Tag: Aviation

Moving Forward with Transportation Solutions

Posted on May 19, 2019 in Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Its been 150 years exactly …
… we cannot just let that milestone for the Union Pacific Railroad go by without some acknowledgement … and reflection.  This history is more than just the story of a train, or a company; its an economic solution, one that was the inspiration for study and modeling, while the writers were in Omaha, Nebraska composing the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. See this excerpt:

The Bottom Line on the Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the US. It has more than 44,000 employees, more than 8,000 locomotives, and runs on 31,900 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans. The original company, prior to later uniting with the Central Pacific Railroad, was incorporated on July 1, 1862 under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the Missouri from Omaha) to meet the Central Pacific line, which was constructed eastwardly from San Francisco Bay. The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah, fifty three miles west of Ogden on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. – Book Go Lean…Caribbean Page 205.

The Union Pacific Railroad and the City of Omaha was featured in the Go Lean book as a model for the transportation solutions that would allow the Caribbean region to better move people and goods around the member-states.

There was a lot of fanfare, celebration, pomp-and-pageantry this month for the 150th anniversary. See the news report in this company-produced VIDEO here and in the related article in the Appendix below:

VIDEO – Union Pacific’s Transcontinental Railroad Completion 150th Anniversary Celebration – https://youtu.be/ZOWoPuVSbY0

Union Pacific
Published on May 17, 2019 – Reflections of Union Pacific’s celebration May 9, 2019, marking the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s completion.

Yes, there is the need for transportation solutions in the Caribbean. Our failings – unaffordable to bring stay-over tourists to our shores and excessive costs of imported goods – have imperiled our progress in so many ways. We have consistently reported this theme in previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16645 Bad Partners – Cruise Lines Interactions
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14767 Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14761 Flying the Caribbean Skies – New Regional Options
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12959 The Defective Shipping Law ‘Jones Act’ needs to be scraped
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12322 Ferries 101: Economics, Security and Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12146 Commerce of the Seas – Shipbuilding Model – We need Ferries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9179 Snowbirds Tourism – On the 1st day of Autumn, time to head South
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6867 How to address high consumer prices: A Ferry Transport System

The book Go Lean … Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to facilitate a connected and integrated Single Market. This reality would mandate that we connect all the communities; the same as blood vessels would connect all the organs of a single “body”. Other Single Markets around the world have efficient transportation solutions; think rails and highways in the US and in Western Europe. The book features this one advocacy (Page 205) for implementing Caribbean transportation solutions. This advocacy is entitled: “10 Ways to Improve Transportation“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

1 Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market – Ratify treaty for the CU.
Embrace the advent of the Caribbean Single Market & Economy Initiative of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This will allow for the unification of 42 million people into one market, creating the demand to better move people and goods among the region and import-export to/from other regions. The CU will allow for the emergence of capital markets to sell municipal bonds for Transportation Authorities to raise project funds, as was the case for the Union Pacific Railroad. Bonds are ideal as their long term nature is ideal for slow harvesting returns from transportation solutions.
2 Turnpike: Pneumatic Capsule Pipeline (PCP)

The “Union Atlantic” Turnpike, (modeled after the Union Pacific efforts in the US from 1862), is a big initiative of the CU to logistically connect all CU member-states for easier transport of goods and passengers. The Turnpike is virtual; made up of many physical transportation modes envisioned for the region: Pipeline, Ferry, Highways, and Railroad.

PCP refers to large pneumatic tubes that can handle containers and trailers through underwater, under-ground and above-ground pipelines powered by magnetic levitation systems (ILM). This is modeled, after the freight PCP project envisioned for New York City [187], and the English Channel Tunnel for passengers and cargo.

The CU will construct underwater tunnels for narrow straits in the region, like the 7 miles between Trinidad & Venezuela.
3 Turnpike: Ferries

For the most part, the CU member-states are islands thereby allowing for a viable means of transportation via sea navigation. By deploying ferries, the CU facilitates passenger travel for business and leisure, (see model [of Ferry operations in] Appendix IC on Page 280).
4 Turnpike: Land Highways
5 Turnpike: Railroads
6 Aviation Coordination, Promotion and Safety Regulations
The CU mandate is to facilitate the region’s economics through transportation solutions. Aviation plays a key role, and so there is the need for regional coordination and promotion of the region’s domestic and foreign air carriers. The CU will execute these functions along with Air Traffic Control and Safety regulations, thus mirroring both the FAA & National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US. The CU will be vested with subpoena and prosecutorial powers.
7 CNG Public Buses and Electric Street Cars with Handicap Access
8 Taxi Administration: Emission-free Inducements & Electronic Payments Systems (EPS)
9 Local Automaker(s)
10 Bicycle Friendly

According to the Go Lean book, the foregoing VIDEO, and the article in the Appendix below, the Union Pacific Railroad was more than just a railroad, it was a transportation and technology eco-system that transformed the American continent. This was a manifestation of the technology of the day, the best-of-the-best of the machinery and methods that defined the greatest industrial might in the history of modern man. The Go Lean book states (Page 57) this succinct reflection on transport technology:

Technological change is more than just [today’s] internet & communications (ICT); though this field is dynamically shifting the world. There are also industrial changes taking place, as in more efficient manufacturing methods, automation-robotics, and transportation options … in response to Climate Change. For example, the CU envisions the supply and demand for Fast Ferries in the region. The modern offerings allow for 40 – 50 (nautical) mph speeds on calm waters. There are many CU destinations that can be serviced within 2 – 3 hours using this mode. This effort will be championed by the CU Turnpike initiative.

The review of the history of the Union Pacific Railroad has done one more thing:

Provide a glimpse of a Caribbean version of a transformative transportation solution. (Consider the Canadian ferry example in the photo here).

Today, the Caribbean is 30 separate and distinct lands with 42 million people; we are 30 separate and distinct member-states; but instead, we need to be one community, a Single Market. Transportation can foster and furnish the needed unity in our neighborhood; this is how we can move forward in our quest to elevate the societal engines: economics, security and governance. This point was eloquently detailed in a previous blog-commentary:

The roadmap calls for the CU to navigate the changed landscape of the globalized air transport industry. There is the need for regional integration, administration, and promotion for Caribbean air travel among local and foreign carriers. The book posits that transportation and logistics empower the economic engines of a community. There must be air carrier solutions to service the transportation and tourism needs of the Caribbean islands. This point is fully appreciated by Caribbean tourism stakeholders; the book relates that the region’s Hotel and Tourism Association channel the vision of Robert Crandall, former Chairman of American Airlines, who remarked at a Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in May 2010 that the region is uniquely dependent on tourism:

    “Everyone involved in travel and tourism knows that our [airline] industry is immensely important to the world economy, generating and supporting – either directly or indirectly – about one in eleven jobs worldwide. Here in the Caribbean, it is even more important. On a number of islands, travel and tourism accounts for more than 50% of all employment, and on some islands for more than 75%. Overall, about 20% of Caribbean employment is travel and tourism dependent – something on the order of 2.5 million jobs.” – Book ‘Go Lean … Caribbean’ – Page 60.

Go Lean asserts that air travel options must be optimized to impact Caribbean society – thus the need for more regional coordination, regulation and promotion of the Caribbean’s aviation industry. New models are detailed in the book in which tourism can be enhanced with “air lifts” to facilitate Caribbean events, and “Air Bridges” to allow for targeting High Net Worth markets. This roadmap also introduces the Union Atlantic Turnpike to offer more transportation solutions (ferries, toll roads, railways, and pipelines) to better facilitate the efficient movement of people and cargo.

Yes, we can …

A more connected region is conceivable, believable and achievable. This is how we can make our 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 & 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):

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 – Title: Golden Spike 150th Anniversary – 1869 – Omaha, NE

The communities of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, would forever be changed by a single decision made by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. That was the year the president named Council Bluffs as the eastern terminus for Union Pacific, altering that community and Omaha — and, in fact, every community — along the railroad’s western path.

Despite this presidential declaration, there were other forces at play. Union Pacific’s first vice president and general manager, Thomas C. “Doc” Durant, used his influence to make Omaha — and not Council Bluffs, Iowa — the actual starting point. Union Pacific marked the occasion with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Omaha settlement in Nebraska Territory Dec. 2, 1863. A lack of funding delayed the project’s beginning for a short while, but on July 10, 1865, the first rail was finally laid. In 1872, the two communities were united for the first time when a railroad bridge was completed across the Missouri River.

The railroad’s effect on both communities has been extraordinary. Council Bluffs grew from a small, isolated Missouri River town to Iowa’s fifth largest city. The same robust growth has taken place in Omaha. Settlers and immigrants poured into the area beginning more than a century ago, and today this vibrant city has a population of nearly 500,000. This growth was spurred in great part by the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, and the transcontinental railroad’s completion in 1869. Omaha has been Union Pacific’s operational headquarters since the 1860s, and its 19-story headquarters in the downtown area employs nearly 4,000 employees. Omaha also is home to UP’s Harriman Dispatching Center, one of the country’s largest and most technologically advanced dispatching facilities.

Source: Retrieved May 18, 2019 from: https://www.up.com/goldenspike/omaha-promontory.html

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Flying the Caribbean Skies – The Need to Manage Airspace

Posted on April 26, 2018 in Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“America First!”

These words are a constant declaration from the American President Donald J. Trump. According to the Wall Street Journal, they summarize President Trump as follows:

“Mr. Trump is a brash nationalist contemptuous of global institutions and wary of foreign entanglements”.

To this we say: “When someone tells you who they are, believe them”.

This assessment is very important for us in the Caribbean. The US is the 800-pound gorilla in our neighborhood; they can go and stop anywhere they choose in this hemisphere. They will always be seeking American Self-Interest first, so do not think that the US may be putting their foreign neighbors first, especially us in the Caribbean. This assessment is also true when it comes to managing the Caribbean Airspace; if we leave it up to the US, we will always find ourselves subservient and in second place. So what do we do or have been doing? Leaving it up for the US to manage the Caribbean air traffic control has placed us in a secondary priority, even here in our own countries.

This is the focus of this series of commentaries on Flying the Caribbean Skies. This entry is 3 of 3 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of societal defects in the region’s management of air travel. There is a need for Caribbean people to adopt a policy of Caribbean First when it comes to managing the Airspace in our own territory. There is a lot that needs to be done and it might mean “life and death”. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Flying the Caribbean Skies: New Regional Options
  2. Flying the Caribbean Skies: ‘Shooting Ourselves in the Foot’ – ENCORE
  3. Flying the Caribbean Skies: The Need to Manage Airspace

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can empower regional commerce by optimizing the air travel eco-system, and the dependent industries. In truth, the Go Lean book asserts that a Caribbean First policy is needed to reboot all societal engines: economics, security and governance. Yet, the record clearly shows that despite the clear role model and cautionary warnings, the Caribbean member-states have operated as parasites of the American hegemony rather than protégés.

This indictment is especially evident in the matter of Air Traffic Control. (See the importance in the Appendix VIDEO below).

This was a source of concern in the motivation for the Go Lean book. The book – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of the full Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap addresses all societal engines and has these 3 prime directives:

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

The topic of Air Traffic Control (ATC) overlaps economics (transportation solutions facilitate commerce), security and governance. Currently, there is a separation-of-powers in which many Caribbean member-states delegate their Air Traffic Control functionality to the American FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). So Caribbean aviators have to pay a fee to the US authorities. The quest here is to bring this ATC functionality back “home”, but to CU federal authorities. See this summary here from the book (Page 205):

Aviation Coordination, Promotion and Safety Regulations
The CU mandate is to facilitate the region’s economics through transportation solutions. Aviation plays a key role, and so there is the need for regional coordination and promotion of the region’s domestic and foreign air carriers. The CU will execute these functions along with Air Traffic Control and Safety regulations, thus mirroring both the FAA & National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US. The CU will be vested with subpoena and prosecutorial powers.

This need – to bring the ATC functionality home – has been vocalized in the Caribbean region. See here, a related news-article originated out of the Bahamas:

Title: Government ‘Aggressively’ Moving On Airspace Control Takeover

By: NATARIO McKENZIE

The Minister of Tourism and Aviation yesterday said the Government is “aggressively” moving to establish Bahamian airspace via a Flight Information Region (FIR).

The former Christie administration last January hailed as a “landmark accomplishment” its agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will result in Bahamian aircraft operators no longer having to pay overflight fees to the US for domestic flights.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, though, said the previous government’s achievement was not as big as it had been made out to be.

“I don’t know what their landmark airspace deal was. All they did was get a concession for Bahamian airline companies to fly through Bahamian airspace and not pay a fee to do so,” he argued. “The Government is very aggressively pursuing the establishment of what is the Bahamian airspace, and I’m hoping that in the next six months we can be in a position where we can say this is our airspace.

“We can also hopefully begin the process of earning revenue from it, and also putting in a safety regime so that over time we can take control of our airspace and hire Bahamians to manage it.

“Right now the vast majority of our airspace is being managed by the Federal Aviation Administration. It’s a tedious and tiresome process, but I think we are close.”

Under international laws, countries require airlines and other aircraft to pay a fee for the right to fly over their airspace.

The administration of those rights in the Bahamas has been performed by the FAA since 1952, meaning Bahamasair and other Bahamian-owned carriers have had to pay the US for the privilege of flying over their own country.

Source: Posted January 17, 2018; retrieved April 22, 2018 from: http://www.tribune242.com/news/2018/jan/17/govt-aggressively-moving-on-airspace-control/

QQQ Just because the US is the “800-pound gorilla” in North America does not mean that they execute all regional administration in the most efficient and effective manner. In fact, this commentary has cited numerous American defects, such as dysfunctions with guns, school-shootings and Police-on-Black shootings. So the American way is not always the best way.

In fact, the US’s footprint for ATC, the FAA, is not known for embracing the latest cutting edge technologies. Consider this encyclopedic reference here:

Technology
Many technologies are used in air traffic control systems. Primary and secondary radar are used to enhance a controller’s situation awareness within his assigned airspace – all types of aircraft send back primary echoes of varying sizes to controllers’ screens as radar energy is bounced off their skins, and transponder-equipped aircraft reply to secondary radar interrogations by giving an ID (Mode A), an altitude (Mode C) and/or a unique callsign (Mode S). Certain types of weather may also register on the radar screen.

These inputs, added to data from other radars, are correlated to build the air situation. Some basic processing occurs on the radar tracks, such as calculating ground speed and magnetic headings.

Usually, a flight data processing system manages all the flight plan related data, incorporating – in a low or high degree – the information of the track once the correlation between them (flight plan and track) is established. All this information is distributed to modern operational display systems, making it available to controllers.

The FAA has spent over US$3 billion on software, but a fully automated system is still over the horizon. In 2002 the UK brought a new area control centre into service at the London Area Control Centre, Swanwick, Hampshire, relieving a busy suburban centre at West Drayton, Middlesex, north of London Heathrow Airport. Software from Lockheed-Martin predominates at the London Area Control Centre. However, the centre was initially troubled by software and communications problems causing delays and occasional shutdowns.[9] – Wikipedia.

In summary, with the smart application of technology and best-practices, a technocratic CU will be able to do “more with less”.

How about the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands?

One reason that the FAA manages the Airspace for many Caribbean member-states is because the FAA has the responsibility for these two territories. But the American stakeholders have a long history of “playing nice” with other Airspace domains – think: US Air Force and Naval bases in foreign countries, plus Canada and Mexico in North America.

The Airspace management for Puerto Rico and the USVI can legally be delegated to the CU.

There is also a movement to privatize or corporatize ATC’s. Proponents argue that moving ATC services to a private corporation could stabilize funding over the long term which will result in more predictable planning and rollout of new technology as well as training of personnel. This is the case in Canada[21]:

The Canadian system is the one most often used as a model by proponents of privatization. A privatization has been successful in Canada with the creation of Nav Canada, a private nonprofit organization which has reduced costs and has allowed new technologies to be deployed faster due to the elimination of much of the bureaucratic red tape. This has resulted in shorter flights and less fuel usage. It has also resulted in flights being safer due to new technology. Nav Canada is funded from fees that are collected from the airlines based on the weight of the aircraft and the distance flown.

The CU’s ATC effort – and other governing initiatives – is therefore proposed to reflect the cutting edge of operational best-practices. This is the nature of a technocracy! The Caribbean needs better governance and better Airspace management. This could enhance our economic lifeblood (better air travel eco-system means more air arrivals, more stay-overs, more hotels nights, restaurants, taxi cabs, etc.) and also affect life-and-death, as related to air traffic security. This is how we reform and transform Caribbean society.

The Go Lean roadmap originated to improve regional governance. This was pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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 … for good governance …

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.

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

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

The Go Lean book 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 our societal engines. The book details how society can be elevated by optimizing Airspace regulation, Air Traffic coordination and Air Safety.

This will help in our quest … to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – A Typical Day in America’s Airspace – https://youtu.be/8pYiC7bTUxQ



NASA Video

Published on May 20, 2013 – This series of simulations created using NASA’s FACET software shows the pattern of air traffic over the continental United States at various times, including Sept 11, 2001. It illustrates just how complex our air transportation system is and how challenging it is to make changes. This series was created several years ago with the National Air & Space Museum and continues to play at the “America by Air” exhibit in the museum on the Mall.

 

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Flying the Caribbean Skies – ‘Shooting Ourselves in the Foot’ – ENCORE

Posted on April 25, 2018 in Government, Industries

We do not need to blame anyone else; we do bad all by ourselves.

This seems to be the indictment against the Caribbean for its deficient governing policies in managing air travel in the region. So many of the 30 member-states charge excessive aviation fees and airport taxes that they discourage, dis-invite and dissuade trading partners (and tourists) from consuming our shores and hospitality.

So the “defect is our own”. – The Bible

Shrewd management of taxes can encourage or discourage good or bad behavior. For example, high “sin” taxes on tobacco and alcohol tend to dissuade consumption; and tax cuts tend to incentivize investments. This is a known fact! And yet, many Caribbean member-state governments charge exorbitant fees and taxes for basic air travel – sometimes the fees are higher than the air fare themselves – see below.

This subject is part of the focus on the economic realities of “flying the Caribbean skies”. This commentary continues the 3-part series on Flying the Caribbean Skies. This entry is 2 of 3 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of societal defects in the region’s management of air travel. These defects have awful-ized an already depressed economic situation in the Caribbean region. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Flying the Caribbean Skies: New Regional Options
  2. Flying the Caribbean Skies: ‘Shooting Ourselves in the Foot’ – ENCORE
  3. Flying the Caribbean Skies: The Need to Manage Airspace

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can empower regional commerce by optimizing the air travel eco-system. This submission asserts that empowerment in this industry space can begin right at the front door, the portal to air travel, the airports. In a previous Go Lean commentary, this governing flaw was exposed. This commentary is an ENCORE of that previous blog from December 6, 2014.

See that submission here:

——————————-

Go Lean Commentary –  Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes

The book Go Lean … Caribbean relates the significance of supporting the airline industry so as to facilitate the region’s primary economic driver: Tourism.

Tourism is a leisure activity; many times participants in leisure are in no hurry to get to their destinations, they often drive. This relates to countries on a continental mainland; but for islands, not so much. For 27 of the 30 Caribbean member-states, island life is the reality. (Belize is in Central America; Guyana and Suriname are in South America).

If speed is not the requirement then boating should be an option. But the only boating/transport options for Caribbean tourists are cruise lines.

This following article relates the biggest threat to Caribbean tourism is Caribbean governments. These ones are authorized to assess taxes, but for far too often they have targeted airline tickets to generate needed revenues. This is such a flawed strategy, a betrayal of the public trust. They “cut off their nose to spite their face”, as the article here relates:

By: Ernie Seon, Caribbean-360 Contributor

CU Blog - Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes - Photo 1ST. THOMAS, US Virgin Islands – The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) Tuesday urged regional aviation authorities to adhere to the key principles set out by International Civil Aviation Organization.

IATA’s regional vice president for the Americas, Peter Cerda said it is unfortunate that many governments had chosen to ignore the principles, a global issue that was particularly acute in the Caribbean.

Addressing tourism and industry officials gathered here on the occasion of World Aviation Day, Cerda noted that aviation taxes continue to increase the cost of travelling to the Caribbean. He said this made the region less competitive to other destinations.

“Taking the islands as a whole, each dollar of ticket tax could lead to over 40,000 fewer foreign passengers,” he said, adding that US$20 million of reduced tourist expenditure meant 1,200 fewer jobs across the region.

“Caribbean countries must therefore consider the aviation industry as a key element for tourism development,” he advised.

The IATA official noted that in terms of charges, two airports in the region, Montego Bay and Kingston, both in Jamaica, recently proposed airport tariff increases of over 100 per cent so as to attain a return of capital of around 20 per cent a year in US dollars.

He said that measures such as these do not encourage or support the development of the industry in the region.

“The regulators must act strongly and swiftly against such big increases. Governments have to foster positive business environments through consultation with the industry and transparency in order to ensure win-win situations for all,” he warned.

Cerda said the issue of taxes and charges in the region transcends the formal breaches of global standards and recommended practices and that the simple truth is that this region is a very expensive place for airlines to do business.

In the Caribbean, tourism and the aviation sector facilitate and support some 140,000 jobs and contribute US$3.12 billion, roughly 7.2 per cent of the Caribbean’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The airline industry is celebrating its 100th anniversary year in the black, according to industry figures released here. Globally, airlines are expected to earn a net profit of US$18 billion in 2014.

Cerda noted that while that might sound impressive, on revenues of US$746 billion, this is equivalent to a net profit margin of 2.4 per cent or US$5.42 per passenger carried.

“Looking only at Latin America and the Caribbean, the airlines in this region are expected to earn $1.1 billion.”This is a profit of US$4.21 per passenger and a net margin of three per cent. We are in a tough and very competitive business,” he added.

The aviation official said fuel expense across the Caribbean is estimated at 14 per cent higher than the world average, adding that this represents about a third of an airline’s operating costs.

He noted that in the case of the Dominican Republic, although fuel charges were recently reduced, tax on international jet fuel still remains high at 6.5 per cent.

“Another example is the Bahamas applying a seven per cent import duty on Jet fuel. Jet fuel supply is an issue in the region, the complexity of the fuel supply and the seasonal demand is costly and difficult, making fuel costs in the region a challenge for airlines.”

In addition, Cerda noted that airports are using the fuel concession fees as a source of revenue and they are still waiting to see any of these monies re-invested in improving fuel facilities.

On the issue of safety, he said that this has been in the spotlight in recent months, with July being an especially sad month for all involved with aviation.

However, Cerda said despite the recent tragedies, flying remains by far the safest mode of transportation.

“Every day, approximately 100,000 flights take to the sky and land without incident. Nonetheless, accidents do happen. Every life lost recommits us to improve on our safety performance.

“It is no secret that safety has been an issue in this region. Even though it is still under performing the global average, performance is improving,” he said.

The IATA official said that the aviation industry has come a long way since the very first flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa 100 years ago, turning this large planet into one small world.

He said through it all, one thing has remained constant: when governments support the conditions for a thriving industry the economic benefits are felt by all.

However Cerda cautioned that for the industry to deliver the most benefits to the citizens in the Caribbean and spur additional tourism and trade, “we need to be able to compete on a level playing field and have the infrastructure capacity needed to grow.”

He said he remains confident that if the Caribbean governments continue to strengthen their partnership with the aviation industry, “we will deliver the unique transformative economic growth only our industry can deliver, making the second century of aviation in this region even more beneficial than the first”.
Caribbean-360 Online News (Posted 09/17/2014; retrieved 12/06/2014) –
http://www.caribbean360.com/news/caribbean-less-competitive-due-to-increasing-aviation-taxes-iata-warns

This foregoing article highlights a defective premise, predatory taxing, and so thusly depicts the need for improved regional oversight of economic and governing engines.

CU Blog - Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes - Photo 2See this photo of a recent airline ticket (price breakdown), for one of the stakeholders in the Go Lean movement, who was travelling from a Caribbean island. The reality of these aviation taxes defies logic!

Yes, the governments need their revenues, but this should not be pursued at the expense of undermining viable economic engines; this is self-defeating. Likewise there was a recent conflict with British Aviation Authorities and their unilateral tax on Caribbean air transport. The solution there/then is the same as now: regional coordination and a heightened advocacy; see Appendix–VIDEO.

Change has now come to the Caribbean. The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an alliance of the 30 Caribbean member-states. This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The roadmap calls for the CU to navigate the changed landscape of the globalized air transport industry. There is the need for regional integration, administration, and promotion for Caribbean air travel among local and foreign carriers. The book posits that transportation and logistics empower the economic engines of a community. There must be air carrier solutions to service the transportation and tourism needs of the Caribbean islands. This point is fully appreciated by Caribbean tourism stakeholders; the book relates that the region’s Hotel and Tourism Association channel the vision of Robert Crandall, former Chairman of American Airlines, who remarked at a Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in May 2010 that the region is uniquely dependent on tourism:

“Everyone involved in travel and tourism knows that our [airline] industry is immensely important to the world economy, generating and supporting – either directly or indirectly – about one in eleven jobs worldwide. Here in the Caribbean, it is even more important. On a number of islands, travel and tourism accounts for more than 50% of all employment, and on some islands for more than 75%. Overall, about 20% of Caribbean employment is travel and tourism dependent – something on the order of 2.5 million jobs.” – Go Lean … Caribbean Page 60.

The Go Lean book asserts that air travel options must be optimized to impact Caribbean society – thus the need for more regional coordination, regulation and promotion of the Caribbean’s aviation industry. New models are detailed in the book in which tourism can be enhanced with “air lifts” to facilitate Caribbean events, and “Air Bridges” to allow for targeting High Net Worth markets. This roadmap also introduces the Union Atlantic Turnpike to offer more transportation solutions (ferries, toll roads, railways, and pipelines) to better facilitate the efficient movement of people and cargo.

This is one way the CU will empower the region’s economic engines. This is an example of the change that the CU technocracy will bring!

The Go Lean book presents a series of community ethos that must be adapted to forge this change. In addition, there are these specific strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to apply:

Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Impacting the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Customers – Visitors Page 47
Strategy – Competitive Analysis – Event Patrons Page 55
Strategy – Core Competence – Tourism Page 58
Anecdote – Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Assoc. focus on Air Transport Page 60
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Commerce – Tourism Promotion Page 78
Tactical – Aviation Administration & Promotion Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives Page 116
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – #7: Virtual Turnpike Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Optimize Government Revenue Sources Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California – Air Bridge Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation – Aviation Promotion Page 205
Appendix – Airport Cities – New Approach for Optimizing Business Model Page 287

This commentary posits that the status quo of Caribbean aviation taxes reflect a flawed economic policy, reflective of the dysfunction in the region. This commentary also relates to other lessons of economic optimizations and dysfunctions previously detailed in Go Lean blogs, as sampled here:

Caribbean must work together to address regional industry threats – Example of Rum Subsidies
A Lesson in Aviation History: Concorde SST and the Caribbean
New York-New Jersey Port Authority – Lessons from an Airport Landlord
Bahamas Re-organizing Government Revenues in 2015 with VAT Implementation
Lessons Learned from the American Airlines Merger
Book Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’
Caribbean Changes – Air Antilles Launches St. Maarten Service
Tourism’s changing profile – Need for Competition and Comparative Analysis

The world loves the Caribbean; people want to come visit and enjoy our hospitality. It is better for them, and for us in the region that they come by air transport. But cruises are viable options, though the Caribbean communities get less benefits from cruise lines (Pages 61 & 193). We simply “fatten our frogs for snake”. The more dysfunction we create with air transport – like these excessive  aviation taxes – the more we push visitors to the cruise option; meaning less direct-indirect spending: hotels, taxis, restaurants, casinos, etc.

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We cannot afford to undermine our economic strengths with disabling tax policies. This is a public trust, betrayed. The Caribbean can – and must – do better.  🙂

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

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

————

APPENDIX Video: A Tax Too Far…? – http://youtu.be/Jbh8DJxUNC8

Uploaded on Oct 30, 2011 – A documentary on how the Air Passenger Duty instituted by the UK is affecting Caribbean Tourism, and the lobbying efforts of the Caribbean Tourism Organization to have it reduced, removed, or the Caribbean re-banded. Get more information about the APD on the CTO website: http://www.onecaribbean.org/our-work/advocacy/

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Flying the Caribbean Skies – New Regional Options

Posted on April 24, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Look back at Economic History and we see a consistent lesson: nations that deploy efficient transportation systems always thrived as world powers. Consider these examples of the interchangeability of transportation and trade:

  • Romans built roads, facilitating trade and military advancement.
  • British, Dutch, French and Spanish empires thrived in trade due to their efficient shipbuilding and navigational artistry.
  • Railroad expansion across North America allowed the manifestation of the greatest industrial might in the history of mankind.
  • Banana boats created foreign markets for a tropical perishable produce, and originated cruise travelling.
  • Highway deployments allowed America to regroup and exceed competitors just as other nations where catching up with rail.
  • The “Jet Age” opened the Caribbean up to be the ideal winter tourism destination; “get there fast and then take it slow”.

This last one, is the focus of this series of commentaries; the economic realities of “flying the Caribbean skies”. This commentary commences a 3-part series on Flying the Caribbean Skies. This entry is 1 of 3 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of societal defects in the region’s management of air travel. There is a lot wrong and a lot of remediation that needs to be done. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

  1. Flying the Caribbean Skies: New Regional Options
  2. Flying the Caribbean Skies: ‘Shooting Ourselves in the Foot’ – ENCORE
  3. Flying the Caribbean Skies: The Need to Manage Airspace

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can empower regional commerce by optimizing the air travel eco-system, and the dependent industries. Our efforts to reform and transform the Caribbean economic engines would be incomplete without re-addressing air travel. Problems emerged in the last decade; there was one dominant airline that used to service most of the Caribbean member-states, and then they downsized their Caribbean footprint. That was American Airlines. In a previous Go Lean commentary, this debilitating history was related:

The 2008 financial crisis placed a heavy strain on the US’s largest carrier: American Airlines. On July 2, 2008, American announced furloughs of up to 950 flight attendants, in addition to the furlough of 20 MD-80 aircraft. American’s hub at Luiz Muñoz Marin Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR) was truncated from 38 to 18 daily inbound flights. The holding company, AMR Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 29, 2011, and the airline made cuts in July 2012 due to the grounding of several aircraft associated with its bankruptcy and lack of pilots due to retirements. American Eagle, the regional carrier, (the Caribbean’s largest), was to retire 35 to 40 regional jets as well as its entire Saab turboprop fleet. [b] American Eagle PR ceased operation in March 2013. This status created dysfunction for the entire Eastern Caribbean region.

The stakeholders for American Airlines met and deliberated; then they made a decision and executed a plan that devastated Caribbean commerce. Caribbean stakeholders were “not at the table” but we were “on the menu”.

Now that American Airlines have downsized, the Caribbean has become totally dysfunctional with the air travel eco-system. A few other airlines, stepped into the void, but not at the same level and production; air travel options are now more limited, and expensive. So more and more tourists are travelling to the Caribbean by cruise ships. With less and less air travel fulfillments, that means less stay-overs, so less hotels, restaurants, taxi cabs, etc.. This type of dysfunction affects all “job multipliers” (indirect employment down the line) in the society.

No wonder our Caribbean member-states are nearing Failed-State status.

With cracks in the economic “chain-link”, the whole job creation utility becomes dysfunctional, and the Caribbean landscape for jobs is dire. We have some work to do, to fill the void.

If the one airline, the foreign American Airlines, is a primary culprit for Caribbean Airspace dysfunction, then facilitating a local airline solution would be moving in the right direction. See one news article here, identifying a new regional carrier:

Title #1: Saint Lucia welcomes new regional airline

Press Release: The inaugural flight of InterCaribbean Airways arrived at the George FL Charles Airport, on Thursday, March 22, at 6:55 pm, from the island of Dominica. The flight marks the commencement of a direct service, 3 times a week, between Saint Lucia’s George FL Charles Airport (SLU) and Dominica’s Douglas–Charles Airport (DOM).

Flight JY293 was welcomed by the Minister of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting the Hon. Dominic Fedee, Chairperson of the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority Agnes Francis, Airport Manager for George FL Charles Kirby Toussaint and other tourism officials. The honoured guests included airline Owner and Chairman Lyndon Gardiner along with CEO Trevor Sadler.  Guests were greeted with steel band music and welcome refreshments upon disembarking the aircraft.

The new route will be serviced by an Embraer EMB120, with a seating capacity of 30. The flights will arrive from DOM at 6:55 pm on Sunday, Monday and Thursday and depart from SLU at 9:00 am on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. The service provides onward connections to the northern Caribbean including the BVI reaching as far north as Havana with an additional direct service to Saint Croix commencing on April 12.

Speaking on the airlines role in regional travel Owner/Chairman Lyndon Gardiner stated, “Our dream is connecting the entire Caribbean, we feel that once we have better air connectivity we will be able to have better integration and be able to market the Caribbean as a single destination, offering more multi-destination vacations in our region”

The airport’s proximity to the island’s main business hub and largest cluster of hotels makes it the ideal point of entry for regional travel. In 2017 the Caribbean market overtook the United Kingdom as the second largest producer of stay-over arrivals, generating 76,349 or 19.8% of total stay-over arrivals to the destination.

Minister of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting the Hon. Dominic Fedee commented on the value of the increased airlift saying, “We look forward to the opportunities that this flight allows, which connects us to even more gateways across the Caribbean.”

Source: Retrieved April 21, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/03/30/saint-lucia-welcomes-new-regional-airline/

There is a heightened deficiency in the region today, and now only a small number of airline carriers have answered the call. This dysfunction has created the urgency for permanent change. This is a prime directive of the book Go Lean … Caribbean, to optimize the region’s economic engines, including enhancements for Caribbean tourism, cruise and “long stay” visitors.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap fully 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.

American Airlines is more than just a regional carrier; they are the world’s largest airline; see VIDEO in the Appendix below. In addition to their planes-flights, they also facilitate an alliance with other carriers around the world, to form the OneWorld Alliance. This alliance was detailed in that previous blog-commentary, listing this inventory as of May 2014:

Airline Base Country / Region
Airberlin Germany – Central Europe
American Airlines USA – North America
British Airways United Kingdom, Western Europe
Cathay Pacific Airways Hong Kong (China), Far East Asia
Finnair Finland – North Europe
Iberia Spain / Portugal – Southern Europe
Japan Airlines Japan – Far East Asia
LAN Airlines Chile/Peru – South America
Malaysia Airlines Malaysia – Southeast Asia
Qantas Australia – Austra-Asia
Qatar Airways Middle East
Royal Jordanian Middle East
S7 Airlines Russia – Siberia
TAM Airlines Brazil – South America
US Airways USA – North America

So the Caribbean took a beating, economically, because of the decline and failure of this one private American company.

You see it, right? You see the “too many vulnerable eggs in one basket”; this is called “country risk”:

Country risk also refers to the broader notion of the degree to which political and economic unrest affect the securities of issuers doing business in a particular country. – Source.

Yes, there is vulnerability of placing our own economic fortunes in the hands of just one foreign entity. This is a consistent complaint of the Go Lean movement against the Caribbean member-states:

We have subjected ourselves to be parasites, rather than protégés.

A more appropriate Caribbean solution would be to forge an equivalent multi-airline alliance. In fact, there is such an effort in place now, though limited. See the news article here identifying a new alliance in the Eastern Caribbean:

Title #2: Caribbean airline alliance promises lower fares

Barbados Nation – Three Caribbean airlines have formed an alliance which promises to make it easier and cheaper for travellers to move between 32 countries.

Antigua-based LIAT, Air Antilles of Guadeloupe and St Maarten’s Winair have joined forces under the CaribSKY project which is co-funded by the European Union’s INTERREG Caribbean programme to the tune of 4.7 million euros.

The details of the project were revealed on Tuesday during a media conference at La Creole Beach Hotel and Spa in Guadeloupe.

Air Antilles chief executive officer Serge Tsygalnitzky said CaribSKY would allow passengers to travel on any of the three airlines on one ticket. This will be facilitated through codeshares and interline agreements.

“Sometimes, a customer has to purchase two tickets, three tickets to get to a single place. Now, what we want you to be able to do is travel seamlessly anywhere you want to with a single ticket,” he told regional media.

Tsygalnitzky said passengers would benefit from more direct flights and connections, lower fares, a better airport experience and a loyalty programme.

At the same time, LIAT, Winair and Air Antilles will be able to share know-how, optimise schedules and bring their teams together while maintaining separate identities.

Together, it projected that the three airlines will operate 25 aircraft and transport 1 400 000 passengers annuals on 70 000 flights.

LIAT’s chief executive officer Julie Reifer-Jones said inter-regional travel was declining and it was hoped that CaribSKY will make it easier for passengers to move through the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking territories.

In brief remarks, LIAT chairman Dr Jean Holder pointed out that the Caribbean was the most airline dependent region in the world and social, economic and cultural life depended on the extent to which there is connectivity.

St Maarten’s Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunications, Cornelius de Weever also highlighted the importance of CaribSKY.

He pointed out that it is often easier and cheaper to cross the Atlantic than to visit a Caribbean territory.

Source: Retrieved April 23, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/04/19/caribbean-airline-alliance-promises-lower-fares/

This too is a good start, though limited to the small Eastern Caribbean sub-region. The Go Lean movement presents the plan to forge an alliance of multiple parties throughout the whole Caribbean region, all 30 member-states in benefit to the 42 million people. The book stresses that regional alliances are the best ways to reform and transform the Caribbean societal engines. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one … agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

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

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

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. One advocacy (Page 205) details the CU’s role in promotion activities for air travel, with this quotation:

Aviation plays a key role, and so there is the need for regional coordination and promotion of the region’s domestic and foreign air carriers.

Yes, we can better promote air travel in the Caribbean; we can make our homeland a better place to live, work, fly & play. 🙂

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

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – World’s largest airline fleet || American Airlines Current And Future Fleet – https://youtu.be/ULGL_yTORMs

Great Aviation
Published on Jan 23, 2018 – American Airlines current as well as the airplanes it has ordered. All the types as well as their seat configurations.

 

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Securing the Homeland – From the Air

Posted on September 14, 2016 in Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

cu-blog-securing-the-homeland-from-the-air-photo-4The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean wants to protect the Caribbean homeland. We want to ensure that all our stakeholders – residents, tourists, trading partners – are safe and secure within our borders.

This quest is not just a desire, it is also a job description. According to the implied Social Contract, 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 Social Contract authorizes the State to raise a militia and establish police forces to ensure public safety and protections against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

This job responsibility is a BIG deal; and very expensive. For some governmental administrations – think local municipalities – security fulfillment is the lion-share of their budgets. This is because of the one ingredient that is most expensive:

Personnel.

The Go Lean book presents a strategy for better securing the homeland by optimizing the investment in people. The approach is to ensure homeland security by confederating a regional force – police and military – under the guise of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This allows for greater leverage and economies-of-scale.

Security is costly; both on the macro and the micro (price per citizen/capita). So it is prudent to spread the large cost of security across a wider base; think wholesale versus retail. The bigger the confederation, the cheaper the cost per capita. This strategy allows us to attain our objectives while confronting the reality of Caribbean life, that the 30 member-states are mostly all Third World countries; they hover near the poverty line; we do not have money to field a Big-Bulky military or police force.

If a community wants to have the protections without the expense, then there is the need to be smart, efficient and agile: “Jack be nimble; Jack be quick”.

Agile or nimble? These are descriptors synonymous with “lean”.

Just the name of the book – Go Lean … Caribbean – is a clue to this strategy: to provide a nimble, agile security solution in conjunction with economic empowerments. So when we think of lean security, do not think sledgehammer, think scalpel, or surgical precision.

There is a primary functionality that the CU can provide that is surgical? Intelligence.

The Go Lean book provide comprehensive details on Intelligence Gathering and Analysis. See this sample here from Page 182:

  • The [enlarged] size of the CU market will allow it to afford cutting edge equipment, systems and training to facilitate the intelligence gathering functionality for all CU defense initiatives.
  • The CU’s law enforcement agencies will work in conjunction with the Homeland Security apparatus. Even though the CU jurisdiction extends to economic crimes and regional threats, the CU will provide intelligence gathering and analysis for domestic and foreign security entities. The CU will also extend grants to local agencies to acquire and maintain surveillance equipment: CATV, dashboard cameras for police cars and helmet “cams” on tactical (SWAT) team members.

Security Intelligence is the focus of this series of commentaries. There is the need to optimize military intelligence and police-crime intelligence to better secure the Caribbean homeland. This commentary is 1 of 3 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in consideration of Security Intelligence. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

  1.   Securing the Homeland – From the Air
  2.   Securing the Homeland – From the Seas
  3.   Securing the Homeland – On the Ground

All of these commentaries relate to the Caribbean security apparatus being promoted in the Go Lean regional empowerment effort. They consider the short-term, mid-term and long-term needs of our communities.

As related in previous commentaries – see list below – there is the need for overt and covert security in the region. These previous submissions describe that the regional security pact must be instituted with a legal treaty – Status of Forces Agreement – at the launch of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The Go Lean book therefore serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. The security apparatus within the CU would be established by all sovereign powers of the 30 Caribbean member-states to empower the region with this Security / Defense Pact (Armed Forces) with a fully-empowered Naval Force and adequately manned Expeditionary Marine Forces to facilitate the region’s security interest. For covert empowerments, the book details the width-and-breadth of an Intelligence Gathering & Analysis Apparatus to fully round-out the security efforts.

For this consideration, we should answer the question: how can we secure the Caribbean homeland from the air?

Hardware and software…

So hardware refers to the following military equipment (satellites, planes, air-ships, etc). While software refers to intelligence, communications and computer applications. Today’s military establishment is part-soldier, part-sailor, part-aviator and part-computer-programmer!

Satellites

cu-blog-securing-the-homeland-from-the-air-photo-1The Caribbean owns no satellites! Yet, the Go Lean book details that Security Intelligence can still be fulfilled by engaging other satellite solutions providers:

The Bottom Line on DigitalGlobe
In addition to skilled people, overt intelligence gathering is accomplished by systems architecture (hardware, software & communications) and applications. The combination of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye creates a global leader in earth imagery architecture and the means by which to perform geospatial analysis. They now boast 5 advanced satellites with harmonized collection programs, a collection capability of 3 million square kilometers per day. This provides a worldwide infrastructure for optimized data upload/offload operations and shorter delivery timeframes. A partner client of DigitalGlobe is the Washington, DC-based non-government organization (NGO) Fund For Peace Institute that performs threat assessment and conflict analysis. (Annually, they publish the FSI – Failed State Index). The following is their published statement (Fundforpeace.org):
“As part of our quest to find new and innovative methods for conflict analysis, we have begun working with DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center, which has access to real-time and archival satellite imagery captured by DigitalGlobe’s own fleet of satellites that have been made famous for their role in the Satellite Sentinel Project over Sudan and South Sudan. We are exploring these new forms of data to watch human patterns change and understand the impact on potential for conflict, or how a change in patterns may be an indicator of conflict. We also want to see how digital imagery – and data generated from the analysis of it – can be integrated into our data, both that used for the high-level FSI and other more granular analysis”. – Go Lean book Page 182.

See the VIDEO here on the GeoEye system:

VIDEO – GeoEye – https://youtu.be/oUhYndAfKyA

Uploaded on Jan 13, 2009 – Learn about GeoEye 1 – the world’s highest resolution commercial earth imaging satellite.

Continuing the theme of “Other People’s Satellites”, the Go Lean roadmap also identified the reality that many Caribbean member-states are overseas territories of major military powers, with their own array of satellite offerings. Consider this list:

Military Power Dependent Territory
USA Puerto Rico
US Virgin Islands
United Kingdom Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Montserrat
Turks & Caicos, British Virgin Islands
Netherlands Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba
Sint Eustatius
France Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy

Planes

cu-blog-securing-the-homeland-from-the-air-photo-2There is no need for the Caribbean to deploy or maintain intercontinental ballistic missiles, long-range bombers and fighter jets. But still, many of our allies – see above list – maintain such a readiness. We would welcome their placement in the Caribbean region, whether from ground-bases or aboard aircraft carriers. The Go Lean roadmap allows for a role of these above-identified Military powers in securing the Caribbean homeland from the air. The book implies this at (individually at Pages 245, 246, 247, 248):

The CU Security Pact will allow American/UK/France/NATO forces to patrol, train and visit Caribbean waters [, airspace] and CU ports.

The primary responsibility then for the CU Security Pact in securing the homeland from the air will be the Unified Command and Control of all the intelligence activities from these other powers. This point was stressed in the book on Page 180 – Ways to Improve Homeland Security:

CU Defense Pact
The CU region has enemies, examples being narco-terrorists, and sworn enemies of the CU‘s allies and legacy nations (US, Britain, France, and Netherlands). As a result, the collective security agreement will create a Homeland Security Department, to defend the member states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This Department will coalesce with the US/British, French and Dutch military liaisons to coordinate the public safety needs of the region against systemic threats. The CU, by the sheer size of the market, will fund the acquisition of cutting edge equipment and defensive weapons – i.e. Un-manned Aviation Vehicles (Drones), anti-aircraft systems, and Attack helicopters.

The Go Lean roadmap does not only call for use of other people’s planes for communications and surveillance, we can and should deploy some of our own as well. How about cutting-edge Un-manned Aerial Vehicles (drones) designed to stay aloft for weeks, months, years at a time. This is now reality…

… see the VIDEO here of a sample UAV, developed with support from Facebook, designed to remain aloft for indefinite periods of time.  (In addition, see this related news article here on this breakthrough accomplishment; retrieved September 13, 2016 from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/21/facebook-solar-powered-internet-plane-test-flight-aquila):

VIDEO – Facebook’s drone Aquila project tries to bring internet to the rest of the world  – https://youtu.be/v5_kGZS3yr8

Published on Jul 31, 2015 –

Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of facebook on his facebook shares this:

I’m excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort.

Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time.

We’ve also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We’ve successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That’s ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away.

This effort is important because 10% of the world’s population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies.

Using aircraft to connect communities using lasers might seem like science fiction. But science fiction is often just science before its time. Over the coming months, we will test these systems in the real world and continue refining them so we can turn their promise into reality. Here’s a video showing the building of Aquila.

For more information, see website: http://www.hackindo.com

——–

First flight – June 28, 2016 …

“We’re proud to announce the successful first test flight of Aquila, the solar airplane we designed to bring internet access to people living in remote locations. We look forward to the rest of the journey toward making the world more open and connected.”

Accompanying VIDEO: https://youtu.be/lKdmLbxK5dQ

Air-ships

cu-blog-securing-the-homeland-from-the-air-photo-3The Caribbean is an ideal market for modern air-ships.

Gone are the days of the Hindenburg – the German hydrogen-powered air-ship that crashed in the US state of New Jersey in 1937. Now the “lighter than air” class of dirigibles feature stable and secure operations – powered by safe helium – with solar-paneled embedded frames/coverings to enable continuous high-end electronic surveillance. They can remain afloat for weeks at a time. Imagine an inter-connected network of constantly flying air-ships circum-navigating the Caribbean skies-and-waters, always watching, always on guard to protect the homeland from the skies. See a sample air-ship here in this VIDEO:

VIDEO – Lockheed Martin – P-791 Hybrid Airship – https://youtu.be/isJRgEu7DQo

Uploaded on Sep 10, 2010 – Success in the war on terrorism depends on knowing where the enemy is hiding and having resources in place to act on that knowledge quickly. In a war where the adversaries of freedom can strike at any time and from any point, our servicemen and women need the most sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets available. Their lives and the lives of innocent civilians may hang in the balance.

—————

Considering the foregoing solutions to secure Caribbean intelligence from the air, there is one consistent adjective: not labor-intensive.

  • Yes, we want the advanced security options.
  • No, we do not want high maintenance costs. We want lean, technocratic options … only.

There is the need to reform and transform the societal engines of the Caribbean. This refers to economics, security and governing aspects in the homeland of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region: all the Caribbean islands, plus the 2 member-states on the South American mainland (Guyana and Suriname) and 1 member-state on the Central American isthmus (Belize). Despite our difference, “we are all in the same boat” and must band together to ensure our homeland is protected.

We know that “bad actors” abound now; and we expect even more … to come.

The Go Lean book asserts that once we remediate and mitigate our broken economic engines, we most assuredly should expect more security challenges, as economic success brings “bad actors” looking to exploit the environment for their own illicit gains; (Page 23). This point is pronounced early in the Go Lean book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

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

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

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

The CU Security/Defense Pact would be established by the 30 member-states to empower the region, above and beyond any offerings from our neighboring Super-Power, the US. We are responsible for our economic engines, and must also be responsible for our own security apparatus. In fact, the Go Lean roadmap stresses these 3 statements in the Go Lean/CU prime directives:

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

The requirement for the Status of Forces Agreement, to empower our security apparatus, is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide the proactive and reactive public safety/security in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating a non-sovereign permanent union Page 45
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Coast Guard & Naval Authorities Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Ground Militia Forces Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Agency Page 76
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives Page 102
Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid Page 115
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #3: Consolidated Homeland Security Pact Page 130
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better – Safer Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Escalation Role Page 134
Planning – Lessons from the American West – Needed Law & Order Page 142
Planning – Lessons from Egypt – Law & Order for Tourism Page 143
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Quick Disaster Recovery Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Policing the Police Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime – Regional Security Intelligence Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Emergency Management Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197

Other subjects related to security and governing empowerments for the region’s defense have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentary, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8819 Lesson from China – South China Seas: Exclusive Economic Zones
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449 ‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7345 ISIS and Terrorism reaches the Caribbean Region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7119 Security Role Model: African Standby Force
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720 A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Principle over Principal
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103 Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5183 A Lesson in History – Cinco De Mayo and Mexico’s Security Lapses
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002 Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360 Dreading the ‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3881 Intelligence Agencies to Up Cyber Security Cooperation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965 America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554 Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535 Remembering and learning from Boston
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 10 Things We Want from the US – #4: Pax Americana

The promoters of the Go Lean … Caribbean book has only one goal: to make this homeland a better place to live, work and play. This also means stronger and safer!

The Caribbean is arguably the best address on the planet; but there are societal defects that must be remediated and mitigated. Our primary economic driver is tourism, and tourists do not visit “hot-spots” with civil war, genocides, active terrorism and rampant crime. We cannot allow these threats to arise and must be prepared to mitigate them at the earliest signs of trouble.

We must lead first with intelligence … gathering and analysis.

A safe, secure homeland is important for how we live, how we work, and how we and others play here in the Caribbean. So the issues in this discussion is of serious concern. We are not preparing for war; we are preparing for peace; preparing to secure our homeland. 🙂

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

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Private Airplanes For All

Posted on September 21, 2015 in Ethos, Government, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Private Airplanes 1The airplane is not a new invention. It goes back to the days of the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio – Orville and Wilbur – and their Kitty Hawk, North Carolina test flight on December 17, 1903. Yet, after 112 years, there is still room for a lot of invention and innovation in the field of aerospace. As the old adage relates “Necessity, is the ‘mother’ of invention”.

This commentary asserts that while the United States of America was front-and-center with the initial developments in man-flights, the Caribbean region now needs to be more prominent with the innovations of flight for this new century in aviation. Why?

Necessity, is STILL the ‘mother’ of invention.

There is the need for a lot more innovative airplane transportation solutions for any region featuring an archipelago – a chain of islands. This new product here – the ICON A5* – is perhaps an ideal solution for Caribbean deployment, as it can better reach the masses and become ubiquitous for private owners-operators; see the following VIDEO:

VIDEO Title: Private airplanes for all? One company hopes so

Private planes have long been the domain of the very rich, but now one company wants to change that. ICON wants to do for air travel what Apple did for computers – demystify and make them approachable. They see a future where lots of people like me and you are soaring through the sky in a plane like this. TODAY’s Craig Melvin reports.

Private Airplanes 2This vision of ubiquitous owners-operators of amphibious airplanes – that can touchdown on land or water – portray a more efficient aviation environment for island-hoping; these vehicles would make island living more appealing to live, work and play. This commentary asserted that “our region must participate in these developments, not just spectate on them”. This aligns with the mandate for a more nimble environment to develop, test and deploy cutting-edge transportation solutions. This is the benefit of lean governmental coordination, to be able to launch initiatives like this as portrayed in the foregoing VIDEO.

Canada is a good model for the Caribbean to emulate in this regards. They have vast rural territories, not easily accessible by roads. In these far-out territories, seaplanes, floatplanes and bush planes proliferate. In addition, this ubiquity in Canada is not necessarily affiliated with the wealthy, but rather ordinary citizens; sometimes, these transportation options even become a small business opportunity.

Needless to say, a proliferation of small aircrafts raises a lot of security issues; think September 11, 2011 Terror Attacks on New York City. The aircraft in the above VIDEO, also feature the additional safety mitigation of a built-in parachute, to allow for an easy landing of any aircraft that may go into distress. (This safety feature is ingenious!).

The book, Go Lean … Caribbean, extols the principle that R&D (research and development) activities are necessary to profit from advantages in technology. We want to do R&D here in the Caribbean; manufacturing/assembly too. Since we have the demand; we should facilitate supply as well!  This is a mandate for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU. This technocracy will assume oversight to optimize the region in the areas of:

      (1) economics
      (2) security
      (3) lean government

This ethos of adapting to change has now come to the Caribbean.

The status quo of the Caribbean’s transportation eco-systems is badly flawed. The region boasts transportation and fuel costs (including taxes) that are among the highest in the world.

Private Airplanes 4The Go Lean strategy is to confederate the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region to form the technocratic CU Trade Federation. Tactically, the roadmap calls for a separation-of-powers, allowing the Caribbean member-states to deputize authority of the Caribbean airspace to the one unified CU agency. Operationally, there is the need to regulate these aircrafts and the owners-operators, for their monitoring, training, licensing, maintenance compliance, search-and-rescue, incident management and everyday functionality. (Consider the risk mitigation example in the Appendix VIDEO below).

Things will go wrong! Bad things do happen to good people.

This blog-commentary touches on many related issues and subjects that affect planning for Caribbean empowerment in the aviation and  transportation industry-spaces. Many of these issues were elaborated upon in these previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5376 Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3533 No Fear of Failure – Case Study: Bahamasair
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3326 M-1 Rail: Alternative Motion in the Motor City
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3225 Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2769 DC Streetcars/Rail – Model For Caribbean Re-development
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=798 Lessons Learned from the American Airlines merger
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673 Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=254 Air Antilles Launches St. Maarten Service

Though not written with this particular initiative in mind, the Go Lean roadmap anticipates the foregoing VIDEO‘s opportunities and challenges, as pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 12 & 14):

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.

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

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

The Go Lean book was written with the future of the Caribbean in mind. There was a certain anticipated future – with a proliferation of private aircraft owners-operators – that hasn’t really materialized … yet. But maybe now, finally, that future view is coming into focus. This is the direct quotation from the book (Page 26):

The Bottom Line on the Millennium
In the words of Yogi Berra – iconic American Baseball Hall-of-Famer: “The future ain’t what it used to be”.

This is according to a 2007 news analysis by Michael Fitzpatrick, Science Writer for The Guardian (UK) newspaper:

    No flying cars, no dinners in a pill, and certainly no cool rocketing off to space cities in the required outfit of the future. We seem to have failed the expectations of the most wild-eyed seers from the past – futurologists who were for the most part in love with a supercharged, technologically sexy future where science would free us from the daily grind, for holidays on the moon or underseas. But here we remain, plodding along … in a familiar world that is neither utopia nor dystopia. What the futurologists did get right were some of the more prosaic details such as mobile phones and digital technologies.

Private Airplanes 3The aircraft depicted in the foregoing VIDEO (see Appendix below),  feature functionality where every single-family home could have a plane in their garage – this is the ubiquity in the earlier references. North American society could now be that close to this future view. Better still, the Caribbean should be that close to this reality:

… planes being towed from home garages to boat ramps to launch flight. Then while in flight the aircraft cruises below 15,000 feet and operate at good speed, but slower than 150 miles an hour.

The CU mission is to implement the complete eco-system to deliver on market opportunities for these ubiquitous aircraft owners-operators. There are many strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies in the book that will facilitate this readiness; a sample is detailed here:

Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Economic Principles – People Choose because Resources are Limited Page 21
Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs Page 21
Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the   Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help   Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote   Intellectual Property Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research   and Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Ways to Improve   Negotiations Page 32
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Page 76
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of Transportation – Aviation Regulator Page 84
Implementation – Security Initiatives at   Start-up – Command-and-Control Page 103
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the EEZ Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Improve Energy Usage – Electrified Buses/Trains Page 113
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization Page 119
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Planning – Lessons Learned from Canada’s History Page 146
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Technology and Efficiency Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Empowering Immigration Page 174
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Transit Options Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living – Optimizing Transportation Options Page 235

As described in the Go Lean book, change is imminent, for the world and for the Caribbean. The world is preparing for the change for more efficient transit options and also to deploy more autonomous systems to help owner-operators auto-pilot and navigate around the Caribbean region. This commentary calls for a new ethos … to prepare for change. This ethos has now come to the Caribbean, among the Go Lean/CU planners. The people of the region are urged to also “lean-in” to this empowerment. The benefits of this roadmap are very alluring: emergence of an $800 Billion single market economy and 2.2 million new jobs.

These developments are taking place … elsewhere. We need “in” on this.

We need this here, these types of innovative products, systems, companies and specialists to help us in our quest to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.  🙂

————

Appendix * ICON A5

ICON Aircraft is a privately held American aircraft design and production company.[2] It is currently working on the production of the ICON A5, an amphibious light sport aircraft[3] that began customer deliveries in July 2015.[4][5] The company was founded in response to the 2004 Federal Aviation Administration establishment of the light-sport aircraft (LSA) class of aircraft and Sport Pilot certificate class of pilot.[6][7][8]

This first ICON Aircraft’s  model, the ICON A5, is an amphibious two-seat, light-sport aircraft to be priced at approximately $189,000. Its folding wings facilitate transportation and storage,[8] and it will have a range of approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km) and a top speed of 105 knots (120 mph).[18]

ICON Aircraft positions the A5 with a recreational focus, stating that the aircraft competes with powersports vehicles such as ATVs, motorcycles, watercraft, and snowmobiles, rather than other airplanes.

The company’s headquarters are located in Vacaville, California where all manufacturing, engineering, design, training, sales, and service functions are consolidated.[21]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICON_Aircraft; retrieved September 21, 2015.

————

Appendix – VIDEO – Sea Plane Takes Off from Truck Trailer –  https://youtu.be/-JDogTLtels

Title: Creative Sea Plane Pilot Displays Incredible Take Off Technique From a Moving Truck Trailer – Published on May 8, 2013 – For licensing/usage please contact: licensing@liveleak.com.
Though not as widely used as they once were, seaplanes still serve a few key purposes today including providing access to roadless areas. But the downside of a seaplane is that it can’t land or take off on solid ground. Or can it? This video proves that only one of those disadvantages holds true (landing). As you will see in the video, with a truck moving fast enough, a seaplane can actually take off from an attached trailer.

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Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims

Posted on May 22, 2015 in Government, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims - Photo 1What have you done for “me” lately?

So now that we’ve been awed and entertained with drones, frankly we need something more. We need to put them to work. What can drones do for us … in our quest to elevate Caribbean societal engines?

The answer is “Plenty”!

For starters, an insurance company had sought and is now approved to use drones for disaster claims processing.

This is BIG!

In a few days, the annual hurricane season will begin … in earnest; (this year was an aberration with the first Tropical Depression – Ana – making landfall early on May 10 in South Carolina, USA).

“Ana” is the first of what is forecasted to be a busy season. The names for the 2015 season are already pre-determined as:

Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor and Wanda.

The source news article follows:

Title: FAA Gives USAA The A-OKAY To Test Damage Claims Drones
By: Kelsey D. Atherton

Source: Popular Science Magazine posted April 7, 2015; retrieved 05-21-2015 from:
http://www.popsci.com/faa-gives-usaa-okay-drone

After the disaster come the accountants. Major tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the like do dollar amounts of damage, sometimes in the billions. That number comes from the nitty-gritty of insurance valuations and payouts, a wholly human assessment of the ruins from natural forces. Now, thanks to FAA approval, robots may start to get in on the action.

Yesterday, insurance giant USAA announced, as follows, that the FAA approved their request to test drones as a way to more quickly process insurance claims after disasters:

FAA Approves USAA Request for Drone Research

April 6, 2015 –The Federal Aviation Administration has approved USAA’s request to test how unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones, could help speed review of insurance claims from its members following natural disasters. USAA is one of the first insurers to be granted the approval for such testing.

“Our members have grown accustomed to seeing us pave the way for innovative solutions that streamline the claims process,” said Alan Krapf, president, USAA Property and Casualty Insurance Group.

In October 2014, USAA filed for an exemption under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 to enable more efficient testing of small drones. Exempt from select FAA regulations, USAA can now fly drones, made by U.S.-based PrecisionHawk, during the day within line-of-sight of a trained pilot and air crew. Prior to the approval, USAA test flights could only take place at FAA-approved sites. No aircraft will exceed an altitude of 400 feet, and all flights will continue to be reported to the FAA prior to takeoff.

With FAA approval, USAA will work with PrecisionHawk [(see VIDEO here)] to efficiently research and develop best practices, safety and privacy protocols and procedures as it further develops plans for operational use.

USAA also filed for an additional FAA exemption in November that will enhance USAA’s ability to use drones in catastrophes. That exemption petition is pending approval, and a decision is expected soon.

“We’re proud to be among the first insurers approved to test this technology,” Krapf said. “It’s our responsibility to explore every option to improve our members’ experience.”

About USAA
The USAA family of companies provides insurance, banking, investments, retirement products and advice to 10.7 million current and former members of the U.S. military and their families. Known for its legendary commitment to its members, USAA is consistently recognized for outstanding service, employee well-being and financial strength. USAA membership is open to all who are serving our nation in the U.S. military or have received a discharge type of Honorable – and their eligible family members. Founded in 1922, USAA is headquartered in San Antonio. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com.
(Source: https://communities.usaa.com/t5/Press-Releases/FAA-Approves-USAA-Request-for-Drone-Research/ba-p/62019)

USAA applied for the exemption in October. In their application, they noted that USAA employees were invited to Oso, Washington, after a mudslide to assist local officials with aerial surveys.

Drones are a great tool for examining natural disasters, because they can safely fly over areas where the ground may still be hazardous for humans. Visual assessment and mapping tools give rescue workers a way to understand the newly-changed terrain, and they can also let insurance agents see which claims are justified.

In the best case scenario, using drones to evaluate claims means that victims of disasters will get the resources they need to get back on their feet faster. All told, that’s pretty great. There are certainly far worse things that could happen when a robot shows up after a disaster.

CU Blog - Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims - Photo 4

CU Blog - Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims - Photo 5

The subject of unmanned aircrafts are just another area of autonomous vehicles that the Go Lean … Caribbean movement (book and aligning blogs) has highlighted as being a focused subject for the region. This subject will impact jobs and security measures. Consider these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487 Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277 The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673 Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

A lot of activity with autonomous aircrafts have been the product of Radio Controlled craft hobbyists; see Appendix C VIDEO. But now, practical applications are being promoted, especially for commercial photographers. This is science, not science fiction; see VIDEO in Appendix B. There is the need for high-end photography solutions to process claims after natural disasters. According to the foregoing news article, the US regulators are now allowing the testing of drones for post-hurricane (and other natural disasters) claims processing. This aligns with the Go Lean book, to optimize natural disaster response AND to provide oversight for the regional aviation space. This book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU/Go Lean roadmap describes CU agencies in the role of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) performs for the US in the foregoing article. So the parallel is strong, as there is the need to plan for natural disasters in the Caribbean – more and more – in partnership with the CU‘s Emergency Management agencies.

CU Blog - Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims - Photo 3

CU Blog - Drones to be used for Insurance Damage Claims - Photo 2

The Go Lean book purports that this type of industrial revolutions emerging with drones are more and more critical for Caribbean society. The risks and threats from storms will only intensify. In the previous blog about the rise of drones, this commentary asserted that “our region must participate in these developments, not just spectate on them”. These points are  also pronounced early in the book in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14), with these statements:

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

xxvi.  Whereas theCaribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism…– impacting the region with more jobs.

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

This Go Lean book and accompanying blogs champion the cause of deploying technology to make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play. The assertion is that innovative developments like camera-mounted unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) should be readily deployed after emergencies and disasters – from hurricanes to industrial accidents – to quickly assess the damage: life and property; see Appendix A VIDEO. There is the need to gather intelligence for where to direct First Responders (as in 911 emergencies); and even before people in the affected areas may call out for help.

While the focus of the Go Lean movement is primarily towards economics, it is the premise of this roadmap that security efforts must be coupled with the region’s economic empowerments. The premise is simple! The economic engines must be protected and preserved; this subject of “Insurance Company Disaster-Claim Assessing Drones” is therefore within scope for the Trade Federation. In fact, the CU/Go Lean roadmap has defined these 3 prime directives:

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

While there may be proponents and opponents (privacy advocates) of unmanned aviation, no one would object to aggressive efforts to locate people in danger or quickly restore communities to normal operations after a storm. There is an overriding need, as many times tourist-based industries need to project the confidence to the watching world that Caribbean winter destinations will be ready, willing and able to extend hospitality to visitors … in short order.

The message and image must be consistent for the region’s primary economic driver, even after a natural disaster: Be our guest!

The Go Lean strategy is to confederate the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region to form the technocratic CU Trade Federation. Tactically, the roadmap calls for a separation-of-powers, allowing the Caribbean member-states to deputize authority of the Caribbean airspace to the one unified CU agency. Operationally, there is the need for these drones in critical times and also for everyday scenarios. (Many times, watercrafts become imperiled in the region’s waters; the scanning & diagnostic capabilities on drones would far-exceed human-eye capability for search-and-rescue).

The book details community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster innovative solutions in Caribbean communities, so as to positively impact the societal economic, security and governing engines:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – All Choices Involve Costs Page 21
Community Ethos – Job   Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Public Protection Over Privacy Concerns Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI) Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development Page 30
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederating 30 Member-states in a Union Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Aging Diaspora Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Growing Economy – New High Multiplier Industries Page 68
Separation of Powers – Self Governing Entities Page 80
Separation of Powers – Aviation Administration and Promotion Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change – Hurricane Reinsurance Funds Page 101
Implementation – Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Homeland Security Innovations Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing – Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Funds Page 161
Advocacy – Revenues Sources for Caribbean Administration – Reinsurance Funds Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street – Adopt Advanced Products: “Reinsurance” Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation – Aviation Oversight Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Fisheries – Search & Rescue Page 210
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living Page 238
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living Page 239

The foregoing news story relates to threats and consequences of hurricanes. While hurricanes present a Clear and Present Danger to “life and limb”, the focus of this commentary is on property. While the sense of urgency may appear to be lower, there is still the need to impact the region’s Greater Good. The advocacy in this case is to be an early adopter of technology to optimize the administration of Caribbean economic engines.

This is heavy-lifting. The buy-in from community stakeholders will not be easy; there will be the need for collaboration, compromise and consensus-building for the full adoption of unmanned aviation.

The insights from the foregoing articles and embedded videos help us to appreciate that the future for unmanned aviation is now! We must therefore lean-in for these empowerments now.

In fact the region is urged to lean-in for the entire roadmap of Go Lean … Caribbean. The benefits are too alluring. Protection of people, properties and processes. This is the Greater Good. This roadmap allows for that quest: to make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

————

Appendix A VIDEO – Drone Footage from Inside Corvette Museum Sinkhole – https://youtu.be/vkEDwOidW_Q


Published on Feb 12, 2014 – University of Western Kentucky’s Engineering Department sent a drone helicopter into the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum that swallowed eight vintage Corvettes.

————

Appendix B VIDEO – Sprite Unmanned Aerial Vehicle –  https://youtu.be/-w9YTJjGaEg


Published on May 13, 2015 – Meet Sprite, the most portable, most durable small unmanned aerial vehicle in the world. Powerful, yet simple to fly. Visit us at www.ascentaerosystems.com for more information! Pre-order at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/…

————

Appendix C VIDEO – Top 10 Drones 2015 – https://youtu.be/sq2n4TMC1XU


Published on Nov 14, 2014 – More Info & Pics: https://ezvid.com/top-ten-drones

 

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No Fear of Failure – Case Study: Bahamasair

Posted on December 29, 2014 in Ethos, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 3The book Go Lean … Caribbean stresses the need to adopt best practices in the regional airline industry so as to better facilitate the region’s primary economic driver of tourism. The tagline for the book is “a better place to live, work and play”.

The reference to “better” and “best practices” in this case refers to “quality” – a missing ingredient in much of the Caribbean air transport industry. The bad example being cited in this case is Bahamasair, the National Flag Carrier of the Bahamas.

Bahamasair Holdings Limited, operating as Bahamasair, is an airline based in Nassau. It is the national airline and operates domestic scheduled services to 14 destinations and regional scheduled services to destinations in the Caribbean and the United States. Its main base is Lynden Pindling International Airport. It has the same logo as the current Bahamas national tourism marketing logo, but with the tagline: “We don’t just fly there, we live there”.

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 2

The story being related in the following article is a far cry from a pursuit of quality, in fact the overriding theme is “no fear of failure” on the part of the airline’s stakeholders; “if we succeed or fail, it doesn’t really matter”:

Title: Bahamasair Flights Cancelled as Pilots Strike
Local South Florida TV Newscasts (Posted 12/23/2014; retrieved 12/29/2014) –
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Bahamasair–286735471.html

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 1Hundreds of air travelers hoping to get to the Bahamas continue to wait for answers as their flights on Bahamasair have been cancelled.

The cancelled flights have left some passengers at South Florida airports for more than 10 hours.

All flights out of Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale International Airport on board Bahamasair that were scheduled for Tuesday have been cancelled. That includes two scheduled arrivals in Fort   Lauderdale, along with one departure from FLL. MIA has seen two departures cancelled along with one arrival.

Miami International Airport has one Bahamasair flight scheduled to arrive at 7:40 a.m. on Christmas Eve that is still on the board as of 8:30 p.m.

NBC 6 has reached out to Bahamasair about the cancellations, but has not received a response.

According to the website tribune242.com, the airline has seen their flights grounded due to a protest from pilots over salary negotiations. The Nassau Guardian reported that the pilots’ union denied it instructed its pilots to go on strike over the negotiations.

The airline told the Nassau Guardian, “Bahamasair is cognizant that this is the height of our peak travel period and we will do the best we can to mitigate any further disruption to your holiday travel plans.”

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/mPM0mDg4-5E  – CBS4 Miami Reporting on the Christmas-time Bahamasair Pilots Strike

This airline has an eclectic history, one bred out of the need to optimize economic engines, and yet they have failed so often in their delivery of this charter. Bahamasair was born out of the oil crisis of the 1970s. In 1970, British Airways stopped flying to The Bahamas, and the Bahamian Government accurately predicted that some of the other major airlines flying to the country would follow British Airways’ lead. Bahamasair was therefore established by the government and started operations on 7 June 1973, by acquiring the operations of Flamingo Airlines and Out Island Airways. [1]

Bahamasair initially encountered operating difficulties, including poor maintenance facilities, economic conditions and company structure. Those factors brought public distrust as a consequence. However, jet airliners started to arrive in the shape of British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Elevens followed by brand new Boeing 737s, and in 1972, it opened its first international service, from Nassau to Tampa, Florida. In 1973, the government’s vision of many airlines leaving the island became a reality, when Pan Am and some other major companies decided to stop operating to the Bahamas. This enabled Bahamasair to capture a substantial part of the Bahamas scheduled air transport market. Through the rest of the 1970s, Bahamasair kept adding flights to other cities in Florida and, domestically, the presence of the airline also grew rapidly.

During the early 1980s, Bahamasair unsuccessfully tried to expand to the Northeast United States [so as to influence market prices for this vital tourism source territory], opening flights to Philadelphia, Washington-DC and Newark, New Jersey. But in 1989, the airline’s directors decided that those routes were not profitable and eliminated them from the airline’s route map – an exercise in futility. In 1991, the airline streamlined it fleet operations, with the acquisition of de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 turbine propeller aircrafts, purchased to substitute for the whole jet fleet; the Boeing 737-200s were taken out of service. In 1997 however, Boeing 737-200’s were returned to service because key routes warranted the cargo and passenger carrying capabilities offered by these jetliners. The 737-200 was deployed to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando as well as one domestic route, being Nassau-Freeport. Today, Bahamasair operates efficient late model Boeing 737-500 jetliners, in addition to the stretched Dash 8 series 300 turboprop. But, the culture of dysfunction persists…

This foregoing news article, VIDEO and encyclopedic details are just echoes of the negative community ethos of failure with this airline for this country. While most Bahamians may not know the intricate details of the airline industry, they do know that the Bahamasair’s model is the epitome of failure, as the performance history has been consistently poor. This sad culture has resulted in the local community concocting phrases like:

1. BahamaScare
2. A religious airline: only God knows when they are arriving and only God knows when they are taking off.

This negative community ethos is even enshrined in the regulatory filing for the airline as an international carrier. Appendix B highlights the accepted quality standard in aviation known as the Warsaw Convention. Appendix C on the other hand, demonstrates how Bahamasair, and other Caribbean carriers, have petitioned for waivers so as not to abide by these high standards. Imagine the impressions and messaging this plea relates to the world:

No, hold us to a lower standard.
We are not afraid to fail.
We will not try to satisfy our customers.

This message aligns with the news report above. The Pilot Union in this case gained a bargaining edge in salary negotiations with the airline’s management, but at the expense of any goodwill with the flying public… or the affected tourist industry “partners” in the island-nation’s homeland.

This is sad … and embarrassing!

Change must come to the airline industry for the Bahamas … and the entire region. The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an alliance of the 30 Caribbean member-states. This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

This Go Lean roadmap portrays the need for regional integration, administration, and promotion for Caribbean air carriers. The book posits that transportation and logistics empowers the economic engines of a community, in this case tourism. The forgoing news articles definitely assert this economic leaning. There must be efficient air carrier solutions, to service the transportation and tourism needs of the Caribbean islands with optimized deliveries and best practices.

Efficiency, optimization, best practices …
… a new standard for a national character, reputation, image, and brand!

For the region as a whole, Bahamas included, it is the expectation that air travel will continue to grow and impact Caribbean society – thus the need for more regional coordination. New models are detailed in the book in which tourism will be enhanced with features like “air lifts” and “air bridges” to partner with Caribbean events and properties.

For much of the Caribbean, air service is the only transportation option for land-based visitations (stop-overs), so this Go Lean roadmap introduces the Union Atlantic Turnpike to offer more transportation solutions (ferries, toll roads, railways, and pipelines) to better facilitate the efficient movement of people and cargo.

The roadmap also calls for regulating and promoting the Caribbean’s aviation industry. We need Bahamasair and other regional carriers to better deliver on their charters to facilitate air passengers to and within the Caribbean.

This is how the CU will optimize the region’s economic engines. This is change!

The Go Lean book presents a series of positive community ethos, in place of the negative ethos that permeates the Caribbean air transport industry; these positive ethos must first be adopted to forge the desired change. In addition, there are these specific strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to apply, that would contribute to better deliveries:

Introduction to Lean – Quality in Production and Delivery Page 4
Who We Are – Experts in Lean, Agile and Quality Delivery Page 8
Anecdote – Learning from the French Caribbean’s Peak Season Strike Page 17
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification Page 21
Community Ethos – People Choose Due to Scarcity of Resources Page 21
Community Ethos – All Choice Involve Costs Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – Promote Excellence Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve on the Art of Negotiations Page 32
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Impacting the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Customers – Visitors Page 47
Strategy – Competitive Analysis –  Event Patrons Page 55
Strategy – Core Competence – Tourism Page 58
Anecdote – Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Assoc. focus on Air Transport Page 60
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers: Commerce – Tourism Promotion Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers: Aviation Administration & Promotion Page 84
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Extracting Quality from Best Practices Page 93
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – Outreach to CU Stakeholders Page 111
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives – Elevate Image Page 116
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image – Public Relations Page 133
Planning – Negative Lessons Learned from Egypt’s Tourism Mis-steps Page 143
Planning – Ways to Measure Quality and Progress – Six Sigma Page 147
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Labor Unions – Quality Adoptions Page 162
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership – Inspire Excellence Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California – Air Bridge Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Tourism Spin-offs Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation – Aviation Promotion Page 205

Previous Go Lean blogs also detailed the dynamics of the air transport industry in the region; see sample here:

Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes
Lessons Learned from the American Airlines Merger
Caribbean Changes – Air Antilles Launches St. Maarten Service

What exactly can be done to immediately turn-around the delivery practices for Bahamasair, and other regional carriers? The Go Lean book provides specific details within its 370 pages, serving as a roadmap for forging change in Caribbean society. Here is a list of products/services that would have elevated the experiences of the travelling public in the foregoing news article/VIDEO:

  • Cooperative among Regional Carriers – Sharing the burden of industrial crises
  • Service Level Agreements – Guaranteeing performance of service providers and accepting liability for failures (Appendix B)
  • www.myCaribbean.gov – Social Media / Online Account Interactions – Awarding e-Credits for performance failures
  • Labor Union Escalation of Grievances – Providing recourse for the Pilots’ Petition – Mitigating the need for peak season strikes

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We cannot afford more news headlines like in the foregoing news article/VIDEO. Flying as a National Flag Carrier is a public trust. The Caribbean can – and must – do better.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix A – Source Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahamasair retrieved December 29, 2014

———————–

Appendix B – Hotwire/Industry Quality Standards: Warsaw Convention

See Photo 1 & 2 of Fare Rules/Details:

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 4

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 5

————————

Appendix C – Warsaw Convention Exemptions for International Carriers in the US.

See Photo 1 & 2 of Detailed List of Exempted Airlines – Highlighting Caribbean regional carriers:

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 6

CU Blog - No Fear of Failure - Photo 7

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Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes

Posted on December 6, 2014 in Government, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

The book Go Lean … Caribbean relates the significance of supporting the airline industry so as to facilitate the region’s primary economic driver: Tourism.

Tourism is a leisure activity; many times participants in leisure are in no hurry to get to their destinations, they often drive. This relates to countries on a continental mainland; but for islands, not so much. For 27 of the 30 Caribbean member-states, island life is the reality. (Belize is in Central America; Guyana and Suriname are in South America).

If speed is not the requirement then boating should be an option. But the only boating/transport options for Caribbean tourists are cruise lines.

This following article relates the biggest threat to Caribbean tourism is Caribbean governments. These ones are authorized to assess taxes, but for far too often they have targeted airline tickets to generate needed revenues. This is such a flawed strategy, a betrayal of the public trust. They “cut off their nose to spite their face”, as the article here relates:

By: Ernie Seon, Caribbean-360 Contributor

CU Blog - Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes - Photo 1ST. THOMAS, US Virgin Islands – The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) Tuesday urged regional aviation authorities to adhere to the key principles set out by International Civil Aviation Organization.

IATA’s regional vice president for the Americas, Peter Cerda said it is unfortunate that many governments had chosen to ignore the principles, a global issue that was particularly acute in the Caribbean.

Addressing tourism and industry officials gathered here on the occasion of World Aviation Day, Cerda noted that aviation taxes continue to increase the cost of travelling to the Caribbean. He said this made the region less competitive to other destinations.

“Taking the islands as a whole, each dollar of ticket tax could lead to over 40,000 fewer foreign passengers,” he said, adding that US$20 million of reduced tourist expenditure meant 1,200 fewer jobs across the region.

“Caribbean countries must therefore consider the aviation industry as a key element for tourism development,” he advised.

The IATA official noted that in terms of charges, two airports in the region, Montego Bay and Kingston, both in Jamaica, recently proposed airport tariff increases of over 100 per cent so as to attain a return of capital of around 20 per cent a year in US dollars.

He said that measures such as these do not encourage or support the development of the industry in the region.

“The regulators must act strongly and swiftly against such big increases. Governments have to foster positive business environments through consultation with the industry and transparency in order to ensure win-win situations for all,” he warned.

Cerda said the issue of taxes and charges in the region transcends the formal breaches of global standards and recommended practices and that the simple truth is that this region is a very expensive place for airlines to do business.

In the Caribbean, tourism and the aviation sector facilitate and support some 140,000 jobs and contribute US$3.12 billion, roughly 7.2 per cent of the Caribbean’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The airline industry is celebrating its 100th anniversary year in the black, according to industry figures released here. Globally, airlines are expected to earn a net profit of US$18 billion in 2014.

Cerda noted that while that might sound impressive, on revenues of US$746 billion, this is equivalent to a net profit margin of 2.4 per cent or US$5.42 per passenger carried.

“Looking only at Latin America and the Caribbean, the airlines in this region are expected to earn $1.1 billion.”This is a profit of US$4.21 per passenger and a net margin of three per cent. We are in a tough and very competitive business,” he added.

The aviation official said fuel expense across the Caribbean is estimated at 14 per cent higher than the world average, adding that this represents about a third of an airline’s operating costs.

He noted that in the case of the Dominican Republic, although fuel charges were recently reduced, tax on international jet fuel still remains high at 6.5 per cent.

“Another example is the Bahamas applying a seven per cent import duty on Jet fuel. Jet fuel supply is an issue in the region, the complexity of the fuel supply and the seasonal demand is costly and difficult, making fuel costs in the region a challenge for airlines.”

In addition, Cerda noted that airports are using the fuel concession fees as a source of revenue and they are still waiting to see any of these monies re-invested in improving fuel facilities.

On the issue of safety, he said that this has been in the spotlight in recent months, with July being an especially sad month for all involved with aviation.

However, Cerda said despite the recent tragedies, flying remains by far the safest mode of transportation.

“Every day, approximately 100,000 flights take to the sky and land without incident. Nonetheless, accidents do happen. Every life lost recommits us to improve on our safety performance.

“It is no secret that safety has been an issue in this region. Even though it is still under performing the global average, performance is improving,” he said.

The IATA official said that the aviation industry has come a long way since the very first flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa 100 years ago, turning this large planet into one small world.

He said through it all, one thing has remained constant: when governments support the conditions for a thriving industry the economic benefits are felt by all.

However Cerda cautioned that for the industry to deliver the most benefits to the citizens in the Caribbean and spur additional tourism and trade, “we need to be able to compete on a level playing field and have the infrastructure capacity needed to grow.”

He said he remains confident that if the Caribbean governments continue to strengthen their partnership with the aviation industry, “we will deliver the unique transformative economic growth only our industry can deliver, making the second century of aviation in this region even more beneficial than the first”.
Caribbean-360 Online News (Posted 09/17/2014; retrieved 12/06/2014) –
http://www.caribbean360.com/news/caribbean-less-competitive-due-to-increasing-aviation-taxes-iata-warns

This foregoing article highlights a defective premise, predatory taxing, and so thusly depicts the need for improved regional oversight of economic and governing engines.

CU Blog - Caribbean less competitive due to increasing aviation taxes - Photo 2See this photo of a recent airline ticket (price breakdown), for one of the stakeholders in the Go Lean movement, who was travelling from a Caribbean island. The reality of these aviation taxes defies logic!

Yes, the governments need their revenues, but this should not be pursued at the expense of undermining viable economic engines; this is self-defeating. Likewise there was a recent conflict with British Aviation Authorities and their unilateral tax on Caribbean air transport. The solution there/then is the same as now: regional coordination and a heightened advocacy; see Appendix–VIDEO.

Change has now come to the Caribbean. The book Go Lean … Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an alliance of the 30 Caribbean member-states. This Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The roadmap calls for the CU to navigate the changed landscape of the globalized air transport industry. There is the need for regional integration, administration, and promotion for Caribbean air travel among local and foreign carriers. The book posits that transportation and logistics empower the economic engines of a community. There must be air carrier solutions to service the transportation and tourism needs of the Caribbean islands. This point is fully appreciated by Caribbean tourism stakeholders; the book relates that the region’s Hotel and Tourism Association channel the vision of Robert Crandall, former Chairman of American Airlines, who remarked at a Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in May 2010 that the region is uniquely dependent on tourism:

“Everyone involved in travel and tourism knows that our [airline] industry is immensely important to the world economy, generating and supporting – either directly or indirectly – about one in eleven jobs worldwide. Here in the Caribbean, it is even more important. On a number of islands, travel and tourism accounts for more than 50% of all employment, and on some islands for more than 75%. Overall, about 20% of Caribbean employment is travel and tourism dependent – something on the order of 2.5 million jobs.” – Go Lean … Caribbean Page 60.

Go Lean asserts that air travel options must be optimized to impact Caribbean society – thus the need for more regional coordination, regulation and promotion of the Caribbean’s aviation industry. New models are detailed in the book in which tourism can be enhanced with “air lifts” to facilitate Caribbean events, and “Air Bridges” to allow for targeting High Net Worth markets. This roadmap also introduces the Union Atlantic Turnpike to offer more transportation solutions (ferries, toll roads, railways, and pipelines) to better facilitate the efficient movement of people and cargo.

This is one way the CU will empower the region’s economic engines. This is an example of the change that the CU technocracy will bring!

The Go Lean book presents a series of community ethos that must be adapted to forge this change. In addition, there are these specific strategies, tactics, implementation and advocacies to apply:

Community Ethos – Job Multiplier Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Impacting the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Customers – Visitors Page 47
Strategy – Competitive Analysis – Event Patrons Page 55
Strategy – Core Competence – Tourism Page 58
Anecdote – Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Assoc. focus on Air Transport Page 60
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy Page 64
Tactical – Commerce – Tourism Promotion Page 78
Tactical – Aviation Administration & Promotion Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Trade Mission Objectives Page 116
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – #7: Virtual Turnpike Page 127
Planning – Ways to Improve Trade Page 128
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Optimize Government Revenue Sources Page 172
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California – Air Bridge Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation – Aviation Promotion Page 205
Appendix – Airport Cities – New Approach for Optimizing Business Model Page 287

This commentary posits that the status quo of Caribbean aviation taxes reflect a flawed economic policy, reflective of the dysfunction in the region. This commentary also relates to other lessons of economic optimizations and dysfunctions previously detailed in Go Lean blogs, as sampled here:

Caribbean must work together to address regional industry threats – Example of Rum Subsidies
A Lesson in Aviation History: Concorde SST and the Caribbean
New York-New Jersey Port Authority – Lessons from an Airport Landlord
Bahamas Re-organizing Government Revenues in 2015 with VAT Implementation
Lessons Learned from the American Airlines Merger
Book Review: ‘Wrong – Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn…’
Caribbean Changes – Air Antilles Launches St. Maarten Service
Tourism’s changing profile – Need for Competition and Comparative Analysis

The world loves the Caribbean; people want to come visit and enjoy our hospitality. It is better for them, and for us in the region that they come by air transport. But cruises are viable options, though the Caribbean communities get less benefits from cruise lines (Pages 61 & 193). We simply “fatten our frogs for snake”. The more dysfunction we create with air transport – like these excessive  aviation taxes – the more we push visitors to the cruise option; meaning less direct-indirect spending: hotels, taxis, restaurants, casinos, etc.

Now is the time to lean-in to this roadmap for Caribbean change, as depicted in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We cannot afford to undermine our economic strengths with disabling tax policies. This is a public trust, betrayed. The Caribbean can – and must – do better.  🙂

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

APPENDIX Video: A Tax Too Far…? – http://youtu.be/Jbh8DJxUNC8

Uploaded on Oct 30, 2011 – A documentary on how the Air Passenger Duty instituted by the UK is affecting Caribbean Tourism, and the lobbying efforts of the Caribbean Tourism Organization to have it reduced, removed, or the Caribbean re-banded. Get more information about the APD on the CTO website: http://www.onecaribbean.org/our-work/advocacy/

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A Lesson in History – Concorde SST

Posted on October 14, 2014 in Ethos, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Concorde SST - Photo 130 years go by so fast…

In the 1970’s, when the Concorde Supersonic Transport (SST) jets were designed, developed and deployed, with a 30 year life-span, that time seemed so far off. But that time has now come and gone. Yes, cutting-edge has an expiration date.

It is difficult to think, now in 2014, that 1970’s technologies may still be cutting-edge, except that there are no other Supersonic Transport vehicles for civilian use today. So despite all the scientific and technological advances in the last 40 years, in this area, the world has gone backwards.

There are a lot of lessons here for us to consider with the history of the Concorde, taking into account that the SST had commercial applications, safety concerns and governing issues. This subject therefore parallels with the book Go Lean… Caribbean. The following is the historic reference of the Concorde:

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Concorde SST - Photo 2Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde is a retired turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport. It is one of only two SSTs to have entered commercial service; the other was the Tupolev Tu-144; (built by the Soviet Union under the direction of the Tupolev design bureau, headed by Alexei Tupolev; their prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two months before the first flight of Concorde. The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969, and on 26 May 1970 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2). The Concorde was jointly developed and produced by France-owned Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. First flown in 1969, the Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 years.

Reflecting the treaty between the British and French governments which led to the Concorde’s construction, the name Concorde is from the French word concorde, which has an English equivalent, concord. Both words mean agreement, harmony or union.

The Concorde needed to fly long distances to be economically viable; this required high efficiency. (Turbojets were found to be the best choice of engines.[68] The engine used was the twin spool Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593, a development of the Bristol engine first used for the Avro Vulcan bomber, and developed into an afterburning supersonic variant for the BAC TSR-2 strike bomber.[69] Rolls-Royce’s own engine proposed for the SST aircraft at the time of Concorde’s initial design was the RB.169 [70]). Among other destinations, the Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to New York JFK, Washington Dulles and Barbados in the Caribbean; it flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners. Only 20 aircraft were ever built, so the development of Concorde was a substantial economic loss; Air France and British Airways also received considerable government subsidies to purchase them.

While commercial jets took eight hours to fly from New York to Paris, the average supersonic flight time on the transatlantic routes was just under 3.5 hours. The Concorde’s maximum cruising altitude was 60,000 feet, (while subsonic airliners typically cruise below 40,000 feet), and an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02, about 1155 knots (2140 km/h or 1334 mph), more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft.[107]

The Concorde’s drooping nose, enabled the aircraft to switch between being streamlined to reduce drag and achieve optimum aerodynamic efficiency, and not obstructing the pilot’s view during taxi, takeoff, and landing operations. Due to the high angle of attack, the long pointed nose obstructed the view and necessitated the capability to droop to ensure visibility and FAA approval in the US.

The Concorde was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the aircraft’s only crash in 2000 (killing 113 people onboard and on the ground), the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and a decision by Airbus (the successor firm of Aerospatiale) and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support.[5]
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (Retrieved October 13, 2014) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

See the foregoing VIDEO for a synopsis of the Concorde’s 27-year history:

Video Title – Concorde: 27 Supersonic Years:

This review of the historicity of the Concorde is more than just an academic discussion; the aircraft was always presented as a glimpse into the future.  Likewise, the book Go Lean…Caribbean is future-focused, aspiring to economic principles that dictate that “consequences of choices lie in the future”. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This confederation effort (aligning many former colonies of the same sponsoring countries of Great Britain and France that designed, developed and deployed the Concorde SST project) will spur a lot of technologically-driven industrial developments.

CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Concorde SST - Photo 4

What have we learned from the 27-year history of the Concorde, in terms of economics, security and governing lessons? How will these lessons help us today?

  • Crisis is a terrible thing to waste – The end of World War II saw an immediate clash and conflict between Soviet-backed communist countries versus Western democracies. There was an “arms and space” race. The Anglo-Franco treaty to design-develop the Concorde was a manifestation of that competition. While the US invested in supersonic technology for military applications, the Anglo-Franco treaty allowed for a civilian application, and exploitation of a populous market for those with capitalistic adherence. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the Caribbean is also in a crisis (on the losing end of globalization, advancing technology and economic dysfunction). The CU will incubate and foster industrial policy to better explore science, technology, engineering and mechanical (STEM) initiatives. With 80 million annual visitors across 30 different member-states, (many of them islands), we have the overall need for air transport solutions and a built-in market acceptance.
  • Promote opportunities for Research & Development – As far back as October 1956, the UK’s Ministry of Supply asked key Subject Matter Experts to form a new study group, the Supersonic Transport Advisory Committee or STAC,[12] with the explicit goal of developing a practical SST design and finding industry partners to build it. The ethos expressed by this specialty group foresaw that huge economic and security benefits could yield by developing cutting-edge solutions in the air-transport industry space . The Go Lean roadmap posits that appropriate investments must be prioritized for new industrial solutions, such as with Information & Communications Technologies. The Go Lean book posits that large states or small ones can have a “level-playing field” by exploring innovative solutions for the New Economy.
  • New “community ethos” can be adopted by the general public – The Concorde aircraft was regarded by many people as an aviation icon and an engineering marvel. During flight testing of the pre-production SST aircraft, it visited a number of “allied” foreign countries. It was not uncommon for ten-mile traffic jams to build up around airports as crowds of a hundred thousand and more gathered to look over the aircraft that was designed to bring faster-than-sound flight within reach of anyone with the price of a plane ticket.[25] The CU will employ messaging and image management to forge new attitudes about technology, R&D, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and STEM initiatives in the region.
  • Negotiate as partners not competitors – France had 3 nationally supported companies (state-owned Sud Aviation and Nord-Aviation, plus private firm Dassault Group) in the aero-space industry, but no jet-engine solution. The British company Rolls Royce had demonstrated great market leadership with jet engines. A collaboration was apropos. The CU maintains that, negotiation is an art and a science. More can be accomplished by treating negotiating counterparts as a partner, rather than not an adversary.
  • Cooperatives and sharing schemes lighten burdens among partners – In 1967, at the start of the new Anglo-Franco consortium, there was the intent to produce one long-range and one short-range SST version. However, prospective customers showed no interest in the short-range version and it was dropped.[25] The consortium secured orders (i.e., non-binding options) for over 100 of the long-range version from the major airlines of the day: Pan Am, BOAC, and Air France were the launch customers, with six Concordes each. Other airlines in the order book included Panair do Brasil, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Air Canada, Braniff, Singapore Airlines, Iran Air, Olympic Airways, Qantas, CAAC (China), Middle East Airlines, and TWA.[25][30][31] At the time of the first flight (1969) the options list contained 74 orders from 16 airlines. The important function for the CU in these cooperative initiatives is command-and-control. For the Concorde project the labor of up to 50,000 (including sub-contractors and suppliers) people had to be efficiently coordinated. The CU will employ cooperatives and sharing schemes for limited scopes within the prime directives of optimizing the economic, security and governing engines.
  • Bureaucratic response to crisis impede progress – At the end of the pre-production trials, there were orders for 74 aircrafts for 16 airlines, but in the end only 20 Concorde jets were ever manufactured. What happened? Geo-political crisis. Concorde SSTs required more fuel usage compared to subsonic aircrafts. The 1970’s saw a number of crises involving steeply rising oil prices (OPEC, Iran Revolution, etc.)[148] and new wide-body aircrafts, such as the Boeing 747, had recently made subsonic aircrafts significantly more efficient and presented a low-risk option for airlines.[50]. The governmental bureaucracy of the two national governments impeded tactical responses and adjustments to these agents-of-change, resulting in cancellation of unfulfilled orders … and also any continuous technological upgrades to the SST program. “There have always been those who want to go faster and those who think the present speed (of ox-cart, stagecoach, sailing ship) was fast enough”.[25] The Go Lean roadmap calls for the establishment of Self-Governing Entities (SGE), regulated at the federal level, to facilitate R&D in industrial settings. Under this scheme, government negotiation is only required at the outset/initiation; no further bureaucratic stalemates beyond the start-up. Tactically, SGE’s  can nimbly adapt to the demands of the global marketplace. This is the manifestation of a lean technocracy.
  • “Crap” Happens – While the Concorde had initially held a great deal of customer interest, the project was hit by a large number of order cancellations. There was a crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 at the Paris Le Bourget air show in 1973; this shocked potential buyers, and public concern over the environmental issues presented by supersonic aircrafts. Also, the issue of sonic booms and takeoff-noise pollution produced a shift in public opinion of SSTs. By 1976 only four nations remained as prospective buyers: Britain, France, China, and Iran.[43] But only Air France and British Airways (the successor to BOAC) ever took up their orders, with the two governments taking a cut of any profits made.[44] The United States cancelled the Boeing 2707, its rival supersonic transport program, in 1971. Observers have suggested that opposition to the Concorde on grounds of noise pollution had been encouraged by the United States Government, as it lacked its own competitor.[45] The US, India, and Malaysia all ruled out Concorde supersonic flights over the noise concern, although some of these restrictions were later relaxed.[46][47] This lesson constitutes the security scope of the Concorde SST historic consideration. The Go Lean roadmap anticipates that things would go wrong, and plans for risk mitigations in advance. This includes man-made, industrial and natural disasters. In addition, there is the governance plan for the CU to have jurisdiction over the region’s aviation regulations – much like the FAA (Federal Aviation Admin.) in the US.
  • CU Blog - A Lesson in History - Concorde SST - Photo 3Consider the Greater Good – In the end, the realization of a noise pollution threat never materialized with Concorde SSTs – more fear than actualization. A progressive path forward from 1976 should have resulted in even faster supersonic transportation options at cheaper prices by today, 40 years later. Author and Professor Douglas Ross characterized restrictions placed upon Concorde operations by President Jimmy Carter’s administration (1977 – 1981) as having been an act of protectionism for American aircraft manufacturers.[48] To the contrary, the Caribbean need policies for the Greater Good. With island tourism being the primary economic driver in the region, we need proactive air-transport solutions to facilitate visitors’ easy access to Caribbean hospitality. The Greater Good philosophy is directly quoted as: “It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”. The CU/Go Lean roadmap calls for a number of measures that strike directly at this Greater Good mandate.

The related subjects of technology-bred innovations and history lessons have been a frequent topic for Go Lean blog/commentaries, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2480 A Lesson in History: Community Ethos of WW II
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1568 Airline Lesson: Dutch airline angers Mexico soccer fans
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531 A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago Today – World War I
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487 Aeronautics Lesson: Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673 Transport Lesson: Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308 Community Ethos: CARCIP Urges Greater Innovation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=254 Airline Lesson: Air Antilles Launches new St. Maarten Service
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235 Economic Reality: Tourism’s changing profile

The purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to shift the downward trends in the Caribbean today, to reverse course and elevate Caribbean society. The CU, applying lessons from the Concorde history, has prime directives proclaimed as follows:

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

While the Go Lean book is not written as an analysis of the Concorde, the following detail considerations of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies in the book are still helpful to empower Caribbean society:

Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Choices & Incentives Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future Page 21
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens Page 23
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Negotiations Page 32
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good Page 37
Strategy – Vision –  Integrate region into a Single Market Economy Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Department of State – SGE Administration Page 80
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Transportation Department – Aviation Admin Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change Page 101
Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up Page 102
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up Page 103
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization Page 119
Planning – Ways to Ways to Model the EU Page 130
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image Page 133
Planning – Lessons Learned from the defunct West Indies Federation Page 134
Planning – Lessons from Detroit Page 140
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism in the Caribbean Region – Air Lifts Page 190
Advocacy – Ways to Market Southern California – Transportation Options Page 194
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Transportation Page 205

The image of the Concorde was that of cutting-edge technology for its entire 27-year run. But cutting-edge does have an expiration date; so there must be the culture of continuous enhancing and upgrading any cutting-edge innovation. This is true in the new world of Internet Communications Technologies (ICT), where innovations emerge every year; sometimes even a few times during the year. The battleground has changed, from the Concorde’s frontier of aero-space to the ever-changing frontiers of cyber-space. The Go Lean movement asserts that the culture/attitude/ethos, to be constantly innovative, is most crucial in this new economy, where the only constant is change itself.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to learn the lessons from the 27-year history of the Concorde. The people and governing institutions of the region are hereby urged to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is a big deal for the region; the current economic engines need technology-based innovations in general, and air transport solutions in particular. This is one way we can make our homeland a better place to live, work, and play. 🙂

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

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Referenced Sources:
5.     “UK | Concorde grounded for good”. BBC News. 2003-04-10. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
12.   Conway, Eric (2005). High-Speed Dreams: NASA and the Technopolitics of Supersonic Transportation, 1945–1999. JHU Press. Page 39.
25.   “Early History.” concordesst.com. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
30.   “Aerospace: Pan Am’s Concorde Retreat”. Time, 12 February 1973. 12 February 1973.
31.   “Vertrag mit Luken”. Der Spiegel. 13 March 1967. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
43.   “Concordes limited to 16”. Virgin Islands Daily News, 5 June 1976.
44.    “Payments for Concorde”. British Airways. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
45.   Lewis, Anthony (12 February 1973). “Britain and France have wasted billions on the Concorde”. The New York Times, 12 February 1973.
46.   “Malaysia lifting ban on the use Of its Airspace by the Concorde”. The New York Times, 17 December 1978. 17 December 1978. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
47.   “News from around the world”. Herald-Journal, 13 January 1978. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
48.  Ross, Douglas (March 1978). The Concorde Compromise: The Politics of Decision-making. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. p. 46.
49.  Marston, Paul (16 August 2000). “Is this the end of the Concorde dream?”. London: Daily Telegraph, 16 August 2000.
50.   Ross, Douglas (March 1978). The Concorde Compromise: The Politics of Decision-making. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, pp. 47–49.
68.   Birtles, Philip. Concorde, pp. 62–63. Vergennes, Vermont: Plymouth Press, 2000.
69.   “Rolls Royce Olympus history.” wingweb.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
70.   Aero Engines 1962, Flight International, 28 June 1962: 1018
107. Schrader, Richard K. (1989). Concorde: The Full Story of the Anglo-French SST. Kent, UK: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., p. 64.
148. B.CAL drops Concorde plans but asks for Hong Kong licence. Flight International Magazine, posted 30 June 1979, p. 2331.

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