the above scripture: Homothumadon, which means “with one mind, with one accord, with one passion”.

This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of the planners for a new Caribbean. This was enunciated in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean as a necessary engagement for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. Now more than ever, we – all 42 million people in the region – need to speak with one accord, one voice and one passion.

The average population for these territories is not the arithmetic formula of 1.4 million people or (42,198,874 divided by 30). No, the truth is, there are 4 Big Islands, the Greater Antilles of Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti & Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico and Jamaica that have the majority of the population (11.2, 9.0 + 9.5, 4.0 and 2.8 million respectively). While the remaining 26 member-states only total 10 million people; some member-states (15) are so small that they only have 100,000 people or less. (All these figures are as of 2010 and published in the Go Lean book, Page 66).

So the small one can become a strong nation by speaking in unison, with One Voice One Accord.

This is entry 4-of-6 for the March 2020 monthly series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. This submission asserts that there is the need to reform the Foreign Policy of the Caribbean member-states, and further that the voices emanating from 30 different member-states now only sounds like noise. What we need instead is one melodious sound. This is why it is important for the region to speak with One Voice One Accord.

How is this possible, considering that there are 4 different languages and 5 different colonial legacies? The answer is heavy-lifting; but alas, we have the sample-example of a successful execution by the European Union with 28 countries and 15 languages. See how the Go Lean book related this:

The Bottom Line on EU Foreign & Security Policy
The European Union (EU) has its own foreign and security policy, which has developed gradually over many years and which enables it to speak – and act – as one in world affairs. Acting together the 28 member countries have greater weight and influence than if they act individually, following 28 different policies. The EU’s common foreign and security policy has been further strengthened by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, which created the post of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. At the same time, it created a European Diplomatic Service – the European External Action Service (EEAS).

How about a Caribbean Diplomatic Service? Yes, we can.

Where as the Europeans developed their unified voice “gradually over many years”, our Caribbean must have our unified voice immediately. We must not settle for the luxury of “gradually over many years”. No, we have an urgent-emergent situation transpiring in the region where we need to be One Voice One Accord now. This urgency-emergency relates to the Coronavirus that is rocking our region and the whole world. See this chart of Coronavirus incidences in the region:

Title – Coronavirus cases in the Caribbean as of March 21 at 1 pm

Confirmed Caribbean coronavirus cases as of today, March 21:

Source: Retrieved March 23, 2020 from: http://www.loopnewsbarbados.com/content/coronavirus-cases-caribbean-date-11

China, South Korea, Iran, Italy have individually engaged in unifying their voice for consistent leadership in this Coronavirus battle. Now, we have many Caribbean nations that have been afflicted – people have died – but we need the rest of the world to respect our policies and decision-making. There need not be any guessing as to whether Caribbean nations are open or closed. We need the full region to “shelter-in-place” everywhere and close our borders. We need to allow this crisis to pass, with minimal contagions, so that we can quickly re-open to a disease free environment.

Remember, the Cruise ships in our waters as well.

There is much for us to learn by studying the success and failure of other peoples. Right now today, there is a lesson for us to contemplate from the American metropolitan area of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, where the population is 7,690,420 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau‘s 2018 population estimates,^[4]) across a 13-county region. The 10 urban-suburban counties, despite having their own economic, security and governing engines, now need One Voice One Accord, in their management of the Coronavirus crisis; see this news article here:

Title: Dallas County judge to Collin County: Keep people at home
Sub-title: Clay Jenkins’ admonition comes on a day when North Texas tallies 100 more coronavirus cases. Dallas County had a seventh death, and Denton County recorded its first fatality.

On a day when more than 100 coronavirus cases were reported in North Texas, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins gave a blunt message Thursday night to counties that haven’t enacted shelter-in-place orders, singling out Collin County, which has told residents to stay home but told businesses to stay open.

“We need those in our region who have not moved to heed the scientific advice to do it now,” Jenkins said. “Every day we wait costs lives.”

Dallas County was the first in the state to announce a shelter-in-place order, which went into effect Monday night.

Jenkins said he and his counterparts in the 10-county area took part in a call Thursday with Jim Hinton, the chief executive of Baylor Scott & White Health System. Collin County was the only county that didn’t participate, he said.

Hinton told the county judges that “the only way we can keep people safe and not overrun our hospitals is [to] shelter in place,” Jenkins said at a news conference Thursday evening.

…

Jenkins said he’s taking on the issue of regional cooperation more bluntly “because every day gets us closer to that day when we don’t have enough hospital beds.”

“I don’t want us to get there,” he said.

Asked about the call with the hospital executive, Hill said it was accurate that he didn’t participate but that he had participated in two other calls with county judges Thursday that Jenkins didn’t take part in.

“We need regional cooperation right now in North Texas,” Hill said. “And I urge Judge Clay Jenkins to reconsider his position.”

…

See the full news article here: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/03/26/dallas-county-reports-56-new-coronavirus-cases-7th-death/ retrieved March 26, 2020.

This commentary details the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for the Caribbean, that of having a unified voice on the world scene. This is only possible if we were a unified Single Market; then we will have the size – 42 million people – and leverage the whole region as a single entity; this is much better than any one small member-state “making noise alone”. There is an actual advocacy for this purpose in the Go Lean book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 102, entitled:

10 Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** The CU is modeled after the EU and will allow for the unification of the Caribbean region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to promote and protect the interest of the participant trading partners. The CU’s Office of Trade Negotiation currently liaisons with foreign entities to secure better trade deals for the region; under the CU the first goal is to secure the Exclusive Economic Zone status, from the United Nations, for the territory between the islands. In addition, the CU treaty will allow for a collective security agreement of the Caribbean nations so as to ensure homeland security and negotiate better foreign relations with neighboring powers.
2	Speaking with one voice Acting together as the CU, the 30 member countries will have far greater weight and influence than if they act individually, following 30 different policies. The CU, in speaking for 42 million people, brings huge cost savings to the member-states by providing economies-of-scale for representative personnel and offices in foreign countries. The CU will not only perform diplomatic services, but economic ones as well. There is the need for collective bargaining with the Cruise Line industry. Then extending beyond the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), the CU will function as a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to garner savings for the member-states; and also create a revenue stream for the CU.
3	CU Security Pact
4	US Relationship The CU’s biggest neighbor is the United States, plus two member-states are US Territories. Plus, many of the Caribbean Diaspora live in the US. Therefore any serious foreign policy initiative must start with Washington, DC. The CU will staff an office in Washington to act as its legislative liaison (lobbyist) arm. The US also grants foreign aid to many CU member-states. The goal is to aggregate and streamline US aid to the region through the CU.
5	US Immigration Policy and ICE Policy-wise, the CU advocates repatriation and “drying up the brain drain”. But there are factions in the US that want to liberalize immigration and allow more foreigners to relocate to the US. On the other hand, there are factions that want to tighten US policy and secure the borders. The US agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do exert some efforts to patrol the Caribbean region, as many illegal immigrants to the US use Caribbean pathways. The CU will advocate for more collaboration and intelligence sharing with ICE and embed CU personnel in tactical engagements.
6	Canada Relationship
7	EU Relationship
8	Mexico Relationship
9	South American Relationship
10	Intelligence Gathering and Analysis

This quest for One Voice One Accord for the 30 Caribbean member-states is one of our Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic stance
BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The subject of One Voice One Accord is familiar for this movement behind the Go Lean book. In addition to the direct references in the 2013 book, there have a number of previous Go Lean commentaries that elaborated on this theme; consider this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18243	After Hurricane Dorian, “Regionalism” new appreciation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17250	Way Forward – Caribbean ‘Single Market’ for Voice & Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858	Network Mandates – One Voice – for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15521	A Plan for Caribbean Unity – Finally for Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15245	Righting a Wrong: Re-thinking CSME
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14718	‘At the Table’ or ‘On the Menu’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Introduction to Europe – All Grown Up and Unified

The goal of this Go Lean roadmap is to reform and transform the 30 member-states of the Caribbean, individually and collectively as One Single Market – One Voice One Accord. This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, but this is conceivable, believable and achievable.

The Coronavirus crisis is not the first challenge to the global, regional, national or local well-being. We guarantee you that this will not be the last; we must simply be prepared or On Guard for any threats to our society. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap; this CU effort may be our best solution for protecting and promoting our society. We therefore urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap. The CU Trade Federation is not the first attempt to unify the Caribbean region for a regional Public Health stance; no, there is CariCom and their related agencies; see the Appendix VIDEO below. The Go Lean movement have always maintained that CariCom is inadequate for Caribbean integration; it does not even include Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Island, the French or Dutch Caribbean territories. In fact, CariCom only includes 15 million of the 42 million in the region; this is truly inadequate, so we recognize it only as a First Step for regional integration.

The Go Lean roadmap for the CU Trade Federation and all its embedded agencies is better … and timely for what we need right now and for the future.

Despite the challenges to our status quo, due to this COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis, this 2013 published plan is the Way Forward for Caribbean society. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work, heal and play. 🙂

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

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

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

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 to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, mental health, obesity and smoking cessation programs. The Federation must proactively anticipate the demand and supply of organ transplantation as developing countries are often exploited by richer neighbors for illicit organ trade.

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

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

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

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

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Appendix VIDEO – CARICOM One on One – Interview with CARPHA’s Dr James Hospedales – https://youtu.be/865DWo7OKp0

CARICOM: Caribbean Community

Dr James Hospedales of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) speaks with the CARICOM Secretariat’s Jascene Dunkley-Malcolm on Measles and Immunization

Category: Travel & Events

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BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads

Posted on March 16, 2020 in Economics, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

I have a dream …
… that one day people can easily get from Point A to Point B here in their Caribbean homelands.

Is that so fanciful?

Is it so “pie in the sky” to think that our Caribbean communities can organize, plan and execute infrastructure projects so that people can safely travel by road, mitigating traffic congestion, and get to their destinations to live, work and play?

“Pie in the sky” or just “sky” is the key reference here. This commentary asserts that some of the congested streets in the Caribbean member-states can find relief by building “skyways” and overpasses; and they can be Toll Roads. (Considers these samples-examples)

This vision was always part of the roadmap, as described in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. This roadmap introduces the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as a super-national entity with Port Authority functionalities, to build highways, bridges, tunnels, docks and other Public Works (infrastructure) to facilitate the societal engines (economics, security and governance) of the Caribbean region. The book describes that transportation solutions must be embedded into any plan to elevate Caribbean society. See this reference to Turnpike-Toll Roads in the book (Page 205) in this advocacy:

10 Ways to Improve Transportation
#4 – Turnpike: Land Highways
The CU will fund and build limited-access “toll ways” to expedite transportation of people and goods. The tolls will be rebated as incentives for carpools, ride-share and zero-emissions promotion. “Build it and they will come” is the mantra for putting in the highways away from the current population centers. Overall, every densely populated community should have one North-South and one East-West artery.

Imagine existing roads, but with additional lanes that are elevated above the existing roads. This would indeed provide solutions and relief to the current traffic congestion.

Questions: What is missing today? Why is it that the local Caribbean governments (and other Third World countries) are not doing this now?

Answer: Money!

This is the focus of this commentary: Funding Toll Roads.

How do we fund the construction of such Toll Roads?

The book’s excerpt states that “the CU will fund and build”; but the focus is on raising the money, not “swinging the hammer”. This is the dream, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), to be able to generate capital for Public Works projects. Another excerpt from the Go Lean book details the Art and Science of municipal financing; see these summaries here (Page 175):

10 Ways to Impact Public Works
# 2 – Union Atlantic Turnpike
The Union Atlantic Turnpike is a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. There are many transportation arteries and facilities envisioned for the Turnpike: Toll Roads, Railroads, Ferry Piers, and Navy Piers. The CU plan calls for underwater tunnels, causeways and bridges in narrow straits where the economics dictate. While some CU states already have railroad installations, there is no uniform management, oversight or standards. The CU will regulate the railroad industry to complement the other transportation modes to offer integrated solutions. This approach will allow the conformity and logistics so that passengers/cargo can efficiently move to trains, ferries, pipeline (cargo only) to highway-bound buses/trucks… and vice-versa.

# 10 – Capital Markets
A Single Market and Currency Union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).

There are role models for us to emulate. Here is one example; we have been to New York City; we have studied the history and the progress of their transportation-focused Public Works. We have even published previous commentaries on the Port Authority of New York – New Jersey and on the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroCard payment system; (also see VIDEO’s – one factual and one satirical – in the Appendices below). So the lesson-learned is to have the organizational structure so as to fund the construction and management of transportation projects, such as Toll Roads; consider the case of the George Washington Bridge (picture above) that connects New York and New Jersey. See this historic milestone in the timeline:

The New York City Planning Commission approved the George Washington Bridge improvement in June 1957,^[147] and the Port Authority allocated funds to the improvement that July.^[148][149] – Source: – Wikipedia.

Just like that! One group of experts made the plan and another group of experts arranged the funding – this is an example of a technocracy, and a role model for us to emulate here in the Caribbean region.

This is entry 3-of-6 for the March 2020 monthly series from the movement behind the Go Lean book. This submission considers the mechanics of funding Public Works projects. The strategy is simple: each transportation project will apply tolls, to generate ongoing revenues. When there are thousands and millions of journeys, and a toll is charged every time, then the economics finally make sense.

The full catalog of the series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is listed as follows:

BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The subject of Infrastructure is a Big Deal for the consideration of reforming or transforming the Caribbean region. The premise of the Go Lean roadmap is that the leverage of the 30 member-states and 42 million people will allow for Public Works initiatives that are bigger and better than any single (one) member-state alone. “Toll Roads” is one such example, though only a subset of the planned Union Atlantic Turnpike. The plan is for the Turnpike Authority to design and facilitate one North-South and one East-West highway as applicable in each island or coastal-state.

Yes, the highways will be Toll Roads; that charges fees for each ride. The “small pennies add up to millions” over time. This funding mechanism of the Turnpike Authority allows present infrastructure investments based on those future revenues; think bonds and loans. Look again at the New York-New jersey Port Authority example; see their gross revenues here from a recent year (2012), as reported in a previous blog-commentaries – ‘Cannot Break Up the Port Authority’ from August 20, 2014:

PANYNJ Revenues / Profits

TOTAL AVIATION: +$2.5 BILLION

Airport
Profit

JFK

+$990 million

LaGuardia

+$273 million

Newark

+$1.3 million

Teterboro, Stewart, heliports

-$65 million

TOTAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL: -$537 MILLION*

Bridge/Tunnel
Profit

GW Bridge

+$1.3 billion

Lincoln Tunnel

+167 million

Holland Tunnel

+$141 million

Port Authority Bus Terminal

-$479 million

PATH

-$2.3 billion

TOTAL PORT COMMERCE: -$755 MILLION*

Port
Profit

Port Newark

-$317 million

Port Jersey

-$184 million

Howland Hook

-$160 million

Brooklyn Marine Terminal

-$27 million

TOTAL WORLD TRADE CENTER: -$3.1 BILLION
GRAND TOTAL: -$2.5 BILLION

The total shows the authority doesn’t generate enough from tolls, fees and grants to cover its costs. It borrows to cover the shortfall.
*Total includes other entities not listed here.

Source: Phase II Report to the special committee of Port Authority’s board, prepared by consulting firm Navigant in September 2012.

All these revenues for the PANYNJ are used to “Service Debt”, make loan payments or pay-off bonds that funded these projects over the decades. The purpose of the Port Authority is “not to make a profit per se”, but rather to facilitate the infrastructure for the regional communities, so that the people (citizens) can successfully live, work and play. This is a Good model for us!

This theme of Caribbean infrastructure projects have been elaborated in many other previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19327	‘Missing Solar’ – Inadequacies Infrastructure Exposed to the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18828	Big Infrastructure to Better Feed Ourselves – Temperate Foods
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18266	After Dorian, Still no Flood Prevention – ‘Fool Me Twice’ on Flooding
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18228	After Dorian, The Need for the Science of Power Restoration
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	What Went Wrong? Failing the Lessons from ‘Infrastructure 101’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17434	Moving Forward with Transportation Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17377	Marshall Plans – Funding: How to Pay for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17337	Industrial Reboot – Amusement Parks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15662	Build It and They Will Come – Manifesting High-Tech Neighborhoods
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13856	Lesson Learned – Big Projects Designed for Failure
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8590	Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure

The goal of these projects are not just to alleviate traffic congestion. No, it is bigger than that. The goal is to connect the people and places of the Caribbean region, better. This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, but this is conceivable, believable and achievable.

To recap, there is reform: mitigate traffic congestions by building bigger, better roads, maybe even adding skyways and overpasses …

… and there is transform: deploying alternative transit options: light rail, unmanned people-movers, busways, and even bicycle lanes and safe-ways.

This is the Way Forward for Caribbean society. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – The Port of New York and New Jersey – https://youtu.be/7XTi2oyPs2k

Port Authority New York & New Jersey
Posted February 20, 2019 – The Port of New York & New Jersey is the largest port on the U.S. East Coast and the third largest in the U.S. The Port plays an important role in getting goods to the region and to key inland markets while also contributing to the local communities we inhabit and our region.

http://www.portnynj.com

Category: Science & Technology

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – New York’s Port Authority: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/44fCfJQV7yQ

LastWeekTonight

Posted August 3, 2014 – Locked in a dispute with Fishs Eddy, New York’s Port Authority wants to regain control of its own image. John Oliver wants to help them make it happen.

Category: Entertainment

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BHAG – Regional Currency – ‘In God We Trust’

Posted on March 13, 2020 in Economics, Government, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

Got any money? Got any American coins or notes (US Dollars). Notice the engraving: ‘In God We Trust’. What does it mean?

The capitalized form “IN GOD WE TRUST” first appeared on the two-cent piece in 1864^[5] and has appeared on paper currency since 1957. The 84th Congress passed legislation (P.L. 84–851), also signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declaring the phrase to be the national motto.^[6][7][8]

With the separation of “Church and State” mantra, isn’t this intended to imply that God backs this money? As such “In God We Trust” as a national motto and on U.S. currency has been the subject of numerous unsuccessful lawsuits by many individuals.^[72] But the legal defense has been validated repeatedly – see how this encyclopedic source details this historicity:

Some groups and people have objected to its use, contending that its religious reference violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.^[9] These groups believe the phrase should be removed from currency and public property. In lawsuits, this argument has not overcome the interpretational doctrine of accommodationism, which allows government to endorse religious establishments as long as [one religion is not favored over another].^[10] According to a 2003 joint poll by USA Today, CNN, and Gallup, 90% of Americans support the inscription “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.^[11]

Don’t get it twisted: American money having a reference to “trusting in God” does not make it divine, or backed by God. There is nothing sacred about American currency, and thusly, it can be replaced or supplanted. This is our dream!

For the 30 member-states of the political Caribbean, there are a number of different currencies that represent our monetary efforts: local currencies (i.e. Jamaican, Caymanian, Bahamian, etc.) AND reserve currencies like US Dollar or the Euro. This is the dream that there would be just one Single Currency, not the US Dollar, to represent all of the Caribbean.

What a dream! In fact, this is considered a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

This is entry 2-of-6 for the March 2020 version of the monthly series from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This submission considers the BHAG of the Caribbean Dollar or C$ – yes, we even have a brand name. Our one currency with coins and notes for all monetary exchanges in the Caribbean region.

Yes, we can!

Every month, we submit a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. The full series for this month – under the BHAG theme – is cataloged as follows:

BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
BHAG – Regional Currency – ‘In God We Trust’
BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The subject of a regional currency is a weighty responsibility, as it underpins the economic engines for the 42 million people in the region. This quest for the Caribbean Dollar, managed by a technocratic Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) was presented in the Go Lean book as a paramount strategy for elevating the societal engines. Next to the confederation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) itself, the establishment of the CCB is presented as the next highest priority.

In fact, the advocacy (Page 127) of 10 Big Ideas listed this detail as the #2 entry:

Currency Union / Single Currency
Apolitical technocratic monetary control, by the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB), and foreign trade with a globally respected currency allows for the methodical growth of the Caribbean economy without the risk of hyper-inflation and/or currency devaluations. The CU/CCB trades in Caribbean Dollars (C$) of which the currency’s reserves are a mixed-basket of strong foreign currencies: US Dollars, Euro, British Pound and Japanese Yen.

In addition to traditional monetary benefits – discussed below – there is the need to mitigate upheavals in the international financial markets; we have that reality today, on the heels of the Coronavirus pandemic – a global recession is surely coming.

The points of a BIG Hairy Audacious Goal of a Caribbean Dollar to optimize our economic engines have been addressed in previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; consider this one from December 11, 2018 addressing the need to leverage against upheavals in the international financial markets. See an excerpt here:

The strategy in this Go Lean book is to optimize money issues: consolidate monetary reserves for the region into a Single Currency, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), managed by the technocratic Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). The C$ will be based on a mixed-basket of foreign reserves (US dollars, Euros, British pounds & Yens).

This is a simple but effective plan – a best practice: introduce the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) and Caribbean Dollar as a Single Currency for the region’s 30 member-states.

Huge benefits abound! And so this economic initiative is important for Caribbean elevation. The rationale is that this strategy “enables economies to be more resilient to exogenous shocks”.

exogenous shocks – In economics, a shock is an unexpected or unpredictable event that affects an economy, either positively or negatively. Technically, it refers to an unpredictable change in exogenous factors — that is, factors unexplained by economics — which may influence endogenous economic variables. – Wikipedia.

This benefit is so obvious that others have thought of this before …

Yet there has consistently been a Failure to Launch this economic initiative; or to do so successfully. Consider the historicity of the CariCom Multilateral Clearing Facility (CMCF) in Appendix A [of that previous commentary] – a normal functionality of regional Central Banks.

Currently, the Caribbean has no regional Central Bank, so safety-net, no shock absorption, and no integration. This is the quest of the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it urges the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). The book serves as a roadmap for this goal, with turn-by-turn directions to integrate the 30 member-states of the region and forge an $800 Billion economy.

One traditional charter for the monetary responsibilities of a Central Bank is the minting of coins. This charter is now perilous for small units of currency, think the Penny.

One Caribbean member-state, the Bahamas, is embarking on the effort to eliminate the penny from national circulation; see article in the Appendix below and the Appendix VIDEO that relates the American Penny Drama. Yet, this Go Lean roadmap is advocating for a regional currency instead of just a national one. Question: What are our plans for the “Penny”?

Answer: Make it moot!

The Go Lean roadmap calls for doubling-down on electronic money and payments systems. That same previous December 2017 blog-commentary asserted:

Central Banks are required to …

facilitate monetary and currency policies,

oversee bank regulations, and

execute inter-bank financial transactions (like payment settlements …).

(Note: The strategy to including the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Monetary Union is for Electronic Financial Transactions only).

This is how the Go Lean roadmap seeks to transform the Caribbean region, with legitimate, structured and technocratic schemes for electronic money, payments systems, and even crypto-currency. See this declaration here:

The world of electronic payment systems is here! This is a good thing. The benefits of these new schemes are too enticing to ignore: fostering more e-Commerce, increasing regional money supply, mitigating Black Markets, more cruise tourism spending, growing the economy, creating jobs, enhancing security and optimizing governance.

A successful digital money / electronic payment scheme is very important in the strategy for elevating the Caribbean economy, for reforming and transforming. Any “risky” image of technology-backed payments will be nullified with the image of a bleeding-edge technocracy, the CCB, deploying these regimes efficiently and effectively.

This theme of Caribbean monetary and currency solutions have been elaborated in previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16836	Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14248	Leading with Money Matters – New Almighty Caribbean Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13744	Failure to Launch: The Quest for a Caribbean ‘Single Currency’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8381	Case Study on Central Banking for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7034	The Future of Money – For the Caribbean and Beyond
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=906	Bitcoin needs regulatory framework to change ‘risky’ image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=467	Barbados Central Bank records $3.7m loss in 2013
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360	Central Banks Can Create Money from ‘Thin Air’ – Here’s How

To recap, there is reform: mitigate upheavals in the international financial markets …

… and there is transform: deploying electronic money regimes.

This is the Way Forward for Caribbean society. This is our Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Let’s get started!

This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

——————

Appendix – Bahamas one cent coin to be discontinued
By: Chester Robards

The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) officially announced yesterday that The Bahamas’ one cent coins as legal currency will be relegated to the annals of history.

Central Bank Governor John Rolle announced during a press conference at the central bank that by the end of 2020, the Bahamian penny will no longer be accepted at the register. By June of 2021, banks will no longer cash in pennies.

This change will have no effect on the overall cost of goods and services, Rolle said.

CBOB made the decision after studying the cost of producing the penny versus its actual value. The bank found that it cost $443,000 to distribute the one cent coin and it could save $7 million over ten years by eliminating the penny.

The Central Bank has already stopped manufacturing the penny. The last time pennies were manufactured was in 2015, Rolle said.

In January CBOB will stop issuing the coin to commercial banks and will begin withdrawing the coin from circulation.

“There are lots of reasons why this process is being embarked upon. The key one is that it is not financially or economically viable to produce the penny,” Rolle said.

“Today we are spending four percent above the face value to produce them. In the past we used to spend 50 percent above the value to get them produced.

“The penny is not widely used in cash transactions and as many as 60 percent that we have produced over the years we estimate are lost permanently.”

Rolle said the central bank will place coin counting machines in high traffic areas where people with pennies can redeem them for a token that can be deposited to their bank accounts.

The bank explained in a previous press release that the removal of the coin will not have an effect on electronic payments, while cash payments will be rounded off to the nearest five cents.

CBOB outlines its rounding rules as such:

One and two would be rounded down to zero (e.g. $4.21 becomes $4.20).
Three and four would be rounded up to five (e.g. $7.23 becomes $7.25).
Six and seven would be rounded down to five (e.g. $15.67 becomes $15.65).
Eight and nine would be rounded up to 10 (e.g. $27.89 becomes $27.90).

The bank explained that rounding off should only take place on the total bill and individual item prices should not be adjusted.

Rolle explained yesterday that U.S. pennies will also not be accepted at the register after 2020.

He said CBOB will likely recycle the pennies it recovers from the public.

Rolle said of the 700 million pennies that have been circulated since the start of the Central Bank, half of those can no longer be found.

Source: Posted October 11, 2019; retrieved March 13, 2020 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/10/11/bahamas-one-cent-coin-to-be-discontinued/

——————

Appendix VIDEO – Pennies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – https://youtu.be/_tyszHg96KI

LastWeekTonight
Posted November 23, 2015 – Pennies are not even worth what they’re worth. So why do we still make them?

Connect with Last Week Tonight online…

Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would: http://Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight

Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: http://www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

Category Entertainment

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BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) Actuality

Posted on March 12, 2020 in Planning, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There are times when your leaders need to go BIG, projecting hope, assurance and confidence. History is littered with such examples, think of these prominent ones (in chronological order):

Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address
1863: One of the greatest and most influential statements on American national purpose; despite the Civil War, there is “hope that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
Winston Churchill – Identifying the Nazi’s ‘Dark Cloud over the Continent’
1940: In preparation, Churchill marshalled the nation (United Kingdom) for war: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour‘”.^[422]
Franklin D Roosevelt – Pearl Harbor Attack Response
1941: A positive statement – of ‘A Day that will live in infamy’ – on behalf of the entire American people in the face of a great collective trauma. “In proclaiming the indelibility of the attack, and expressing outrage at its “dastardly” nature, the speech worked to crystallize and channel the response of the nation into a collective response and resolve”.^[9]
John F Kennedy – Announcing the Moonshot
1961: President Kennedy announced his support for the American Space program’s “Apollo” missions and redefined the ultimate goal of the Space Race in an address to a special joint session of Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”. His justification for the Moonshot was both that it was vital to national security and that it would focus the nation’s energies in other scientific and social fields.
Ronald Reagan – Soviet’s Evil Empire
1983: Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and as “the focus of evil in the modern world”. He explicitly rejected the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the ongoing nuclear arms race between the two nations; rather, he asserted that the conflict was a battle between good and evil.
George H Bush – Declaring a New World Order
1990: President Bush’s speech presented the notion of world governance in a sense of new collective efforts to address worldwide problems that go beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve. After the end of the Cold War, he assured the nation (and the world) of the new unipolar status of the US; his vision was realistic in saying that “there is no substitute for American leadership”.^[1] The Gulf War of 1991 was regarded as the first test of the new world order: “Now, we can see a new world coming into view. A world in which there is the very real prospect of a new world order”.^[2][3]
George W Bush – Post 9-11 Response
2001: President G.W. Bush prepared the nation for a different kind of war, one with sustained battle against terrorist groups responsible for the 9/11 attacks on America. The President cast the terrorists as “evil” and awakened the country to their danger and the need to defend freedom. “Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.
Barack Obama – Election Day Victory Speech – Yes, We Can
2008: “Because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. … The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year, or even in one term—but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.”^[1] … “To all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope”.

Yes, the need to project hope is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG); a leader has to transform despair to promise, darkness to light and pessimism to optimism.

This need is heighten right now today! Last night, the current President of the US (POTUS), Donald J. Trump, gave an Oval Office speech on the catastrophic imminence of the Coronavirus – COVID-I9. The consequence of the speech: “Rather than hope today, the people feel despair”. See this summary, from The Atlantic Magazine here:

There was one something in the speech: a ban on travel from Europe, but not the United Kingdom. It’s a classic Trump formulation. It seeks to protect America by erecting a wall against the world, without thinking very hard how or whether the wall can work. The disease is already here. … The travel ban is an act of panic. Financial futures began crashing even as Trump was talking, perhaps shocked by his lack of an economic plan, perhaps aghast at his latest attack on world trade.

The next day, today (March 12, 2020), the Stock Market or the New York Stock Exchange, had to be halted within minutes after the start of the trading day, a “pressure-release” valve to prevent drastic selling, had been triggered. – Consider this New York Post source:

The S&P 500 plunged 7 percent within minutes of the opening bell, triggering a New York Stock Exchange circuit-breaker that was last tripped on Monday. The drop put the index into bear market territory: It stopped trading at 2,549.05 points, down 24.8 percent from the 52-week high reached last month.

After trading was lifted 15 minutes later, the S&P 500 plunged even further — as much as 8.4 percent to an new intraday low of 2,508.93. … (See this actuality in the Appendix VIDEO).

This transcript on POTUS Donald Trump’s impact is in direct contrast to the transcript of POTUS Barack Obama. Plus, one president presented policies more conducive to the Caribbean compared to the other one. Which one?

Obama.

Why the parallel? Considering that 29 of the 30 Caribbean member-states possess a majority Black population, Obama is a Black Man who won the presidency of the US, despite the deficient racial history and actuality of that country.

In fact, the historicity of Obama, when he was only a US Senator, was started as a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” – he published a pre-campaign book, a best-seller, with a similar title; (“audacity” is the noun for the adjective “audacious”):

Title: The Audacity of Hope : Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006)

Amazon Review: The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a new kind of politics—a politics that builds upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans. Lucid in his vision of America’s place in the world, refreshingly candid about his family life and his time in the Senate, Obama here sets out his political convictions and inspires us to trust in the dogged optimism that has long defined us and that is our best hope going forward. Source: Retrieved March 12, 2020 from: https://www.amazon.com/Audacity-Hope-Thoughts-Reclaiming-American/dp/0307455874

Reader Review By: Thriftbooks.com User:
I read this book out of pure curiosity. It was written in 2006. I am an octogenarian and a registered Independent. What impressed me was that it was written by the author and not a “ghost.” He expresses himself very well. The portions dealing with his background while growing up were fascinating. His grasp of what the general public can do to unite this country is quite provocative. I have listened to many politicians who impressed me negatively with subjects of hate and one liners. It is my concept that this man is a healer and a deep thinker. What’s more he is able to think on his feet. Most of the politicians I have heard all my life were so dependent upon a tele-prompter that I found them, to say the least, boring. This man excites this old man as never before. I applaud his writings. I recommend this book to any thinking person who wants to know this man a little more personally. Source: Posted October 20, 2008; retrieved March 12, 2020 from: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-audacity-of-hope-thoughts-on-reclaiming-the-american-dream_barack-obama/246072/item/545627/#isbn=0307237702&idiq=6376425

The foregoing refer to historic and current characters of the United States and the United Kingdom; though we have a lot of Caribbean Diaspora in those countries, the drama of their BHAG is all their drama. We can look, listen and learn from their experiences but it is not our actuality to embrace.

But can’t we have goals right here – in the Caribbean and for the Caribbean? Do we have our own aspirational goals?

Big Goals?
Big Hairy, Audacious Goals?

Yes, we can. Yes, we do!

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this March 2020, our focus is on the Big Hairy Audacious Goals for the Caribbean. This is entry 1-of-6 for this series, which details that there are BHAG’s for the Caribbean, as a whole region, and the individual member-states. The world BHAG was not used in the 2013 book, rather there was a Chapter with a similar theme: “Big Ideas”. There is an actual advocacy for this purpose in the Go Lean book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 127, entitled:

10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** The CU is a big idea for the Caribbean, our parallel of the American “moon quest”, allowing for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people. This creates the world’s 29th largest economy, based on 2010 figures. The pre-ascension GDP figures are actually less than $800 Billion, but the aggregation into a single market will manifest the economic “catch-up” principle [180], in 5 years. Further, after 10 years the CU’s GDP should double and rank among the Top 20 or G20 nations.
2	Currency Union / Single Currency
3	Defense / Homeland Security Pact The political reality is that the economics of the region is tied to the security of the region, This treaty teams-up to implement anti-crime, anti-terrorism measures, both proactive and reactionary, to insure the economic engines. This will be in supplement with the US Defense initiatives but our role will increase while the US role decreases, we must assume the security needs for our own commerce.
4	Confederation Without Sovereignty
5	Four Languages in Unison
6	Self-Governing Entities (SGE)
7	Virtual “Turnpike” Operations Ferries, Causeways/Bridges, Pipelines, Tunnels, Railways and limited access highways will function as “blood vessels to connect all the organs” within the region, thus allowing easier transport of goods and people among the islands and the mainland states (Belize, Guyana or Suriname) – See Appendix IC (Page 280) Alaska Marine Highway.
8	Cyber Caribbean
9	e-Learning – Versus – Studying Abroad The Caribbean has tried the Study Abroad model, the result: a “brain drain” where our best students leave and may never return for residence, employment or investments, (only family visits). The new approach is to keep the talent here in the Caribbean, educate them here and notice the positive efforts on societal institutions.
10	Cuba & Haiti Cuba has suffered under the US Trade Embargo for 50-plus years. Now the paradigm shift is that the CU will trade with the rest of the world on behalf of Cuba. The CU will be a reboot for Cuba. Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere. But what they have is impassioned human capital as opposed to financial capital or valuable minerals. The CU is an economic reboot for this country, one that involves developing internally and not thru emigration. The economic principle is “every year of education raises a country’s GDP”. Haiti will exploit the opportunities of the rest of the Caribbean by employing “leap-frog” methodologies; there is no need for gradual advances, rather just jump to where technological infrastructure is moving to, not coming from.

These 10 Big Ideas is just the introduction on our discussion on BHAG’s. The other entries in this month’s series are cataloged as follows:

BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media

The points of BIG Hairy Audacious technocratic projects and initiatives have been further elaborated upon in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19347	Missing Solar (Panel) Systems – One Caribbean Country Goes Green … finally
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19097	Forging Big Changes – Public-Private Partnerships
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18831	Food Security – Opportunity: Supplies Beef for Cruise Lines
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18301	After Hurricane Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17358	Marshall Plans: Past and Future Strategy for Big Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17337	Industrial Reboot – Big Amusement Parks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15346	Industrial Reboot – Shipbuilding … for Big Cruise Ships
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15331	Industrial Reboot – Introducing Auto-making to the Region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075	e-Government 3.0 – This is how to do ‘More’ with ‘Less’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8590	Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure

This is how change is forged; first it starts as a vision, a goal. We must plan the plan; then work the plan; then … after a lot of heavy-lifting, the vision is materialized. This is how we make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – Stock trading halted as markets plunge after Trump’s coronavirus travel ban – https://nypost.com/2020/03/12/stock-trading-halted-as-markets-plunge-after-trumps-coronavirus-travel-ban/

Big Think
Posted March 12, 2020 – US stocks fell fast enough Thursday to halt trading for the second time in a week after President Trump’s efforts to address the coronavirus outbreak further panicked global markets instead of relieving them.

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Chef Jose Andres – A Hero … Not Just for the Caribbean Alone – Encore

Posted on March 10, 2020 in Ethos, Implementation, Social

We would like to keep this international hero – Chef José Andrés – just for ourselves, but his whole character, is being an “Angel of Mercy” for all people suffering from natural disasters.

🙂

He is at it again, coordinating feedings for the poor victims of this Coronavirus-affected Cruise Ship – The Grand Princess – in Oakland, California. See the full story and Twitter-VIDEO here:

Title: Chef José Andrés serving Grand Princess cruise ship guests
By: Sandra Gonzalez, CNN

Celebrity chef José Andrés has mobilized his charity World Central Kitchen and set up camp near the Grand Princess cruise ship.

The ship is carrying at least 21 people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is currently at an Oakland port. Some passengers began to disembark on Monday while thousands remain on the ship.

“@WCKitchen team is ready with lunch for guests leaving today & we will be loading meals for dinner onto the ship….Wishing the best for everyone on board! #ChefsForCalifornia,” Andrés tweeted.

The charity shared photos of some salads the team prepared in San Francisco that were due to be dispersed to passengers.

World Central Kitchen also fed those aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

“If you are in a place, a hotel, a cruise ship, where everybody may be infected, it’s logical to say that you want to make sure, in this case, food is prepared outside,” Andrés told CNN last week.

The nonprofit is known for being on the front lines of all sorts of emergency scenarios. The team has served meals to people affected by hurricanes, wildfires and even furloughed workers during a government shutdown.

Source: Retrieved March 10, 2020 from: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/09/entertainment/jose-andres-world-central-kitchen/index.html?utm_content=2020-03-10T07%3A31%3A02&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&utm_source=fbCNN&fbclid=IwAR1YsAQcEUjJK3e1COr_iow2Era5tVBD_85L3v_shqS7otz3Q-17yVVq5uk

Twitter Message:

We @WCKitchen are up & running in Oakland for the #GrandPrincess! #ChefsForCalifornia pic.twitter.com/UGfDIOcqbt

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 9, 2020

Chef José Andrés is truly an international hero, and role model for the type of person we’d like to foster in the new Caribbean. Thank you Chef.

This is also a good time to Encore a previous blog-commentary on Chef José Andrés from September 4, 2019. See that submission here-now:

——————–

Go Lean Commentary – Chef Jose Andres – Role Model for Hurricane Relief – “One Meal at a Time”

We gotta eat!

Even when a devastating Category 5 Hurricane impacts your homeland, that natural law applies: We gotta eat!

Thank you Chef José Andrés for pulling out all the stops to feed the people of the Bahamas during this, their most desperate hour.

Why does he help? Why does he do “this”? Just because: People gotta eat!

Even though he has help – he brings a team – it is with the full might of his will, reputation and connections that he is able to have this impact. He is proof-positive that one man – or woman – can make a difference in society. See this VIDEO news story here-now:

VIDEO – Chef José Andrés in the Bahamas, helping save lives “one meal at a time” – https://youtu.be/woeweQTXZRg

Posted September 4, 2019 – The renowned chef’s non-profit World Central Kitchen is one of the aid groups spearheading relief efforts in the stricken island nation. CBS Reports.

Chef José Andrés did the same thing in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria; and in Haiti after the 2010 Earthquake. He has been a great benefactor for all of the Caribbean – and he does not even have a Caribbean heritage.

He is from Spain; see his profile in the Appendix below.

Yes, one man can make a difference! The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that one person – an advocate – can change the world (Page 122). It relates:

An advocacy is an act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending a cause or subject. For this book, it’s a situational analysis, strategy or tactic for dealing with a narrowly defined subject.

Advocacies are not uncommon in modern history. There are many that have defined generations and personalities. Consider these notable examples from the last two centuries in different locales around the world:

Frederick Douglas

Mohandas Gandhi

Martin Luther King

Nelson Mandela

Cesar Chavez

Candice Lightner – (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

This is a consistent theme from the movement behind the Go Lean book– available to download for free. We have repeatedly presented profiles of “1” persons who have made lasting impacts on their community and the whole world. Consider this sample list, of previous blog-commentaries where advocates and role models have been elaborated upon:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17871	‘Ross Perot’, Political Role Model – He was right on Trade – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16942	Sallie Krawcheck – Role Model for Women Economic Empowerment
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16926	Viola Desmond – Canadian Role Model for Blacks and Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16702	W.E.B. Du Bois – Role Model in Pan-Africana
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16696	Marcus Garvey – An Ancient Role Model Still Relevant Today
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14558	Being the Change in ‘Brown vs Board of Education’ – Role Model Linda Brown, RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14556	“March for Our Lives” Kids – Observing the Change … with Guns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14139	Carter Woodson – One Man Made a Difference … for Black History
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8165	Role Models Muhammad Ali and Kevin Connolly – Their Greatest Fight
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7682	Frederick Douglass: Role Model for Single Cause – Death or Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866	Bob Marley: The legend of this Role Model lives on!

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to reform and transform Caribbean life and culture. But first we have to make sure our people’s basic needs are covered.

We gotta eat!

So thank you Chef José Andrés for pitching in and feeding our Bahamian and Caribbean people.

The Go Lean roadmap calls on every man, woman and child in the Caribbean to be an advocate, and/or appreciate the efforts of other advocates. Their examples can truly help us today with our passions and purpose.

In summary, we conclude about Chef José Andrés the same as we do about all the other Caribbean advocates; we say (Go Lean book conclusion Page 252):

Thank you for your service, love and commitment to all Caribbean people. We will take it from here.

The movement behind Go Lean book – the planners of a new Caribbean – stresses that a ‘change is going to come’, one way or another. As depicted in the foregoing VIDEO, Chef José Andrés facilitated all the logistics himself for our post-Hurricane Dorian Rescue/Relief – i.e. boats, helicopters and the food – but the new Caribbean should really be matured enough to handle our own Hurricane Response:

Rescue
Relief
Recovery
Rebuild

We must Grow Up, Already!

Haiti, Puerto Rico and now the Bahamas – these were the natural disasters of the past; but there will be more … in the future.

Climate Change guarantees it.

We must copy the patterns and good examples of our role models; Chef José Andrés has provided us a perfect example of how to make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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.

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

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

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 …. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from [successful] developments/communities.

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

—————

Appendix Reference Title: José Andrés
José Ramón Andrés Puerta (born 13 July 1969) is a Spanish-American^[1] chef often credited with bringing the small plates dining concept to America.^[2] He owns restaurants in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Las Vegas, South Beach, Florida, Orlando, New York City, and Frisco, Texas. Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.^[3] He was awarded a 2015 National Humanities Medal at a 2016 White House ceremony.^[4]

…

Trump Hotel restaurant and lawsuit
Andrés planned to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, in 2016. After Donald Trump made disparaging comments about Mexicans in June 2015, Andrés withdrew from the contract with the Trump Organization, which then sued him.^[13] Andrés counter-sued, and the parties reached a settlement in April 2017.^[14] Andrés remains an outspoken critic of Trump.^[15][16]

World Central Kitchen
In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Andrés formed World Central Kitchen which provides healthy food to families and individuals touched by disasters.^[17] Since its founding, the NGO has organized meals in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Peru, Cuba, Uganda, and in Cambodia.^[3]

In January 2019 Andrés opened a World Central Kitchen on Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC to feed federal workers that were furloughed during the government shutdown.^[18]

Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria response
Andrés emerged as a leader of the disaster relief efforts in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017. His efforts to provide assistance encountered obstacles from FEMAand government bureaucrats, so instead, “we just started cooking.”^[19] He organized a grass-roots movement of chefs and volunteers to establish communications, food supplies, and other resources and started serving meals. Andrés and his organization World Central Kitchen (WCK)^[20] served more than two million meals in the first month after the hurricane.^[21][22][23] WCK received two short term FEMA contracts and served more meals than the Salvation Army or the Red Cross, but its application for longer term support was denied.^[24][25]

For his efforts in Puerto Rico, Andrés was named the 2018 Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.^[26] He wrote a book about the experience called We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time.^[27]

Source: Retrieved September 4, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Andr%C3%A9s

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‘Missing Solar’ – Inadequacies Exposed to the World – Encore

Posted on March 2, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Locations, Tactical

The Bahamas has inadequate infrastructure to contend with the realities of modern life. This is all too familiar to the people in the Bahamas.

This is also familiar to the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. On August 15, 2019, this commentary scolded the stakeholders in the Bahamas for their inexcusable inefficiency and ineffectiveness with their infrastructure and Public Works. Now last night, the US-based media-television-network company CBS exposed these inadequacies for all the world to see in their titular news magazine show 60 Minutes.

Eat Crow Bahamas!

What’s more, the actuality of Hurricane Dorian came along and made the bad Bahamas energy delivery even worse. See the VIDEO here of the 60 Minutes report:

VIDEO – Bahamas installing solar power after storms – https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bahamas-hurricanes-power-grid-solar-60-minutes-2020-03-01/

60 Minutes
Posted March 1, 2020 – A tiny country in “Hurricane Alley” is trying to be an example to the world after Category 5 storms demolished parts of its electrical grid. Bill Whitaker reports on the Bahamas’ adoption of solar energy.
Click on PLAY Button to watch; expect commercial advertising before and during.

That report revealed that:

The Bahamian Government pays $400 million dollars on diesel fuel to keep its power plants operating and pass that cost on to the consumers.
“They pay 3 to 4 times the rate that people pay in the mainland US”.

In addition, in another Go Lean commentary, it was reported that the World Bank revealed that 61 percent of college-educated citizens of the Bahamas have fled this homeland for foreign destinations. Is there any surprise? This failure to deliver basic services in an efficient and effective manner is a contributing Push factor why people leave.

There is no mystery! Now the Bahamas is trying to “play catch-up” and deploy Solar Micro-Grids. Yippee!!

This is an appropriate time to Encore that previous blog-commentary from August 15, 2019 – during the ‘Dog Days of Summer‘; (remember this was 2 weeks before Category 5 Hurricane Dorian made landfall). Now that this is March 2020, there is the opportunity to look back with 20/20 Perfect Hindsight Vision at the issues raised by the 60 Minutes story – there are many. This entry is 1-of-3 in that “Look Back“. The other entries are cataloged as follows:

60 Minutes Story – Bahamas Self-Made Energy Crisis
60 Minutes Story – Go Green … finally
60 Minutes Story – Moral Authority to “Name, Blame & Shame” the Big Polluters

See the first Encore here-now:

———————

Go Lean Commentary – Nassau’s 2019 Self-Made Energy Crisis

It is seriously Hot-Hot-Hot out there …

So there is no intent here to be “cold and callous” … (callous = ‘feeling no emotion’).

But the Bahamas’s capital city – Nassau – is having an energy crisis right now:

The local power generation utility (Bahamas Power & Light or BPL) is not producing enough electricity to meet the needs of the community, so they have to load-share and force black-outs/brown-outs around the island to try and facilitate some delivery some time to all their customer base. They do not want to show favoritism to one group over another, so they are leveraging the load-sharing tactic on everybody. So now instead of some people being happy and some being angry, they have obtained universality …

… everybody is angry!

———-

VIDEO – B.P.L. Load Shedding Update – https://youtu.be/fW8JGGnlvzQ

ZNSNetwork
Published on May 15, 2019

Category: People & Blogs

Additionally, see this portrayal in this news article here (and the Appendix VIDEO below):

Title: BPL causing ‘chaos’
By: Jasper Ward, The Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter

Super Value food stores are taking a significant hit as a result of protracted power cuts, according to its owner Rupert Roberts.

Roberts said about six Super Value locations are impacted by outages daily and the company has spent around $100,000 recently on replacing equipment damaged by the outages.

He described the outages as “a nuisance” and said they create “chaos”.

“This BEC (Bahamas Electricity Corporation) crisis is more than a crisis, it’s chaos,” Roberts said at the Nassau Street store.

“It’s costing us $250,000 a year from burning up our equipment.”

He said, “I suppose our biggest concern is burning up equipment.

“…[We] burn up a $10,000 or $20,000 air conditioning [unit and] we’re always burning up compressors. We’re using up spares so fast and we’re doing emergency imports.

“Fortunately, we’re able to get them in within three or four days without flying them in. But I noticed on Saturday we had a diary case down because we’re waiting on the compressor that burned out. That’s the biggest problem.”

Roberts said it will cost about $10,000 to replace a compressor in the dairy case at the Nassau Street location. He said it is unlikely that case will be operational before Saturday.

Roberts said dairy sales were up 14 percent before the case was damaged.

Since it was damaged, sales have gone down 17 percent, he said.

Roberts said the company has twice the amount of equipment needed “because of the serious problem” of the outages.

Although the food store chain is facing challenges with the outages, Roberts said the company is “managing quite well”.

“We’ve been in this business over 50 years and we’ve had power problems for the last 50 years,” he said.

“So, we learned how to cope. We don’t run out of fuel. Years ago, when I first started in the industry, we had generators because of hurricanes but for the past 25 years we’ve had to have generators because of power outages.”

For nearly two months, communities on New Providence have experienced hours-long blackouts as part of Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) load shedding exercise.

Over the last few weeks, BPL has conducted nearly four-hour-long load shedding.

On Sunday, BPL Chief Executive Officer Whitney Heastie said he could not guarantee an end to load shedding exercises in the immediate future, describing BPL as being “on a cliff”.

Heastie said BPL needs 250 megawatts of generation in order to meet the summer demand.

However, it is currently running on 210 megawatts, including 105 megawatts of rental generation.

Heastie said the 40-megawatt shortfall has led to load shedding across New Providence.

Source: Posted by The Nassau Guardian daily newspaper on August 13, 2019; retrieved August 14, 2019 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/08/13/bpl-causing-chaos/

The need to explain that our statement is not “cold and callous” is due to the fact that the appearance is that “we” are ‘kicking the people when they are down’ when we make this assertion:

This energy crisis for Nassau is Self-Made!!

Wait, what?!

This is a matter of infrastructure and Nassau has had an inadequate infrastructure for a while. In fact, since the 1970’s residents on this island of New Providence (NP) have been encouraged to buy bottled-water and not consume the ‘tap’ water.

All of this is evident of the lacking municipal infrastructure. In fact, this is reminiscent of the US City of Flint, Michigan. Their infrastructure has become defective and the people there has to resort to bottled water. In Flint, that problem has now persisted for 4 years. In Nassau, it has been 40 years. (See an excerpt of our 2016 blog-commentary on the Flint crisis in the Appendix below).

Yep, self-made!

This is a BIGGER issue than water or electricity; this is an issue of the Social Contract.

The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 170) defines the Social Contract as the informal arrangement where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. This is why the State, in this case, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is allowed to operate monopolies for the water and power utilities. But any failures in these Social Contract deliveries causes repercussions and consequences. For example people leave and abandon their homeland. This relevance was detailed in a previous Go Lean commentary from July 28, 2015:

The issue of Caribbean citizens abandoning their homelands is one of the more dire threats to societal life in the region. Why do they do it?

“Push and Pull” reasons!

Push
Conditions at home drive Caribbean citizens to take flight and find refuge elsewhere. Many times these conditions are economic (jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities), security and governance related, but there are other reasons too; consider discriminations due to ethnic diversity or other lifestyle choices.

Lastly, there is the new threat of Climate Change. While this is a threat for the whole world, the Caribbean is on the frontline. Though there is some debate as to the causes of climate change, there is no question as to its outcome: temperatures are rising, droughts prevail, and most devastating, hurricanes are now more threatening. A Caribbean elevation plan must address the causes of climate change and most assuredly its consequences. …

Now, the anecdotal experience is that there is a need to mitigate excessive heat in the region for an even longer season. How do we mitigate excessive heat?

Air conditioning!

But this cure may at times be worse than the disease.

Air conditioning requires even greater energy consumption, (the Caribbean has among the highest energy costs in the Western Hemisphere); the Go Lean book posits that the average costs of energy can be decreased from an average of US$0.35/kWh to US$0.088/kWh in the course of the 5-year term of this roadmap; (Page 100).

In addition, the release of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) in the air-conditioning process is a contributor of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The status quo needs remediation!

The Bahamas should have remediated these infrastructural problems years ago – the price is too high to allow it to linger. In addition to the societal abandonment threat; there are life-and-death issues associated with convalescing citizens needing continuous power supply – see photo here:

That’s the problem, now what is the solution?

In addition to the voluminous number of blog-commentaries on infrastructure – see this recent submission from July 26, 2019 – the Go Lean book presented strategies, tactics and implementations that must be pursued, not just for the Bahamas, but for the whole Caribbean region – all 30 member-states. In fact, the book presents one advocacy (Page 176) specifically focused on Public Works, entitled: “10 Ways to Impact Public Works“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is chartered to unify the Caribbean region into one Single Market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby re-engineering the economic engines in and on behalf of the region, including a currency & monetary union. This new eco-system allows for the design, funding and construction of Public Works and Infrastructural projects. The federal agency within the CU’s Department of the Interior has the scope for the Caribbean much like the Corps of Engineers has for the US. (Plus the CU will collaborate with the US Corps for projects related to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). There are a number of inter-state projects that must be coordinated on the federal level. There will also be projects that are “Too Big for One State” that will be facilitated by the CU. In addition, all CU efforts must comply with the Art in Public Places mandate, so sculptures and statutes will be embedded in projects or the project itself can be a work of art (bridges, water towers, building architecture). For existing projects that fail due to financial shortfalls, the CU will accommodate dissolution or reorganization in the federal courts, bringing balance to the process to all stakeholders.
2	Union Atlantic Turnpike
3	Pipelines and PCP (Pneumatic Capsule Pipeline)
4	Regional Power Grid The CU will facilitate the installation of a regional power grid, and power sharing between member-states, with underwater and above-ground high-intensity wiring to alternate energy plants: wind/tidal turbines, solar panel & natural gas.
5	Self-Governing Entities (SGE)
6	Enterprise Zones
7	Empowerment Zones
8	Monopolies The UN grants the CU the monopoly rights for an Exclusive Economic Zone, so the focus must be on quality delivery. The CU plan is to liberalize management of monopolies, with tools like ratings/rankings against best practices. Plus technological accommodations for ICT allows for cross-competition from different modes (satellite, cable, phone).
9	Cooperatives The CU will task utility cooperatives with the delivery of some public utilities such as Air Chillers; Refrigerated Warehouses to its members. This strategy shares the cost of the “Works” installation across the full co-op membership.
10	Capital Markets A single market and currency union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).

The Go Lean book doubles-down on the concept of leveraging across a larger population base so that BIGGER infrastructure projects can be facilitated in the region – on land or in the waters – see Photo here. Imagine large arrays of solar panels, wind turbines, tidal generators, geo-thermal energy captured at the volcanic hot zones, and even Natural Gas as a cleaner-cheaper fossil fuel. These energy options are realistic and should be available to us now in the Caribbean, so they should be explored and deployed. This, a regional power grid, is the energy prime directive for this Go Lean movement.

This theme – exploiting alternative options for the economic, security and governing empowerments in the region – aligns with many previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	‘We’ have repeatedly failed the lessons from ‘Infrastructure 101’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17280	Way Forward – For Energy: ‘Trade’ Winds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13985	EU Assists Barbados in Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12994	The Science of ‘Power Restoration’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12466	12 Caribbean Member-states have ‘Volcanic Energy’ to Exploit
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10367	The Science of Sustenance – Green Batteries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5155	Green Energy Solution: Tesla unveils super-battery to power homes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4897	US Backs LNG Distribution for Caribbean Energy Solutions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=915	Go ‘Green’ … Caribbean

Make no mistake, energy is a basic need!

The failure for a community to have continuous supply of energy is an energy crisis. (This means you Bahamas).

Enough already!

Now is the time for all Caribbean stakeholders to prepare for the empowerments of Green-Energy solutions. It is past-time for a regional power grid:

generation – Green options (solar, wind turbines, tidal, geo-thermal and natural gas)
distribution – Underwater cables to connect individual islands
consumption – efficient battery back-ups for home deployments.

These changes are coming … one way or another.

For you government revenue institutions who may be overly dependent of fuel taxes and surcharges – you are hereby put on notice:

Changes are afoot. We will succeed; we will make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

About the Book

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

Appendix VIDEO – Another B.P.L. Blackout – https://youtu.be/fOT0gfvSchM

ZNSNetwork
Published on Jul 2, 2019

Category: People & Blogs

——————–

Appendix – Excerpts from previous Commentary: Flint, Michigan – A Cautionary Tale – January 19, 2016

[The City of] Flint serves as a “cautionary tale” for other communities near “Failed City/Failed State” status. From this perspective, this community may be a valuable asset to the rest of the world and especially to the Caribbean.

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean are here in Detroit to “observe and report” the turn-around and rebirth of the once-great-but-now-distressed City of Detroit and its metropolitan areas, including Flint. (Previous commentaries featured the positive role model of the City of Ann Arbor).

What happened here?

According to the Timeline in the Appendix, Flint, MI suffered this fate as a chain reaction to its Failed-State status. Outside stakeholders – Emergency Managers – came into the equation to execute a recovery plan with focus only on the Bottom-Line. The consideration for people – the Greater Good – came second, if at all. They switched water sources, unwisely!

The assertion of the Go Lean book is that the Caribbean region can benefit from lessons learned from Good, Bad and Ugly governance. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean book and related commentaries call on citizens of the Caribbean member-states to lean-in to the empowerments described in the roadmap for elevation. This will require a constant vigil to ensure the Greater Good as opposed to personal gains.

…

See VIDEO here of the story in the national media …

VIDEO – Citizens’ Anger Continues Over Toxic Water in Flint, Michigan – http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/citizens-anger-continues-toxic-water-flint-michigan-36348795 –

…

This tragic story – cautionary tale of Flint – is an analysis of failure in the societal engines of economics, security and governance. These 3 facets are presented in the book Go Lean … Caribbean as the three-fold cord for societal harmony; for any society anywhere. The Caribbean wants societal harmony; we must therefore work to optimize all these three engines. As exhibited by Flint, this is easier said than done. This heavy-lifting is described in the book as both an art and a science.

The focus in this commentary is a continuation in the study of the societal engine of governance; previously, there was a series on economics and one on security. This commentary though, focuses on the bad eventually of Social Contract failures. The Social Contract refers to the unspoken expectations between citizens and the State. In many cases, State laws limit ownership of all mineral rights to the State; so citizens will be dependent on State systems to supply water. In the case of Flint, the City’s Water and Sewage Department has a monopoly; this supply is the only option for residents!

The Go Lean book describes “bad actors” wreaking havoc on the peace and security of the community. The book relates though that “bad actors” are not always human; they include bad events like natural disasters and industrial spills. Plus, actual “bad actors” may have started out with altruistic motives, good intentions. This is why the book and accompanying blogs design the organization structures for the new Caribbean with checks-and-balances, mandating a collaborative process, because sometimes even a well-intentioned individual may not have all the insight, hindsight and foresight necessary to pursue the Greater Good. This the defect of the Michigan Emergency Manager structure; it assigns too much power to just one person, bypassing the benefits of a collaborative process. This is one reason why this review is important: power corrupts…everyone … everywhere.

…

We must do better, than Flint! (Flint must do better; too many lives are involved).

We know that “bad actors and bad incidences” will always occur, even in government institutions, so we must be “on guard” against abusive influences and encroachments to Failed-State status. The Go Lean roadmap calls for engagement and participation from everyone, the people (citizens), institutions and government officials alike. We encouraged all with benevolent motives to lean-in to this roadmap, to get involved to effect a turnaround for the Caribbean Failed-States.

Our Caribbean stakeholders deserve the best … from their leaders. 🙂

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Bahamas, Disaster, Green Energy, Model, Power

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Brain Drain – ‘Live and Let Live’: Introducing Localism

Posted on February 29, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

So Brain Drains … are bad!
Brain Gains … are good.
Nerds, Geeks and Freaks often emerge as high achievers and can propel society forward … or exact revenge.
We can foster high achievement in our children by modeling best-practices in parenting, like Tiger Moms.

That is the summary … of this February 2020 Teaching Series on Brain Drains by the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean. This entry, 5-of-5, urges Caribbean people to “live and let live”, positing that we need to retain and attract good people, not judge and condemn them. This concludes the considerations of this Brain Drain series; see the full catalog here:

1. Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
2. Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
3. Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
4. Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
5. Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

“Do what you’ve always done; get what you’ve always got”.

Is this still a ‘bridge too far’ for the Caribbean?
You are not in this photo! You do not have to be, just ‘live and let live‘.

It is now time to do somethings different, so that we can get different results.

As related in a previous entry in this series, there are 2 dynamics associated with why people abandon their homeland: Push and Pull.

“Push” – people leave, to seek refuge elsewhere. Social defects result in narrow-mindedness of attitudes and values towards anyone that looks, talks, thinks or loves differently that those in the community. This includes those identified as LGBT, Disabled, Domestic-abused, Medically-challenged.

“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life elsewhere; many times people are leaving based on a mirage of “greener pastures”, though the “better prospect” may be elusive … especially for the first generation.

So if you don’t want the Brain Drain, there is something you can do to abate the Push factors:

Live and let live …

Would you want to be responsible for pushing people out? Would you want to be guilty of bullying someone to the extent that they just want to take their leave of your presence and proximity?

Would you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem? (This is not just theoretical; think of the recent Transgender Murder in Puerto Rico; yes, “this is on us”, we are the community that failed “Alexa Negrón Luciano”. See Appendix VIDEO.)

The way to forge change in our society is to promote a spirit of liberalism:

Political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.

What is shocking: We do this already – think of the reality at our “All-Inclusive” Hotel Resorts:

Do you really care what religion a resort guest practices on Sunday while on vacation? How about what he/she eats (vegetarian or carnivorous)? Would it matter who he/she shares the room with?

So we are already doing what is needed to reform and transform our societies; we are simply only liberal when the activities are wrapped around an economic engine, like a hotel resort.

This is the manifestation of localism – do what you want, just “over there” away from me. In the previous entry of this series on Brain Gains, localism was presented as follows:

One strategy that is emerging from the mitigation of Brain Drains , and for enabling Brain Gain, is that of localism.

Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity. – Source: Wikipedia

All-Inclusive Hotel Resorts – with their fenced-in/walled-off boundaries – are iterations of localism and/or Self-Governing Entities. See this manifestation in this news article here, showing how some Caribbean destinations roll out the welcome-mat for same-sex couples, while others have a reputation for homophobia:

Title: Gay and Lesbian Friendly Destinations in the Caribbean
By: Robert Curley

With its fun-in-the-sun destinations, carefree attitude, and myriad couples-oriented resorts, the Caribbean seems an ideal vacation spot for gay and lesbian couples. But not all Caribbean islands are created equal: some (notably the French, Dutch, and U.S. islands) roll out the welcome mat for same-sex couples, while others, like Jamaica, Barbados, and the Cayman Islands, have a reputation for homophobia. With the help of the travel experts at LGBT News, here are our picks for the top Caribbean destinations for gay travelers:

1 of 10 – Saba
The tiny island of Saba is known mostly for its diving, hiking, and other outdoor activities, but is quickly gaining a reputation as a bastion of tolerance in the Caribbean, too. Saba was the first place in the Caribbean where same-sex couples could legally wed, has a significant gay and lesbian population of its own, and several dive operators on the island run special outings for gay and lesbian travelers.

————-

2 of 10 – St. Barts
With its laissez-faire French culture and a myriad of private villas to choose from, St. Barts is has been called the most gay-friendly island in the Caribbean. This is the place to get lost in the Caribbean for a few days, far from the cruise-ship crowds. By any measure, with its mix of celebrities, yachties, high-end shopping, and vibrant nightlife, St. Barts is fabulous.

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3 of 10 – St. Martin/St. Maarten
Both Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin have long had a gay-friendly reputation, with many private villas for rent and beaches and bars where gay and straight couples peacefully coexist. St. Maarten’s reputation was sullied somewhat by a 2004 incident where a gay couple was assaulted near a popular beach bar, but island tourism officials were quick to apologize, and the island remains near the top of the list for many gay Caribbean travelers. Clothing-optional beaches and resorts on the French side of the island earn bonus points. Same-sex marriage is legal here.

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4 of 10 – Puerto Rico
Gay travelers in Puerto Rico will find the Caribbean’s only real gay nightlife scene: San Juan highlights include the Atlantic Beach Hotel and Bar (set on a gay beach and with a weekly drag show) and clubs like Eros. On both the mainland and the island of Vieques you can find gay-friendly resorts, and gay travelers in Puerto Rico have the benefit of protection by U.S. antidiscrimination laws, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

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5 of 10 – U.S. Virgin Islands
The U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix, in particular, has become a mecca for gay travelers, many of whom wind up at the welcoming Sand Castle on the Beach Resort in Frederiksted. Gay travelers can expect a friendly and tolerant attitude throughout the U.S.V.I., and if public displays of affection are not exactly embraced, the reaction is not likely to be more than a second glance. As with Puerto Rico, U.S. law makes same-sex marriages legal here.

————-

6 of 10 – Curacao
While some Caribbean island privately welcome gay travelers, Curacao has been the most public in its embrace: “With exceptional gay friendly hotels and attractions, [Curacao] encourages gay and lesbian travelers to visit the island and experience its ‘live and let live’ atmosphere for themselves,” says the Curacao Tourist Board, which has a marketing campaign aimed at gays and lesbians and includes information on gay-friendly hotels and clubs on its website. Same-sex couples can get married here, too!

————-

7 of 10 – Aruba
Like its Dutch Caribbean neighbors, Curacao and Saba, the oh-so-popular tourist destination of Aruba is one of the gay-friendliest places to travel in the islands. The Bucuti and Tara Beach Resorts are among several hotels and resorts that bill themselves as welcoming to LGBT visitors; the gay-ownedLittle David Guesthouse is another option. District 7 in Oranjestad is the island’s premier gay bar. All in all, this is a destination that celebrates its diversity openly and fully.

————-

8 of 10 – The Mexican Caribbean
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Cozumel, Tulum, and the Mexican Caribbean coastline (a.k.a. the Riviera Maya) recognizes same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City, and Cancun has been building a reputation as a gay-friendly destination. The city has gay nightclubs downtown and an unofficial gay beach in the Hotel Zone (Playa Delfines), and hosts the annual Cancún International Gay Festival in May and the Cancún Riviera Maya Gay Fall Festival.

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9 of 10 – Cuba
Cuba’s gay community has increasingly stepped out of the closet and into the limelight as the island nation has increased its interaction with the world, Fidel Castro’s daughter, Mariela, heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education and has advocated for LGBT rights. Vedado is Havana’s de facto gay neighborhood, Mi Cayito the unofficial gay beach, and many of the island’s casas particulares (B&Bs) are gay-friendly. Discrimination still lingers, but Cuba has come a long way since the days where gays were imprisoned and officially persecuted.

————-

10 of 10 – Unfriendly Islands
Ten formerly British West Indies nations still have “buggery” laws on the books and have displayed various levels of intolerance (ranging from mild disdain to outright hostility and criminal prosecution) toward gay and lesbian residents and travelers.

These include Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: Posted June 4, 2019; retrieved February 29, 2020 from: https://www.tripsavvy.com/gay-and-lesbian-friendly-caribbean-destinations-1488131

Notice the trending …

… the Dutch, French and American Caribbean territories are progressive, liberal and inclusive in their official and unofficial accommodations for the LGBT community – they have learned to “live and let live”. (Do you see how that works? No surprise these countries – France, Netherlands, USA – are very prosperous economically and their colonies represent their colonial masters adherence to Human Rights principles).

While All-Inclusive Resorts are mainstays in today’s Caribbean, the Go Lean book presents a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of formal Self-Governing Entities (SGE) under the administration of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap calls for legal and regulatory compliance by the local government to mandate a laissez-faire allowance of SGE’s. Consider this excerpt from the book (Page 80) for a full definition of the concept.

Tactical – Separation of Powers – State Department – E2: Self Governing Entities (SGE)
The agencies of the [CU’s] State Department will promote and administer all Self-Governing Entities throughout the region. This refers to foreign military bases, scientific labs and industrial/commercial campuses. SGE campuses are presented as economic engines for the region. They will have to contract with their neighboring communities for utilities and services. Many times, these campuses may only be work-sites, and all human needs are dependent on the neighboring communities.

These facilities will not be subject to the laws of the local states of their address, rather CU, international, foreign sovereignty, or maritime laws will apply. This structure will not usher in some anarchist movement with “wild, wild west” guidelines. Rather, at the time of incorporation, by-laws (or constitutions) must be presented to the [CU’s} State Department for acceptance. In addition, the “due process” to apply changes to by-laws must also be submitted. This ensures that the SGE administration is in an orderly manner and does not undermine the original charter. For ongoing governance, the SGE must submit reporting (including board meeting minutes) to the State Department, quarterly.

The SGE will have controlled access for their boundaries (walls, fences, canals/waterways, etc) and their focus will be limited to the scope of their charter. A medical campus, for example, can conduct experimental therapies only on their designated grounds. Yet SGE’s must engage the neighboring localities for transport, and infrastructural needs. In the event of emergencies, (though the SGE will define proactively the responsible parties that can call 911), the CU institutions will have the right to intrude on the secured grounds to protect life, limb and/or property.

There is a Good Neighbor mandate for SGE’s to co-exist with their neighbors. So the administration of SGE’s will require careful collaboration with other CU departments, municipal authorities, national governments and foreign entities. The State Department therefore serves as 1st point of contact, a liaison office.

All the while, we have been proselytizing about SGE’s; now we see that this strategy can even be successful for mitigating the Brain Drain in the Caribbean. SGE’s can help to furnish the “Live and Let Live” mentality. The movement behind the Go Lean book have always championed this cause – this is a paramount strategy for reforming and transforming Caribbean society. See how SGE’s have been addressed in many previous Go Lean commentaries – consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17686	SGE’s allow Enterprise Zones & Industrial Parks despite Communism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15907	Industrial Reboot: Creating Naval Piers as SGE’s – Many benefits flow
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13677	Learning Lessons from the Economics of ‘South Beach’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13138	Prisons Industry – Can bring economic gains despite negatives
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12146	SGE’s for Shipbuilding – Facilitating ‘Commerce of the Seas’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7822	Cancer: Doing More with SGE Research Parks and Treatment Centers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4037	“Training Our Dragons” – SGE’s mitigate the risks of Foreign Investors.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World – Role Model for Self-Governing Entities

Forging change in society is an Art and a Science.

All in all, it is not easy. In fact, the Go Lean roadmap describes the effort to forge change in the Caribbean as heavy-lifting. Alas, the roadmap has also identified “Soft Power” as an opening for the change to take root. A previous blog-commentary relating Soft Power of Amazon recruiting viable cities for their HQ2 identified:

Wow, what an expensive price to pay. People in cities like Atlanta actually have to clean-up their societal engines; they have to try and get along or Amazon will not consider them. Plus, Amazon is only considering 1 city, so if a community double-downs on the effort to forge a pluralistic democracy – fair treatment to all despite diverse backgrounds and lifestyles – and they are not selected by Amazon, then they would have loved their neighbors … for nothing.

How sad! This satirical comment is the height of sarcasm, but true!

So “can’t we all just get along” is no longer a question, it is now a ‘formula for success’. This is what we must do if we want our communities to survive and thrive, rather than suffer from one “societal abandonment” episode after another – Brain Drains. Even if you – the Public – cannot stomach the idea of people being different, just let them be in their own little corner or campus, in some SGE.

If this is still too much to ask, for any stakeholders in society, then the goal must be to disqualify that person, group, organization or institution. They must be named, blamed and shamed! We must abandon the bad orthodoxies of the past if we want to have a future; “Ghost Towns” do happen and we’d be on the way to such a disposition.

There is no guarantee for the survival of Caribbean communities. If we want to have a future, any future, we must reboot and turn-around. Yes, we can … it is only at the precipice that people change. See this poetic reference here from a previous blog-commentary:

“Well that’s where we are. You say we’re on the brink of destruction and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don’t take it from us. We are close to an answer”.

We are there now!

We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to reboot the societal engines of the region. Everyone is involved. We must all live and let live. This is how we make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

———————
Appendix VIDEO – For transgender women, going to the bathroom can turn traumatic or even deadly – https://youtu.be/PFaf2A7wUCo

Bianca Graulau
Posted Feb 27, 2020 – When she used the men’s bathroom, she was sexually harassed. When she used the women’s bathroom, she was humiliated by a female customer, and then fired. Kristy Ramirez’s story is all too relevant after a transgender woman was killed in Puerto Rico hours after being seen in the women’s bathroom.

Bianca’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/biancagraulau/

Video credit: https://www.facebook.com/nandy.torres…

Category: News & Politics

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Civil Rights, Diaspora, Model, SGE, Tourism

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Brain Drain – Tiger Moms – Is that so bad?

Posted on February 28, 2020 in Ethos, Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Have you heard of retirement panning – pensions, Social Security, National Insurance, etc.?

Of course you have; but did you know that all of these concepts are new concepts – emerging for everyday acceptance only in the 20^th century.

What did people do before?

Two things: Savings and Children.

Most ironic, before the Second World War (1939 – 1945) the middle class was very sparse; there was mostly only rich or poor. So for the majority: the retirement plan was their children.

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. – The Bible Proverbs 22:6 NKJV

In modern times, and in the advanced democracies, people are facilitating their old age with the Art and Science of retirement planning. But for some ancient cultures, they still adhere to the ethos of “training children” for future success. This is the case for the Chinese Diaspora in America. They have the practice of strict upbringing and regimented discipline to the point of …

Tiger Moms …

Tiger parenting is strict or demanding parenting. Tiger parents push and pressure their children to attaining high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extracurricular activities such as music, using authoritarian parenting methods.^[1] The term “tiger mother” (or “tiger mom”) was coined by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua in her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.^[2] A largely Chinese-American concept, the term draws parallels to strict parenting styles typically enforced throughout households in East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} – Wikipedia

This is not a commentary on reforming or transforming Asian cultures. No, our focus is limited to the Caribbean only. But we can learn best-practices from studying this tradition. We want our children to achieve; we want them to be “all they can be”.

As related in a previous blog-commentary in this series, the song “The Greatest Love” (see Appendix VIDEO below), cast a light on an important directive that stewards of society should work towards – in fact, this should be a Community Ethos (spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices).

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way”.

If Caribbean parents can push and guide their children to be high achievers, would that be so bad?

If Caribbean children advanced to high achievement status, does that mean that they have to leave the Caribbean? No! Not any more…

This is the assertion of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, a roadmap for elevating the societal engines (economics, security and governance) in the region to make the 30 member-states better places to live, work and play. Now there is the opportunity to foster genius children and engage them for the betterment of our society. The opportunities will be here.

No more “fattening frogs for snake” – a Jamaican expression relating the actuality of the Brain Drain.

Speaking of the Brain Drain. This is the continuation of this February 2020 Teaching Series; this is entry 4-of-5 from the Go Lean movement. This entry asserts that we can defy the previous trend of losing our best and brightest to foreign destinations. The Go Lean book presents 144 different missions (strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies) for elevating the Caribbean homeland. Other entries in this Brain Drain series includes the following:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

As for the references to Tiger Mom’s or Tiger Parenting, it is advisable to fully consider (study) the context in that aforementioned 2011 book. See details here:

Book Review: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Paperback (2011)
By: Amy Chua
Summary
An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother’s exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards—and the costs—of raising her children the Chinese way.

“This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old.” —Amy Chua

All decent parents want to do what’s best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children’s individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, her way—the Chinese way—and the remarkable results her choice inspires.

Here are some things Amy Chua would never allow her daughters to do:

have a playdate

be in a school play

complain about not being in a school play

not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama

play any instrument other than the piano or violin

not play the piano or violin

The truth is Lulu and Sophia would never have had time for a playdate. They were too busy practicing their instruments (two to three hours a day and double sessions on the weekend) and perfecting their Mandarin.

Of course no one is perfect, including Chua herself. Witness this scene:
“According to Sophia, here are three things I actually said to her at the piano as I supervised her practicing:

Oh my God, you’re just getting worse and worse.

I’m going to count to three, then I want musicality.

If the next time’s not PERFECT, I’m going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!”

But Chua demands as much of herself as she does of her daughters. And in her sacrifices—the exacting attention spent studying her daughters’ performances, the office hours lost shuttling the girls to lessons—the depth of her love for her children becomes clear. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is an eye-opening exploration of the differences in Eastern and Western parenting—and the lessons parents and children everywhere teach one another.

Source: Retrieved February 28, 2020 from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9160695-battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-mother

————

Reviews:
“[E]ntertaining, bracingly honest and, yes, thought-provoking.”—The New York Times Book Review

At once provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ignited a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting. Amy Chua argues that Western parenting tries to respect and nurture children’s individuality, while Chinese parents typically believe that arming children with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence prepares them best for the future. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, the Chinese way – and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her choice inspires. Achingly honest and profoundly challenging, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is one of the most talked-about books of our times.

“Few have the guts to parent in public. Amy [Chua]’s memoir is brutally honest, and her willingness to share her struggles is a gift. Whether or not you agree with her priorities and approach, she should be applauded for raising these issues with a thoughtful, humorous and authentic voice.” —Time Magazine

“[A] riveting read… Chua’s story is far more complicated and interesting than what you’ve heard to date — and well worth picking up… I guarantee that if you read the book, there’ll undoubtedly be places where you’ll cringe in recognition, and others where you’ll tear up in empathy.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother hit the parenting hot button, but also a lot more, including people’s complicated feelings about ambition, intellectualism, high culture, the Ivy League, strong women and America’s standing in a world where China is ascendant. Chua’s conviction that hard work leads to inner confidence is a resonant one.”—Chicago Tribune

“Readers will alternately gasp at and empathize with Chua’s struggles and aspirations, all the while enjoying her writing, which, like her kid-rearing philosophy, is brisk, lively and no-holds-barred. This memoir raises intriguing, sometimes uncomfortable questions about love, pride, ambition, achievement and self-worth that will resonate among success-obsessed parents… Readers of all stripes will respond to [Battle Hymn of the] Tiger Mother.”—The Washington Post

Source: Posted December 27, 2011; retrieved February 28, 2020 from: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hymn-Tiger-Mother-Chua/dp/0143120581/ref=asc_df_0143120581/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312069234664&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1067927149205499757&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026411&hvtargid=pla-436599159541&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316181119&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312069234664&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1067927149205499757&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026411&hvtargid=pla-436599159541
————

VIDEO – Kids of ‘Tiger Mom’ speak out (from Harvard and Yale), 5 years later – https://www.nbcnews.com/video/kids-of-tiger-mom-speak-out-from-harvard-and-yale-5-years-later-611455555505

Posted Jan. 29, 2016 – She was one of the most controversial figures of 2011: Mother of two, Amy Chua, better known as “Tiger Mom” after she authored the book “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” and ignited a firestorm with her strict parenting methods. Five years later, her children are speaking out from Yale Law School and Harvard and say they plan to raise their kids the same way, TODAY’s Tamron Hall reports.

Of course, the reference to Tiger Mom (Mother) is a metonym for parent, guardian, grandparents, teachers (Music teachers), coaches, youth pastors or anyone else who takes the lead for guiding youngsters “in the way they should go”. This is one way we “teach them well to let them lead the way”. This is true even if it’s just “teaching some of them”, not all. (Also, consider the follow-up book in the Appendix below).

This is not the first time we have addressed the subject of teaching and tutelage for young people. In fact, any focus of guiding young people is actually a focus on the future. Of those 144 advocacies presented in the Go Lean book, one of them was specifically addressing the future. That advocacy is found on Page 26 of the book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines, under the title:

10 Ways to Impact the Future

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU)** This will allow for the unification of the region into a single market economy of 30 countries, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion (based on 2010 figures), thereby creating the world’s 29th largest economy. The CU will then forge multiple Agencies to foster technology growth and garner benefits from the economic “Catch-Up” principle. This should double the GDP after 5 years and help create the structures for the meaningful future that past visionaries had foreseen.
2	Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is The 3-word phase “Return On Investment” imply investing time, talents and treasuries to a cause, though the rewards may not be immediate. History has shown (i.e. US during WW II) that people will postpone immediate gratification and endure hard sacrifices – if they must — so long as they are convinced the future can be better than the past. This is the ethos for communities that invest R&D dollars. This is the ethos that the CU must adapt in order to impact the future.
3	Cannot Only Consume, We Must Produce As Well
4	Learn Lessons of Oversight
5	Count on the Greedy to be Greedy
6	Need People Too – Not All About Money, or is it? The quality of life for the citizenry is very important, otherwise, people leave, and take their time, talents and treasuries elsewhere. Family, cultural pride is more important than economics, and yet when the economics are bad, people leave. This is evident by the large Caribbean Diaspora in foreign lands – where they re-assembled their culture and civic pride.
7	Include Everyone in the Plan
8	Grow from the Middle
9	Add Priority to Energy as a basic need – like Food, Clothing, Shelter
10	*If Not Now, Then* …**

The purpose of this commentary is not the ideology of Future Planning, rather it is about the Brain Gain. The current Brain Drain rate for the Caribbean has been reported to average 70 percent – that is 70 percent of all college-educated citizens have fled the region and now live in the Diaspora. We cannot have the same future that we have had in the past.

We must do better. Brain Drains should only be the reality of our past, not our future.

We now have a plan … we don’t even have to engage everyone in order to change society, just some people, some high-achievers that excel in their fields of endeavors. Tiger Moms are hereby needed to teach-guide-foster these achievers.

Consider the many previous blog-commentaries that the Go Lean movement have published related to Future Planning and fostering the development of our youth. See this sample list here-now:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17992	What Went Wrong? Losing the Best; Nation-building with the Rest
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13472	Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13466	Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12645	Back to the Future: Textbooks or Tablets in School?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11520	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Lower Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10351	Culture and Ethos are More Important than Strategy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9550	10 Things We Want from Chinese and 10 Things We Do Not Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6269	Education & Economics – Need Top Level Attention
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5964	Lesson from Movie ‘Tomorrowland’: We only need ‘Some People’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5423	Extracurricular Music Programs Boost Students
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1634	Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1288	Future Bahamian Astronaut – Not so improbable

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way” …

… this is more than just the lyrics of a song – though music education seems to be a catalysts for achievement among young people – this is a recipe for reforming and transforming the Caribbean future. For many older Caribbean people, it may be too late to forge new values or attitudes (ethos), we may be limited to the next generations. So we need Tiger Moms and Dads … and teachers … and coaches, etc..

This is the heavy-lifting we must do to make our homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————-

Appendix – Follow-up Book: Beyond the Tiger Mom: East-West Parenting for the Global Age (2016)
By: Maya Thiagarajan
How do Asian parents prime their children for success from a young age by encouraging them to achieve academic excellence? Why do Asian kids do so well in math and science? What is the difference between an Asian upbringing and a Western one?

These are just a few of the fascinating questions posed and discussed in Beyond the Tiger Mom, a captivating new book by educator, author, and mother, Maya Thiagarajan. In this research-backed guide, she examines each of the “tiger mother” stereotypes and goes beneath the surface to discover what happens in Asian parenting households. How do Asian parents think about childhood, family, and education and what can Western parents learn from them? And what benefits does a traditional Western upbringing have that Asian parents, too, may want to consider?

Some of the takeaways from this parenting book include:
The best of Asian parenting practices — such as how to teach children math, or raise tech-healthy kids
Teaching your child to broaden his or her attention span
Finding the right balance between work and play, while including family time
Helping your child see failure as a learning experience
And many, many more insights
Each chapter offers interviews with hundreds of Asian parents and kids and ends with a “How To” section of specific tips for Asian and Western parents both to aid childhood education and development inside and outside the classroom. Woven into this narrative are her reflections on teaching and parenting in locations that span the East and West.

In this book, Thiagarajan synthesizes an extensive body of research on child education and Asian parenting both to provide accessible and practical guidelines for parents.

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25986958-beyond-the-tiger-mom

———–

Appendix B VIDEO – The Greatest Love Of All (lyrics) – Whitney Houston, A Tribute – https://youtu.be/hRX4ip6PVoo

TheMusic1022

Published on Feb 15, 2012

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 — February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all time. Her awards include two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, and 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards in her lifetime. Houston was also one of the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. … RIP Whitney, you and your wonderful music will always be in our hearts.

Category: Entertainment
License: Standard YouTube License

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Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge

Posted on February 27, 2020 in Ethos, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Let’s talk about ostracism …

the act of being ostracized
noun:
exclusion, by general consent, from social acceptance, privileges, friendship, etc.

It’s no fun!

… especially for the recipient.

So many times, the victims face extreme resentful and uneasiness, hatred even …

The annals of American society is littered with tragedies of those who have been bullied or ostracized and have responded with violence, gun violence, school shooting, mass shootings, etc.

Just yesterday, a 51-year old gunman walked into his job in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; he killed 5 co-workers and then turn the gun on himself. – New York Times 🙁

Be afraid; be very afraid of the dire consequence of ostracism. But not all cases of ostracism is life-or-death, many times, it is just resentment and alienation – think Middle School clichés.

There is a social group that tends to be victimized the worst, at that level: Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”.

So many times, the people that are the most accomplished academically, are characterized more as Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”. Yet, these are the ones best suited for accomplishment and excellence.

The stone the builder rejected has become the cornerstone. – The Bible Matthew 21:42

Many times, the Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks” are anxious to grow-up and “go out” from their homeland, just as a payback for the years of ostracism and bullying – the ultimate “Revenge of the Nerds”. This scenario exacerbates the Brain Drain in the area. This is true, despite any yearning to family, homeland or culture – these ones just want to go. Once they leave, “Pandora’s Box” is opened and the repercussions and consequences are dire: things get worse, before it gets worst.

This disposition is 100% Push. (Considering the Brain Drain’s Push-Pull dynamics; where Push refers to the search for refuge and Pull refers to the lure of a different location). The actuality of this bad happenstance violates the mandate of this song:

I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way. – Song: The Greatest Love – https://youtu.be/hRX4ip6PVoo

We have had 60 years of futility with our best-and-brightest leaving us, abandoning the Caribbean homeland. The “jury is in”:

This is bad; bad for the people and bad for the homeland. Our best-and-brightest can easily assimilate to another culture – in a foreign land – but the resultant effect of our Brain Drain is less skilled workers; less entrepreneurs; less law-abiding citizens; less capable public servants. We would lose our best and leave the communities with the rest; thusly creating even more of a crisis.

Let’s do better … we already have to contend with the “Pull” – there is little we can do, outside of truth in messaging to convey that life for the Caribbean’s Black-and-Brown in the Diaspora is actually limited to “Less Than”. We do not need to further exacerbate our “Pull” imperilment with additional “Push” factors.

We must do the heavy-lifting to retain our people; we must protect the vulnerable, the weak and the innocent. We must be On Guard against bullying and other juvenile persecutions.

This was the quest of the 2013 book Go Lean … Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). It is designed to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region. It focuses on the needs of all the 42 million people in the homeland, working to dissuade additional emigration. It identified the additional mitigation we have to implement to abate the Push of bullying. Consider these excerpts:

Page 24 – Security Principles – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
The CU security pact must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The community must accept that young ones will go astray, so Juvenile Justice programs should be centered on the goal to rehabilitate them into good citizens, before it’s too late. So community messaging (life-coaching and school-mentoring programs) must be part of the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.

Page 27 – 10 Ways to Foster Genius
Anti-Bullying Campaign – “Revenge of the Nerds”
As is usually the case with young children, genius abilities usually stand-out from peer groups and can therefore render one child to ridicule from others. At times, this behavior leads to extreme bullying. The series of movies “Revenge of the Nerds” have become classic in depicting the adolescent struggles of this reality; (some researchers credit the first movie – 1984 – for a drop in US girls pursuing technical careers) ^[18]. The CU classifies “bullying” as domestic terrorism; while no adult-style interdiction is intended, the community ethos of “saying NO to bullies”, goes far in fostering future innovators.

Page 36 – 10 Ways to Promote Happiness
Youth Programs
Youth suicides are not uncommon as societies increase up the economic ladder. Measures to monitor and mitigate for bullying and teen distress will allow the CU to “leave no child behind”. While no suicide is pleasant, the despair that results from a teen suicide wounds a community deeply, not only the immediate family, but also the extended family, school officials and other stakeholders.

Page 179 – 10 Ways to Improve Gun Control
Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign
The CU will implement a program similar to DARE (Drug-Alcohol-Resistance-Endeavors) in the US for drug, gang, violence anti-crime programs. The goal will be to minimize any lure young ones may see for dysfunctional gun behavior. Plus, Anti-Bullying campaigns will also be constant via media, internet, and life-coaching, school-mentoring programs.

Page 181 – 10 Ways to Mitigate Terrorism
Consider Bullying as Junior Terrorism
The CU wants to “leave no child behind”. So bullying will be managed under a domestic terrorism and Juvenile Justice jurisdiction. The CU will conduct media campaigns for anti-bullying, life-coaching, and school-mentoring programs. The problem with teen distress is that violence can ensue from bullying perpetrators or in response to bullying.

Page 220 – 10 Ways to Protect Human Rights
LGBT Toleration
It is no longer acceptable to deny natural rights or human rights to those with alternate sexual orientation. In fact, qualifications for current EU grants depend on compliance of this requirement, (not granting rights for same-sex marriage), allowing this class to live free of discrimination, hazing, bullying and abuse. These rules are codified under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This provides a right to respect for one’s “private and family life, his home and his correspondence”. The CU federal oversight is mandatory as these clauses clash with pro-Christian values.

Despite the emphasis here on Bullying, this is actually a commentary on the Brain Drain. This is the continuation, entry 3-of-5, of this February Teaching Series from the Go Lean movement; this entry asserts that we cannot afford to lose our Nerds, “Geeks and Freaks”. These ones usually become the most accomplished from among their cohort (class or peer group). We “need all hands on deck”. Other Brain Drain considerations are presented in this series; see the full catalog here:

Brain Drain – Where the Brains Are
Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
Brain Drain – Geeks and Freaks: Ultimate Revenge
Brain Drain – ‘Tiger Moms’ – Is that so bad?
Brain Drain – Live and Let Live – Introducing ‘Localism’

There has been a number of references here to the title “Revenge of the Nerds”. This was a literary work and film production with a valid “moral of the story”. Truly, this is “Life Imitating Art” and “Art Imitating Life” …

Do you remember the 1984 Comedy movie? See the Trailer here:

VIDEO – Revenge of The Nerds | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX – https://youtu.be/kIZH5TKnEeg

20th Century Studios
Posted January 8, 2015 – In this hilarious satire on college life, a group of misfits led by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards decides to start their own fraternity after being rejected by every house on campus. Chaos results, with a brains vs. brawn battle, as the football team jocks try to run the nerds off campus. But as the nerds carefully engineer their revenge, it begins to appear as if their day is at hand.

Own it on DVD: http://fox.co/RevengeOfTheNerds

SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/FOXSubscribe

About 20th Century FOX: Official YouTube Channel for 20th Century Fox Movies. Home of Avatar, Aliens, X-Men, Die Hard, Deadpool, Ice Age, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Rio, Peanuts, Maze Runner, Planet of the Apes, Wolverine and many more.

Connect with 20th Century FOX Online: Visit the 20th Century FOX WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/FOXMovie Like 20th Century FOX on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/FOXFacebook Follow 20th Century FOX on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/TwitterFOX Revenge of The Nerds | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxMovies

Category: Film & Animation

Can you think of some famous or infamous Nerds who have gone on to success, whose very emergence has been a penultimate Revenge of the Nerds?

Think Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame …

Think Bill Gates of Microsoft fame …

Think Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame …

All of these “Original Nerds” have impacted society in shocking and disruptive ways (industries retreated, standards shifted, future projections altered and transformations forged). They have “gotten their revenge and have had the last laugh”. Consider this sample list of previous blog-commentaries highlighting these characters:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15875	Bezos: Amazon – ‘What I want to be when I grow up’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14316	Bezos: Forging Change: Soft Power – Clean-up or ‘Adios Amazon’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14224	Zuckerberg: Youth are only consuming media digitally, Duh!!!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13627	Bezos: Amazon Conquered the World in 20 Years
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291	Bezos: Big Tech’s Amazon – The Retailers’ Enemy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10869	Gates: Advocacy to ‘Tax the Robots’ to offset the Emergence of A.I.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8243	Zuckerberg: Philanthropy project makes First Investment: Newark
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6422	Gates: Microsoft Pledges $75 million for Kids in Computer Science
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1763	Gates: The World as 100 People – Showing the Gaps
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1404	Zuckerberg: Facebook goes down, the world stands still
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528	Zuckerberg: Facebook plans to provide mobile payment services

In addition, the Go Lean movement have frequently messaged on the perils of bullying and the resultant threat to the Brain Drain. Consider these previous Go Lean commentaries that have been published over the years – presented here in reverse chronological order:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18337	Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	Reforming LGBT Policies – “Can’t we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16408	Mitigating Home Violence
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15998	Protecting the Vulnerable: The Kind of Society We Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14482	Protecting Rural Women
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13664	High Profile Sexual Harassment Accusers – Finally Believed?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11054	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Bullying in Schools
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11048	Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Model of Hammurabi

“Can’t we all just get along” – Rodney King, 1993

These must be more than just idle words; these must be the public safety mandate of society. This is reflected in the implied Social Contract that establishes modern society:

Citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights.

Once we fail in this delivery, the consequence is societal abandonment – the Brain Drain.

Let’s do better!

Everyone is hereby urged to lean-in to the empowerment here-in the Go Lean roadmap. This is how we can mitigate the Brain Drain …and make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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