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Better Than … the ‘Bill of Rights’ – Ninth & Tenth Amendments

Posted on November 27, 2019 in Ethos, Government, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

Let’s separate …

… let’s take all the assets-powers-responsibilities and divvy them up between the one party and the other. (Sounds like a Country-Western Break-up song, right? See sample in the Appendix VIDEO below). But, in this case, let’s do this separation, not so that we can go our separate ways, but rather let’s do this separation so that we can come together:

You bring the brawn, I bring the brains … let’s make lots of money
You bring the bread, I bring the meat … let’s make a sandwich
You bring the seafood, I bring the okra … let’s make a gumbo

This is the reality of a confederation or a confederacy. According to the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 63), which serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), this confederation tactic is the best hope to reform-and-transform the failing Caribbean to finally have a hope for prosperity:

A federation, by definition is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-autonomous states or regions united by a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of powers between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the states. For the Caribbean, the branding is a Trade Federation, thereby highlighting the limited scope of the entity’s governance. Its prime directive is to enable the economic engines of the region, and thereafter protect their security interests.

The Caribbean Union Trade Federation will be coextensive with the member-states of the CU. This indicates that the governmental units of the state governments will share the same boundaries of the Trade Federation. Jurisdiction of the two entities will therefore co-exist for the governance of the region. The tactical plan is to specify a separation-of-powers between the entity of the technocratic CU versus the governmental entities of the member-states (and their municipal authorities).

Our best example of a confederacy – and the Separation of Power – in antiquity was the nascent United States of America (1776 – 1789). The best example of confederacy in modern times is the European Union. These entities did exactly what this commentary is advocating:

Separate the assets-powers-responsibilities so that the different parties perform different duties to execute the governing demands of the implied Social Contract … with the consent of the governed.

(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).

As related, we publish a series of teaching commentaries every month – as a supplement to the Go Lean book. This month, we are examining the thesis that we, in the Caribbean, can be Better Than America, in words (law) and in action. The issue of confederation is a valid consideration in this month’s teaching subject on the perceived ‘masterpiece’ of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights – the first 10 Amendments that were proposed-ratified right at the start of the accession of the new Constitutional Republic (1791). In earlier commentaries of this series, we detailed the anti-tyranny provisions and criminal proceedings of the Bill of Rights; now we look at the Separation of Powers provisions, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the US Constitution. These provide the legal premise as follows:

Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other [rights] retained by the people.^[93]

The Ninth Amendment declares that there are additional fundamental rights that exist outside the Constitution. The rights enumerated in the Constitution are not an explicit and exhaustive list of individual rights. It was rarely mentioned in Supreme Court decisions before the second half of the 20th century, when it was cited by several of the justices in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). The Court in that case voided a statute prohibiting use of contraceptives as an infringement of the right of marital privacy.^[116] This right was, in turn, the foundation upon which the Supreme Court built decisions in several landmark cases, including, Roe v. Wade (1973), which overturned a Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which invalidated a Pennsylvania law that required spousal awareness prior to obtaining an abortion.

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.^[93]

The Tenth Amendment reinforces the principles of separation of powers and federalism by providing that powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or the people. The amendment provides no new powers or rights to the states, but rather preserves their authority in all matters not specifically granted to the federal government.^[117]

Congress has sometimes circumvented the Tenth Amendment by invoking the Commerce Clause in Article One^[118] or by threatening to withhold funding for a federal program from non-cooperative States, as in South Dakota v. Dole (1987).
Source: Retrieved November 26, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

The historicity of the US shows that they did not always appreciate the concept of Separation of Powers. Though the Bill of Rights was fully ratified in 1791, these provisions had no bearing on the States, until starting around the 1860’s with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yes, for at least 70 years – and even longer in some cases – the country had a divergent sets of constitutional rights: some at the federal level and totally different ones at the State level. See this point as pronounced here from the same encyclopedic reference as above:

Although Madison’s [- the original author -] proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.^[3]

So there you have it; the masterpiece of a legal framework that was the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights was not so perfect a masterpiece after all. However, the beauty of the US Constitution History is not its start; it’s the journey, and the finish.

This is where and how the Caribbean can forge a better legal legacy – we can make our own masterpiece now at the start of our federal government, and not have to endure the same long train of abuses to get to this destination. We can do better in our Caribbean homeland; this is the quest of the Go Lean movement to reform and transform Caribbean society. The revelation of an ugly history for the Bill of Rights is the purpose of this November 2019 blog series. The full catalog of this series on the Bill of Rights is detailed as follows:

Better than the Bill of Rights: First Amendment – We can do better
Better than the Bill of Rights: Second Amendment – No slavery legacy
Better than the Bill of Rights: Third & Fourth Amendments – Remember, Justice First
Better than the Bill of Rights: Fifth & Sixth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Seventh & Eighth Amendments
Better than the Bill of Rights: Ninth & Tenth Amendments

As this series refers to the need for a comprehensive roadmap for elevating the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the 30 Caribbean member-states, this entry focuses more on the need for a Separation of Powers provisions. We do not need jurisdictional confusion between federal authorities and those of the member-states; they need to separate, yes, so as to come together for an integrated solution. See how this is presented visually in this photo here – a facsimile of Page 71 of the Go Lean book:

(Click on photo to Enlarge)

In this photo, notice all the “Exclusive = Yes” federal departments. This means, according to the verbiage in the book, as related in 1 example regarding the separated-exclusive Depository Insurance & Regulatory Authority:

The scope and jurisdiction of this Agency is exclusive in the region for Caribbean dollar activity.

This structure is repeated, again and again in the book; of the 51 identified federal agencies, 28 are chartered as exclusive authority or jurisdiction. This is good for regional governance; this means local member-states do NOT have to maintain duplicate agencies to do the same functions that can be technocratically delivered at the federal level. Consider these further examples – again, not the exhaustive list:

Securities Exchange Regulatory Authority	Coast Guard / Naval Authority
Witness Protection (WitSec)	Trade / Anti-Trust Regulatory Commission
Patents, Standards and Copyrights Authority	Postal Services
Communications & Media Authority	Aviation Administration & Promotions
Student Loan Funding	Medical Licenses & Standards

This foregoing information is from 1 page of the Go Lean book, while in fact there are 370 pages of turn-by-turn directions on how to reform and transform the economic, security and governing engines for the Caribbean region and their member-states. This roadmap includes the new community ethos (attitudes and values) that must be adopted; plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to deliver the obligations of the Social Contract. In fact, this is the actual title of one advocacy in the Go Lean book. Consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines here from Page 222, entitled:

10 Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty This treaty allows for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, and thus creates an economic zone of over $800 Billion (c. 2010). The sheer size of this single economy allows for more government efficiencies and effectiveness, as should be expected by citizens of a modern democracy. This expectation is pegged to the implied Social Contract where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights. The CU ascension creates another layer of government hierarchy for the region, but the implication is the same: there is a Social Contract of deliverables and responsibilities that the CU must execute, in the sphere of economic empowerment and homeland security.
2	Economics of Colonies … The CU Social Contract calls for a re-boot in which this region will not just consume, but also create/produce.
3	Non-Profitable Endeavors [18th Century] economist Adam Smith, recommended further that governments not impede the wheels of commerce, (laissez-faire), rather concentrate more on endeavors not financially feasible for private enterprises, like early childhood education, standing armies, public safety, etc. … The CU proposes public-domain services that can expand the economics (income/jobs) for the region, such as the prison industrial complex, student loans for tertiary education and licenses for private security/1^st response services.
4	Security of Colonies History has shown that there must be security solutions or “bad actors” will exploit successful economic engines for illicit gains. This was the case with the Pirates of the Caribbean plundering the booty of Spanish treasure-laden ships, and also the Outlaws of the Old West robbing the yields of prospectors from the Gold Rushes (i.e. California, Alaska). The CU assuages regional terroristic threats and prosecutes economic crimes.
5	Infrastructure Roads, bridges, sewer systems, and other infrastructure projects cannot always function as profit centers, many times these endeavors must be invested in for the sake of the greater good, without the rationale of profit. This expectation is economically unrealistic for smaller states, but with the scale of the entire CU, viable solutions can be put in place.
6	Medical / Heath Endeavors
7	Education Optimizations
8	Failed State Indices Movements
9	Technology and Efficiency The CU will foster the art and science of technology deployments. This includes the embrace of advanced project management and lean organizational initiatives (Six Sigma, Agile, PMI, CMM, etc.), resulting in efficient deliveries.
10	Canadian Provincial Governments Model

The reasons for Caribbean Push and Pull are tied to deficiencies in the economic and security engines; think jobs or crime. But governance is important too. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the deployment of optimized administrative systems will help Caribbean governments to govern better … and at a lower cost.

This theme – improving governing mechanics and systems – has been related in many previous Go Lean commentaries. See a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18524	e-Money Solutions for the Caribbean Dollar – Now One Step Closer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17925	Learning from Previous Failures for Infrastructure Developments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17500	Continuity of Business: Learning from System Failures
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward – For Independence: Territory Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16848	‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – Federal vs Member-State
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15858	A Regional Network – A Mandate for a New Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075	e-Government 3.0 – Systems for Improved Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13999	First Steps – Deputize the CU for Regional Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10771	Logical Addresses – ‘Life or Death’ Consequences
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6965	Secrecy, corruption and conflicts of interest pervade state governments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1112	The problem with Bad Governance is not Money; its Bad Governance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	Better Governance – Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent

Yes, we can be Better Than America; but it is not easy; it involves some heavy-lifting that many times America itself did not want to do. Just think, all the reasonable accommodations they subsequently made to “live and let live”. We take it for granted today, but for previous generations, this was a “tall order”. This is how we can be better … now, by fully embracing the mandate for a pluralistic democracy, now.

Imagine: Civil Rights without a Civil War; Gender Equity without a Battle of the Sexes.

This is how we can do better than America’s Bill of Rights. We can just give people their rights, with no tyranny attached. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to 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.

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 ccidence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

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

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

—————

Appendix VIDEO – Collin Raye – Make Sure You’ve Got It All (1998) – https://youtu.be/SDsOHyMZr5U

Published on Nov 7, 2011 – From the Collin Raye album ‘The Walls Came Down’. Written by Bill Anderson and Steve Wariner. No copyright infringement is intended.

Category: Music
Song: Make Sure You’ve Got It All
Artist: Collin Raye
Album: The Walls Came Down
Licensed to YouTube by: SME (on behalf of Epic/Nashville); Sony ATV Publishing, CMRRA, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., SOLAR Music Rights Management, WAMA, Inc., UMPG Publishing, and 2 Music Rights Societies

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After Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America

Posted on September 25, 2019 in Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There are a number of phases of post-Hurricane activities:

Rescue
Relief
Restoration
Recovery
Rebuilding

After Hurricane Dorian, the rescue operations in the Northern Bahamas is now done – 54 people have officially been counted as dead due to this storm – though it is widely accepted that the death toll will increase … once all the family notifications are complete.

Relief supplies are being funneled to the victims and displaced people have been relocated to temporary housing options. Power is being restored in some areas. The recovery is on the way; it is time now to think about rebuilding … and who will profit from it.

So for the Bahamas, its time to take stock of who are your friends and who are only “strangers”.

In your hour of need, the big Super Power, the United States of America, extended some help but drew a line, thereby making this statement:

You’re just a neighbor; you are not family.
[This translates to: “You’re Not Welcome”.]

See this exemplified in this news article here:

Title: US Official Says No Protected Status For People Fleeing The Bahamas
A senior official in the administration of President Donald Trump has been quoted by CBS News as saying that the US will not be granting protected status to people fleeing hurricane destruction in Bahamas.

It’s something the Trump administration had said was a possibility, as the White House seeks to restrict the flow of immigrants into the country.

Some persons are permitted to live and work in the United States under a program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

It is estimated that some 300,000 have qualified after fleeing their countries because of war, hurricanes, earthquakes or other conditions that make life dangerous in their native countries.

According to NBC News the status would have allowed Bahamians to work and live in the U.S. until it is deemed safe to return home.

Bahamians will be permitted to enter the United States temporarily if they have the correct travel documents, but will not be granted work permits, it was reported.
…
See the full story here: Posted September 13, 2019; retrieved September 24, 2019 from: https://stluciatimes.com/us-official-says-no-protected-status-for-people-fleeing-the-bahamas/

Rebuilding will mean new budgets, supplies, equipment, construction labor and architectural-design services. So now is the time to start profit-taking from the rebuild activities. Who do we share that profit with: America or China; or maybe some other entity. Well, these same Americans, who quickly declared “Not Welcome” are quick to “call dibs” on a “piece of the profit pie”. See a related news story here:

Title: Rubio: U.S. must rebuild Bahamas
The United States cannot allow China to exploit the recovery and rebuilding of The Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian for its own nefarious purposes and gain “a foothold just 50 miles from the coast of Florida”, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Saturday.

“By targeting the Bahamian government in this period of crisis, Beijing would be making the same opportunistic play to access critical foreign infrastructure,” Rubio wrote in an op-ed in the Miami Herald.

“But in this case, the national security threat is especially perilous, as it would give China a foothold just 50 miles from the coast of Florida.

“We cannot allow this to happen. It is on us to take the lead in helping the Bahamian people with their near-term, life-or-death struggle as only the U.S. and our military can, but also to be reliable partners over the long term.” …

See the full article here: The Nassau Guardian – Posted September 16, 2019; retrieved September 24, 2019 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/09/16/rubio-u-s-must-rebuild-bahamas/

Concerns about China? There is reason for America to be competitive with China, as the Chinese are here in the Caribbean too; with their own agenda for national development. See this article petitioning for their help in rebuilding parts of the Bahamas:

Title: Speaker: China Should Consider Developing Southeast Bahamas
By: Khrisna Russell, Deputy Chief Reporter

HOUSE Speaker Halson Moultrie yesterday recommended to a People’s Republic of China delegation that its country consider developing the southeast region of the Bahamas to shift the population concentration from the northwest Bahamas.

It was also his suggestion that China help this country with relocating the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services from New Providence to Little Inagua.

Speaker Moultrie made the recommendations during a courtesy call with Dr Cai Dafend, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China.

Dr Dafend and a 14-member delegation held brief discussions in the Senate with the Speaker, his deputy Donald Saunders and Chief Clerk David Forbes Friday.

At the time, the Chinese official announced his government would give an additional $500,000US to the Bahamas for Hurricane Dorian relief efforts.

…

See the full article here: Bahamas Daily Newspaper The Tribune – Posted September 20, 2019; retrieved September 24, 2019 from: http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/sep/20/speaker-china-should-consider-developing-southeast/

China versus America …

… can we be any more “lucky” to have admiring suitors – from competing Super Powers – willing to lend us a development hand.

We give China a “scholarship” that they may be viewed as a Super Power. While their Single Market GDP is smaller than the USA, only by a little, their transformation in the last 40 years cannot be ignored; nor their 1.3 billion population. – see this VIDEO here from a previous blog-commentary:

VIDEO – How China became the world’s second largest economy – https://youtu.be/_sV5P_F3frY

CNN Business
Published on Oct 6, 2015 – More than 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty since China’s economic reforms began in 1978.

Category: News & Politics

What is America’s motive? ? According to a previous blog-commentary, the United States of America has always assumed that the Caribbean is in their sphere of influence … exclusively; (even going to war to ensure it; think Cuba, Grenada & Panama). This was the summary of that blog’s assertions:

… We can always count on America to pursue what’s in America’s best interest, and this may not always align with Caribbean objectives. So we must take our own lead for our own self-interest.
American priorities change with presidential administrations

What is China’s motive? According to this previous blog-commentary, China is simply executing America’s Expansionism Playbook:

… the same playbook of the United States of America in building the world’s largest Single Market economy. (Remember, with the Army Corp of Engineers, the US built the Panama Canal, but with more strings attached). China is simply following the same American script – minus the cronyism and militarism – of promoting trade of their products, services and capital.

Capital? Yes, many of the projects highlighted in the foregoing news articles are being financed by China’s state-owned banks and lending institutions. They are “putting their money, where their mouth is”. These are economic battles only!

So beyond America and China, where else can we turn?

It would be a nice thought if the Bahamas could turn to their neighbors, to come to their aid. This is the quest of the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean: to consolidate, integrate and streamline Caribbean member-states so as to be prepared for and to respond after disasters in the region. The book declares that all of the Caribbean is in crisis, but that a “crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. It is only at the precipice do people change! We should now re-think any previous objection to regionalism.

Yes indeed, the Caribbean member-states should take the lead for our best self-determination. We should do the heavy-lifting ourselves!

While this quest is easier said than done, it is conceivable, believable and achievable to pursue this aspiration.

The Go Lean book asserts that a unified, integrated Single Market of all 30 Caribbean member-states would represent a $800 Billion economy. The solutions will be there for a leveraged entity – introduced as the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) – to be “On Guard” for all regional challenges, including the new reality of Climate Change in the Caribbean. The book presents many strategies, tactics and implementations to address the development and funding (capital) needs in the region, before, during and after hurricanes.

This theme – standing up together to tackle the challenges of tropical life – aligns with previous Go Lean commentaries; see a sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17559	Dealing with Hurricane Seasons – Year after Year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17282	Way Forward – For True Independence: Territory Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17135	Way Forward – Caribbean States Learn their status with America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15996	Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15886	Industrial Reboot for Caribbean Casualty Insurance & Reinsurance
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15310	Industrial Reboot for Medical Emergencies – Trauma 101
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12466	Being On Guard for Unstable ‘Volcano States’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9038	Post-Disaster Charity Management – Caribbean People Must Grow Up Already!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7963	‘Like a Good Neighbor’ – Being there for each Caribbean Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449	‘Crap Happens’ – Hurricanes, Earthquakes, etc. – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103	Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats

The Bahamas and other Caribbean member-states have consistently been parasites of the American hegemony…

… do we now want to be parasites of China.

The answer is an emphatic No! Rather than parasites, we want to be protégés.

This is the quest and the position of the Go Lean roadmap, that …

Yes, We Can …

… we can work together to reboot our Caribbean homeland; we can rescue, relieve, restore, recover and rebuild … with own resources and on own our terms. We can do the heavy-lifting ourselves to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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.

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After Dorian, Regionalism – ‘How you like me now?’

Posted on September 16, 2019 in Government, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The Caribbean region has come to the aid of the Bahamas, in this their time of distress after the strong devastation of Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.

But some stakeholders in this region would rather tell this country: “I told you so …”.

They had been so proud and loud in rejecting the tenants of regionalism. Now they need help.

See the September 9, 2019 Facebook posting “I have no Sympathies for the Bahamas” by one commentator here; (Click to Enlarge or see the full text in Appendix C below).

Yes, the Bahamas rejected the Caribbean Single Market and Economy initiative – see Appendices A & B below – because they did not want the 42 million people in the region to just freely venture in-and-out of its borders for activities like “live, work and play”. A previous blog-commentary from July 10, 2018 reported:

According to the Bahamas Prime Minister’s [Hubert Minnis] issue with CSME is the Free Movement of People. The country would rather maintain its independence than to succumb to a new “free movement” regime whereby people can freely move from one Caribbean member-state to another for any activity: live, work or play. …

Now Hurricane Dorian happened and the country has been impacted; people have died (official toll at 51 as of today, but expected to rise into the hundreds); plus 60,000 people have been displaced. The country sent out an SOS and the most fervent response have come from those same scorned regional partners. Here are some examples:

Title: Guyana donating US$200,000 to hurricane-hit Bahamas
The Government of Guyana will be donating $41.6M (US$200,000) to The Bahamas to aid in relief following the battering by Hurricane Dorian.

This declaration was made last evening, by the Minister of State, Dawn Hastings, during the ‘Rise Bahamas’ telethon programme, aired on the National Communications Network (NCN), according to the Department of Public Information (DPI). …
See the full story here, posted and retrieved September 16, 2019: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2019/09/16/news/guyana/guyana-donating-us200000-to-hurricane-hit-bahamas-hastings/

—————-

Title: CDEMA Pushes On
By: Rachelle Agard
Dateline September 13, 2019 – The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) continues to play an integral role in assisting the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco which were devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Dorian earlier this month.

“At the moment, between the government of The Bahamas, the international military and/ or Caribbean military, we have over 1 000 boots on the ground, a quarter of which is from Caribbean troops.
…

“We must also recognise that The Bahamas is close to the US mainland and will also have a relationship with the US and would have benefitted from US resources. We signed an MOU recently with the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Part of the MOU sees CDEMA benefitting from the Dutch military capabilities, so we requested their support and they have deployed a vessel with 700 military artisans which arrived on Wednesday to provide a good boost,” he said of the organisation which is made up of 18 governments. …

See the full story here, retrieved September 16, 2019: https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/241773/cdema-pushes

—————-

Title: Dominica to Assist Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian

The government of Dominica reported the actions taken to help the Bahamas and announced a contribution of US$100,000.

The government of Dominica announced a plan to help the Bahamian government and its people who were hit for three days by category 5 Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 1, seven people have been reported killed by the storm.

“From our experience with Hurricane Maria in 2017, we know that it will be a long and challenging road to recovery in the Bahamas. We encourage all Dominicans to continue to lift the Government and people of the Bahamas in their prayers and encourage the donor community to be proactive in responding to their needs,” said the country’s Prime Minister, Reginald Austrie. …

See the full store here, posted September 3, 2019; retrieved September 16, 2019 from: https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Dominican-Republic-to-Assist-Bahamas-after-Hurricane-Dorian-20190903-0025.html

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VIDEO – Ship Set To Leave Bermuda With Aid For Bahamas, Sept 8 2019 – https://youtu.be/9jWTQAiudPg

bernewsdotcom
http://bernews.com | Bermuda | Minister Wayne Caines press conference on board the Royal Navy HMS Protector

Regionalism has it benefits, people come to your aid when you send out an SOS. There is “give” and there is “take”.

The summary of the Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) effort is that an integrated regional economy brings leverage, so “many hands make big job small”. In that previous blog-commentary from July 10, 2018 it related the benefits of the confederation roadmap as described in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean:

Righting a Wrong: The Bahamas Needs to Re-think CSME
The Go Lean roadmap is designed to elevate the Caribbean region, to be better destinations to live, work and play. The movement therefore fosters strategies, tactics and implementation to better foment the region …

The Go Lean book was published in November 2013, projecting verbiage like “the Caribbean is in Crisis; alas a crisis is a terrible thing to waste” (Page 8). According to many observations in the Go Lean blogs-commentaries – click here – the Northern Bahamas was in a dire crisis, in need of immediate remediation, even before Hurricane Dorian. The crisis is exacerbated now. The recommendation of the movement behind the Go Lean book is to confederate now!

The Go Lean roadmap calls for a technocratic administration to allow the Caribbean region to embrace the economic benefits of a Single Market and a regional Security Pact – with the needed Disaster Preparation and Response organizations. The points of effective, technocratic stewardship for a regional security apparatus have thusly been elaborated upon in many previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18182	Disaster Relief: Helping, Not Hurting
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15996	Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13746	Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12466	State of the Union: Unstable ‘Volcano States’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455	Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7449	‘Crap Happens’ – So What Now?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103	Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’

What should be the advocacy priority of a technocratic regional government? Guaranteeing safety and security of our people before, during and after any natural disaster.

The Bahamas must do better than in the past; the Caribbean must do better than in the past. We all need to lean on each other. Remember the 2nd Stanza of the 1971 song “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers:

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me

This is how we can make the Bahamas and all of the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play, by working together with our regional stakeholders to rebuild, restore and recover. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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.

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

——————-

Appendix A – Bahamas maintains stance against CSME

By: Royston James

The Bahamas will maintain its stance against joining the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), despite increased pressure from certain regional heads to expand the initiative.

The CSME seeks to create a single, enlarged economic space by removing certain restrictions, the result of which would allow the free movement of goods and services, people and capital and technology.

“In spite of what you may read in the newspaper, we have discussed CSME, [but] The Bahamas is not and will not be a part of CSME,” Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis said upon returning from Jamaica on Saturday.

“The Bahamas will not allow the free movement of people within our boundaries. So we are not a part of CSME. That must be clear, so that you do not feel that [because of] what has transpired there that Caribbean nationals would be able to move into The Bahamas quite regularly.

“We have our rules, our laws, and they will continue to apply.”

Full implementation of the CSME was high on the agenda of the CARICOM meeting held last Thursday. At least three CARICOM heads called for a review of the program by its member states and for regional leaders to find the political will to see the program expanded and made more efficient.

Addressing CARICOM, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley opined that “psychological impediments and the closed mindsets in some quarters of officialdom” can be attributed to the slow progress of the CSME.

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne and CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque also pushed for more to be achieved. CARICOM Chairman and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said at a press conference following the CARICOM meeting that a special meeting on CSME will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in November.

Under the first Christie administration, the CSME issue featured prominently in local debates with strong opposition to The Bahamas joining the initiative being expressed in many quarters. Debate died down only after the government at the time publicly announced that The Bahamas would not join any bloc that would lead to the free movement of people in the country.

Source: Posted July 9, 2018 retrieved July 10, 2018 from: https://thenassauguardian.com/2018/07/09/bahamas-maintains-stance-against-csme/

——————-

Appendix B – No Caricom Without Referendum

By Sir Randol Fawkes – June 1993

I often wondered what The Caribbean Community’s Common Market (CARICOM) was up to. But now that I know, I wish to sound a warning to all true Bahamians to hold fast to the “Christian values and the Rules of Law” as enshrined in the Preamble to our Independence Constitution of July 10th, 1973, because some power-hungry politicians to the South are planning to invade our homeland and to steal our birthright away.

Simple enough? Dictatorship is always simple, monosyllabic and quick. Under a democracy we have a right to be properly briefed on CARICOM before being required to vote, “Yes” or “No” on whether the Bahamas should become a full Member State of the Caribbean Community’s CARICOM. The Rt. Hon. James F. Mitchell further expostulated, “One flag means we speak on the podium of the United Nations with one clear voice. One voice means one passport, one citizenship and all that flows from a single citizenship. Secondly, one Ministry of Finance is essential to provide the economic development which our people crave. This union will need to show results, and this authority which negotiates and secures financing must be responsible for the repayment of that finance.”

Make no mistake about it, These Caribbeans who will descend on Bahamian soil in July offering CARICOM as a panacea for all ills, intend to destroy our national flag: the Black, the Gold and the Aquamarine; silence our National Anthem, Lift Up Your Heads to the Rising Sun Bahama land, abolish Bahamian citizenship and our passports; eliminate Bahamian autonomy and thereafter superimpose upon us a leviathan dictatorship with a network of cells throughout the Caribbean – all done without first a people’s forum in which all voices – pro and con could be heard and ultimately expressed in a Constitutional Referendum.

…

Source: Retrieved July 10, 2018 from: http://www.sirrandolfawkes.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/No_Caricom_Without_Referendum1.216134242.pdf

——————-

Appendix C – Mark Devonish: I HAVE NO SYMPATHIES FOR BAHAMAS

Let me say this from the outset. I sympathise with those who lost their lives in Hurricane Dorian. A life lost is a life wasted. Having said that I will now outline why I have no sympathies for Bahamas.

The CSME is a CARICOM trading blocks which promotes free movement of people in the Caribbean among other things. Countries signing up to CSME have to abide by their conditions.

Most countries did except Bahamas. They flatly and in a disparaging way stated that no CARICOM citizen will enter our island to live. In effect they though that they were too good for the rest of CARICOM citizens.

Enter the great equaliser, Dorian. Now the very CARICOM that they scorned, they are crying out for help. Seriously?

I can’t be a political leader. I do not forget and I don’t care about what is politically right. If I were a CARICOM leader, I would have told the Bahamians to go eat their fecal matter, drink their piss and die since I will not help them.

Some folks may not be happy with my position but that is my position which I’m entitled to. Bahamas pissed on the rest of the CARICOM citizens because they though they were great. How the mighty have fallen.

Source: Posted September 9 at 7:27 PM; retrieved September 16, 2019.

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‘Two Pies’ for a New Caribbean – ENCORE

Posted on February 23, 2019 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Strategy

Here’s a known fact of life in the USA; let’s examine:

The State of Florida does not have to pay for any of the deliverables for the people in the State of Minnesota; California does not have to worry about the needs of Vermont; Pennsylvania does not have to concern themselves with Arizona; and so on.

Every state only have to address and pay for the needs of the people in their state. Anything cross-border is handled by a different entity, the US federal government.

Yes, as an individual resident, a citizen would see Two Pies while in the USA; one for their State and one for the federal government.

This model is now proposed for the member-states of the Caribbean. This is the roadmap from the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book introduces the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) which will serve as a governing entity for cross-border services and deliveries. While it has always been a point of contention that any regional integration in the Caribbean would have the richer countries paying for the poorer countries. This is a fallacy! Each member-state has their own “pie” and the CU Federal entity will have its own “pie”.

This design of Two Pies have been thoroughly detailed in a previous blog-commentary from February 23, 2017; (two years ago exactly). See an Encore of that submission here-now.

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Go Lean Commentary – Two Pies: Economic Plan for a new Caribbean

“Get your hands out of my pocket!” – Term used by another man in the room to cause a disturbance and distraction during the killing of Malcolm X in New York on February 21, 1965 – 52 years ago this week. See VIDEO in the Appendix below.

The words above that were shouted to cause a disturbance are riot-inducing and can cause alarm for many communities. No one wants to think that someone unauthorized and unworthy may be pilfering hard-earned funds from innocent victims.

No one wants to be that victim!

This was a point of consideration in the conception of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. There was the inspiration to conceive an economic empowerment plan for all the Caribbean that would NOT take money out of one person’s pockets and give to another … unauthorized and unworthy. The solution?

Two pockets … or two pies.

… pie as in a pie-chart; this is the graphical representation of the distribution of a budget. Pie-charts are very effective in expressing one amount in comparison to another amount. So when there are two pie-charts, it undoubtedly expresses that there are two different funds, no intermingling. That is the economic plan for the new Caribbean:

Two Pies.

This means that there are two different funds. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is a regional integration effort to benefit the 30 member-states of the Caribbean. There are a lot of money issues to contend with – but no one person’s hands are in another person’s pockets. So all the money issues for CU are exclusive to the CU. This is true of money-economics and other facets of Caribbean life: security and governance. In total, these 3 prime directives explore the full dimensions of the roadmap:

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 justice institutions and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies to support the economic and security engines.

In order to reboot the societal engines there must be these Two Pies. The CU Trade Federation is designed to lead, fund and facilitate regional empowerment plans. But the plan is NOT for the individual member-states to write checks to the CU so as to share one state’s treasuries with another state. Rather, the CU Trade Federation creates its own funding – from regionalized services – and then encumbers the funds for each member-state to deliver the economic, security and governing mandates. This is analogized as Two Pies:

One ‘pie‘ to represent the existing budgets of the member-states and how they distribute their government funding between government services (education, healthcare, etc.), security measures (Police, Coast Guards)
One ‘pie‘ to represent the CU funding from exclusive activities (Spectrum Auctions, Lottery, Exploration Rights, Licenses, Foreign-Aid, etc.).

All in all, the book, and accompanying blogs, declare that the proposed CU Trade Federation is a new governmental layer, and thusly creates a new government budget. This is a confederation; designed to enhance the governmental deliveries for the 30 member-states. This necessity is expressed as a pronouncement in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, (Pages 10 – 11) with the following statement:

Preamble: While our rights to exercise good governance and promote a more perfect society are the natural assumptions among the powers of the earth, no one other than ourselves can be held accountable for our failure to succeed if we do not try to promote the opportunities that a democratic society fosters.

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

The vision of a confederation is an integrated Single Market for the 30 member-states of the Caribbean; this means the Dutch, English, French and Spanish speaking territories. This also includes the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Tactically, the CU allows for a separation-of-powers between the member-state governments and the new federal agencies.

Currently the Caribbean member-states pockets are bare – these are all Third World destinations – even the US Territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Consider this First World comparison; consider Apple Corporation – the firm behind the iPhone, iPad, iTunes, etc. – due to their success in technology and business, they have a lot of money (cash on hand); a lot more than many Caribbean member-states … combined.

We need this CU roadmap to impact a turn-around for this region; we need the new “Pie” of the CU Single Market. The member-state’s economic engines – their “Pies” – are in crisis, but since a crisis would be a terrible thing to waste, we need to transform these economic engines for a new Caribbean by introducing the CU “Pie”, as follows:

Regional Capital Markets with a regional currency – Caribbean Dollar – would increase liquidity and lower the cost of capital. Rather than international debt, member-state governments and corporate institutions can avail themselves of lower financing costs, sometimes as low as 2% interest rates.
Notice a glimpse of this vision in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=372 | Dominica raises EC$20 million on regional securities market
Municipal financing – Debt by any governmental entity does not only reflect on the past, but impacts the future as well. Excessive debt can be so bad that at times the providers … and collectors of debt may be derisively called “vultures”. The CU pledges to re-purchase existing municipal debt and convert them to Caribbean Dollar instruments.
Notice this portrayal in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7601 | Beware of Vulture Capitalists Commercial banking enhancements
Individual finance: Student Loans – Many Caribbean students obtained loans from their home countries, matriculated abroad and then never returned home. There was no return on investment and many times, no loan repayment. The CU pledges to buy outstanding loans (new, active and default) and enforce cross-border collections.
Notice the details of this student loan crisis in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8373 | A Lesson in Economic Fallacies – Student Loans As Investments
Individual finance: Mortgages – Housing can be a great stimuli on the economy, but it is difficult for banks to recycle the capital that is tied up for 30 years without a Secondary Market. The CU pledges to deploy a Mortgage Secondary Market across the entire region (Go Lean book Page 83 and 199). This strategy will re-enforce banking within the region.
Notice the issues associated with a dysfunctional mortgage eco-system in this previous blog-commentary:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10187 | Day of Reckoning for NINJA Loans
Individual finance: Retirement – Growing old in the Caribbean has become strained due to the high abandonment rate. National Pension plans depend on a macro structure where young people pay into the fund while the elderly withdraws from the fund. With so much emigration, the actuarial tables are distorted.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that depicts a failing pension system in one member-state:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830 | Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
… and one blog-commentary that describes how best to prosper:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4222 | Getting Rich Slowly in the Caribbean
Self-Governing Entities (SGE) – The Go Lean/CU roadmap features the installation of SGE’s as job-creating engines in many communities; these sites are ideal for technology laboratories, medical campuses, corporate parks, industrial sites, educational facilities and other forms of establishments situated inside bordered facilitates. They allow for an efficient process to launch and manage industrial efforts in the region. These types of installations will thrive under the strategies and tactics of the Go Lean roadmap. SGE’s do require governmental concurrence and maybe even public approvals – referendums – but only at the initiation. Beyond that, they are not a concern, or an expense, for local governments – they bring their own economic “Pie“.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that details the dynamics of SGE’s:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5921 | Socio-Economic Change: Impact Analysis of SGE’s
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – The Go Lean/CU roadmap calls for the strategy of petitioning the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for expanded territory in the Caribbean Sea for the CU to develop, explore, protect and exploit for the benefit to the Caribbean en-masse only. This means the CU “Pie” for revenues-and-expenses and not individual member-states.
Consider this previous blog-commentary that details the dynamics of the EEZ:
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8819 | Lessons from China – South China Seas: Exclusive Economic Zones

The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies designed to create a federal “Pie” in the Caribbean region; see here:

Anecdote – Caribbean Single Market & Economy	Page 15
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Integrated Region in a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Vision – Agents of Change	Page 57
Tactical – Confederating a Non-sovereign Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing to $800 Billion Regional Economy	Page 67
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers	Page 71
Anecdote – “Lean” in Government – Optimizing Societal Engines	Page 93
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone	Page 104
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt	Page 114
Planning – Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Model the EU	Page 130
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Wall Street	Page 199

While the Caribbean needs its people, these people need a better Caribbean society – more prosperous. The region status quo is that “they got it bad”! Due to the many failures in the region, many people have fled to find refuge in foreign countries, resulting in a debilitating brain drain in the Caribbean, and thusly less people-less potential-less profits; so even more failure on top of failure.

The Go Lean roadmap for the CU stresses the need for this new “Pie“, the economics of a Caribbean Single Market. This theme was previously blogged on in so many previous Go Lean blog-commentaries; see sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043	Integration Plan for Greater Caribbean Prosperity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9595	Vision and Values for a ‘New’ Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8813	Lessons from China – Size Does Matter
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=841	Having Less Babies is Bad for the Economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	European Integration Currency Model: One Currency
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=599	Ailing Puerto Rico open to radical economic fixes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=364	Time Value of Money
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=360	How to Create Money from Thin Air

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean – the people and governing institutions – to lean-in for the Caribbean integration re-boot, this Caribbean Union Trade Federation. We need the “Two Pies“. We need better engines to make our region more prosperous, to make it a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———

Appendix VIDEO – Malcolm X: Get your hand out my pocket – https://youtu.be/zHM8lAIFoU4

Uploaded on Jan 26, 2011 – Classic scene from a classic movie.

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Caribbean Unity? Ross University Saga

Posted on August 28, 2018 in Government, Implementation, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

¹¹Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? ¹²And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. – The Bible Ecclesiastes 4:11 – 12 Berean Study Bible

It is so unfortunate that these Caribbean islands think that they are … “islands”. Didn’t they ever hear:

‘No man is an island’? – English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631)
The phrase ‘no man is an island‘ expresses the idea that human beings do badly when isolated from others and need to be part of a community in order to thrive. Donne was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism.

These islands do acknowledge that there are other islands, but rather than cooperating and collaborating together, the strategy seems to be limited to just competition – “It’s Better in … “

This is the continued focus of this series of commentaries on Caribbean [dis]unity. This submission is 2 of 4 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the societal defects in the region that prevents us from banding together. We do not reform nor transform like other communities; we do not confederate nor consolidate; we somehow think that we are better than our neighbors and can survive alone. What a joke!

The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Caribbean Unity? – What a joke – Tourism Missteps
Caribbean Unity? – Ross University Saga
Caribbean Unity? – No Freedom of Movement in/out of French Antilles
Caribbean Unity? – Religion’s Role: False Friend

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd unity in this region. But first we must accept that Caribbean Unity is a joke, despite a previous formal exercise in regional integration called CariCom. In truth, CariCom is not the first integration attempt:

In the English-speaking islands, there was the disastrous West Indies Federation.
In the Dutch-speaking islands, there was the now-defunct Netherlands Antilles.

This talk of Caribbean Unity/Disunity is not just academic; this has real world implications. Just last year, the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica was devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Maria; the operations of their biggest non-tourism economic engine – Ross University and their 3500 students – was greatly impacted. The end result, another island, Barbados seems to have recruited Ross University to “relocate shop” to their island … permanently – not just during the recovery. This charge reflects the disunity of the region. Dominica and Barbados should have been collaborating, not competing.

This is not just our movement’s complaint alone; many community leaders identify and observe this bad trend. Consider here, this news article relating the story:

Title: Ross University saga an indictment on CARICOM
The leader of the Lucian Peoples Movement, Therold Prudent, has declared that the Ross University saga involving Dominica and Barbados, is an indictment on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the regional grouping to which both countries belong.

The institution is relocating from Dominica to Barbados.

“It just proves that we are like crabs in a barrel,” Prudent told St Lucia Times in an interview Friday.

“We are continually fighting each other for a little bread, for opportunity, whereas we should be standing with each other and at least saying to this University ‘Listen, this is a sister Island. You can’t just pick up and go and just come into another Caribbean Island because you believe that the terms aren’t favourable to you anymore in that particular country.’”

The LPM leader asserted that countries within CARICOM need to speak with one voice.

He expressed the view that the Ross University issue demonstrates that foreigners and investors understand the disunity and weakness in CARICOM and Caribbean Islands.

According to Prudent, the investors understand that all they have to do is “put a carrot before us and we will jump for it, not mindful if it is going to cost the other nation or country which is a part of CARICOM. ”

He said CARICOM has not lived up to expectations, including speaking with one voice on the international stage and adopting a unified foreign policy.

“Right now we are in a situation where everybody is looking after themselves and it is not about the region as a whole” the LPM leader lamented.

He told St Lucia Times that under such circumstances, it is easy for investors to disrespect the Caribbean.

On Tuesday, Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley was quoted as denying that there was anything underhanded by her administration, in accepting the Ross University School of Medicine’s move to the island from Dominica.

Mottley asserted that the hands of her administration are clean, local media reports said.

Last Friday, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that Ross University, which had been forced to relocate its operations to St Kitts and the state of Tennessee in the United States following the passage of Hurricane Maria last September, would be leaving the Eastern Caribbean nation after 40 years.

Source: Posted August 10, 2018; retrieved August 23, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/08/10/prudent-ross-university-saga-an-indictment-on-caricom/

As related in the foregoing, these words by a St Lucian Opposition Party Leader is quite an indictment:

“… foreigners and investors understand the disunity and weakness in CARICOM and Caribbean Islands”

Our disunity is a joke … to the rest of the world!

No doubt, there should be regional integration. In fact what is needed is a Single Market. The spirit of CariCom – attempting integration – is a good one; but the execution is failing. The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – opened with an honest assessment of CariCom; it stated (Page 14):

In July 2013, the Caribbean Community (CariCom) celebrated its 40th anniversary of ascension to pomp and gallantry… and much criticism. Many political and social commentators expressed how the CariCom had disappointed so many in their delivery of any reasonable success for economic integration. One commentator, Caribbean icon Sir Shridath Ramphal, (who served as the second British Commonwealth Secretary-General from 1975-1990; Foreign Minister of Guyana from 1972 – 1975; and previous stints as Chancellor at the University of the West Indies – until 2003 – and of the University of Guyana), charged that the leadership in the Caribbean region has “put the gears of the CariCom Single Market in neutral and the gears of its Single Economy into reverse”.

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean seeks to reboot and relaunch the integration effort. But this time, with all Caribbean member-states (30), not just the English-speaking, but partnering with the French Antilles and Spanish-speaking states as well. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an elevated entity that graduates from CariCom. The CU is design to reach greater heights than CariCom ever contemplated; see Appendix CU > CC below.

There are a lot of issues that affect the economic landscape that are too big for any one member-state to contend with alone. Category 5 hurricanes are one of them. The facilitation to restore and recover should be a regional effort and not just a national issue. Obviously, Dominica failed in its delivery for Ross University; see the encyclopedic details on that school history and recovery here (and the Appendix VIDEO on Ross 40th Year Timeline below):

Title: Ross University School of Medicine
History
The medical school was founded in 1978 as The University of Dominica School of Medicine by Robert Ross, an entrepreneur.^[2][3] At the time, it was housed in leased facilities at The Castaways Hotel, with an inaugural class of 11 students. In 1982, the University of Dominica School of Medicine formally changed its name to Ross University School of Medicine at the request of the government of Dominica.

In 1985 California state medical licensing officials (the Board of Medical Quality Assurance), began investigating RUSM, along with other medical schools located in the Caribbean.^[4] The officials released a report stating that RUSM at that time had nearly no admissions standards, and that the school was in the business of providing medical degrees to “everyone that wants one.”^[4] RUSM agreed to implement a number of changes recommended by the board and has since graduated over 11,000 practicing physicians.^[4]

In the late 1990s, RUSM expressed interest in opening a new medical school in Casper, in the U.S. state of Wyoming, but accreditation was denied by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the organization that accredits MD-granting medical schools in the United States.^[5] Some local individuals welcomed the economic impact of a new medical school on the town, but critics questioned the quality of education at a for-profit institution.^[5] In 2003, RUSM was acquired by DeVry Education Group,^[6] which has since renamed itself Adtalem Global Education.

The school was impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017, when the Category 5 storm made landfall on the island of Dominica. The hurricane knocked out communications, effectively isolating RUSM from the outside world. The campus suffered moderate damage from the effects of Maria. Students and faculty were located through a university-initiated roll call, and then were evacuated from the campus to the U.S. mainland.^[7]

In October 2017, the university announced that classes for the fall semester would resume mid-October aboard the GNV Excellent, an Italian ferry that would be docked off the coast of the island of St. Kitts. The ship was reconfigured as an educational venue. ^[7]

In November 2017, Ross University School of Medicine announced plans to relocate temporarily to Knoxville, Tennessee for continuation of medical school classes. Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), based in Harrogate, Tennessee and with operations in Knoxville, will provide the necessary operational capacity and the technical capabilities to support RUSM faculty, students, and staff. ^[8]

Ross University School of Medicine has announced that the main campus will be relocated from Dominica to Barbados for the beginning of the 2019 Spring semester. ^[9] ^[10]

Source: Retrieved August 23, 2018 from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_University_School_of_Medicine#History

Poor Ross University and poor Dominica.

The governance in this Caribbean region is so poor that these institutions could not anticipate the worst-case scenario of a hurricane. Sad! 🙁

The Caribbean as a region and the nation-state of Dominica has an inadequate status quo for providing the needs of the people and trading partners in these homelands. We are also inadequate for dealing with the challenges of nation-building. As a regional construct, we must do better! We must convene, consolidate, collude, confederate and collaborate, not compete.

The CU is designed to be a technocratic intergovernmental entity that shepherds economic growth for the full Caribbean region and mitigate against related security challenges – including preparation and response for natural disasters. The goal is to use a regional focus to reboot and optimize the region’s societal engines. The Go Lean/CU roadmap will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

Optimize the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establish a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book stresses that the required reform to transform Caribbean disaster preparation may be too big for any one country (think: Dominica); the solution must be a regional delivery (think: CariCom). This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

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

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

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, for better preparation for natural disasters. Consider this specific implementation the book, where the functionality of the Emergency Management Agency is described; this is a subset of the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department. This is described in the book as follows on Page 76 with the section title:

B – Homeland Security Department

B4 – Emergency Management

This area is perhaps one of the most important functions of the CU. The Emergency Management Department will coordinate the planning, response, rebuilding and recovery before, during and after natural disasters and other emergency events. This is the risk management arm of the CU Trade Federation. As such, the scope of Emergency Management will also include education, mentoring, monitoring, mitigation, licensing and coordination of all volunteer activities.
…
Emergencies also include the man-made variety as in industrial (oil spills, factory accidents, chemical spills), explosions, terroristic attacks and prison riots. The purpose of the Trade Federation is to enhance the economic engines of the region.

While the # 1 economic driver in the region is tourism, any poorly managed episode of “man-made” emergencies will have devastating effects on tourist bookings. Therefore, the CU must respond quickly, forcefully and professionally to contain the physical and image damage that can occur from these incidents.

Though not exclusive, this agency will coordinate its specialized services, skill-sets and occupations like Paramedic, EMT, Search-and-Rescue, Canine (K-9) with other governing (law enforcement) entities. Regional training will therefore be coordinated, licensed, and certified by this CU Emergency Management Department.

This Emergency Management agency will also coordinate the training and management of animal responders, in conjunction with the other federal agencies of Justice, Agriculture, Interior (Parks). The animals will include bomb sniffing dogs, cadaver dogs, drug dogs and mounted police horses.

There is also an economic/financial scope for this department. As the effort for a comprehensive property-casualty fund to cover the entire Caribbean region will also be coordinated by this agency. The classic solution is a large pool of premium payers and claims filed by the affected area. Beyond this model, there are also advanced products like re-issuance side-cars for market assimilation. The public can then invest and profit from the threat/realization of regional risks. This derivative product is a bet, a gamble, but in the end, the result is an insurance fund of last resort, much like the Joint Underwriters Agency (JUA) in Florida.

The Caribbean must foster a better disaster preparation and response apparatus. Systems of commerce are at stake. So the Go Lean roadmap address “this” as a Prime Directive, asserting that the region’s security and economics must be managed with the same priorities. This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for regional disaster preparation and response; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15059	Regional Tourism & Disaster Coordination – No Longer Optional
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15031	“Profiting” from Hurricanes – Disaster Risk Funds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15012	In Life or Death: No Love for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14832	Example of Manifesting Environmental Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391	After Maria, Destruction and Defection for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996	After Irma, Failed State Indicators: Destruction and Defection
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12977	After Irma, Barbuda Becomes a ‘Ghost Town’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12900	The Logistics of Disaster Relief
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12879	Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455	Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6893	A Meteorologist’s View On Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense cycles of flooding & drought

In summary, the Caribbean has a problem. So many of our people – and institutions – flee their homelands, especially in the aftermath of disastrous storms. The reasons they leave are defined as both “push” and “pull”. “Push” would refer to the resultant deficient infrastructure forcing stakeholders to abandon the community, and “pull” would refer to the perception that there are better economic opportunities elsewhere, so these ones are lured or pulled to make a living elsewhere.

Ross University was pushed from Dominica and pulled to Barbados! This is a direct product of deficient recovery!

In general, 70 percent brain drain rate has been reported among the professional classes., so our problem experienced by Ross University in this case is not unique. This lack of recovery ability emerged before Hurricane Maria and will continue long after … if the region do not implement better recovery systems and schemes.

It is time now to deploy the practical measure of a better recovery system and scheme – think Regional Risk Reinsurance Funds. This starts with the concepts of confederation and collaboration; not competition. This is our best hope for the future.

So we must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines to better allow for our tropical realities. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. These practical measures are conceivable, believable and achievable.

All Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – are urged to lean-in to this roadmap for change … and empowerment. We can make our region a better place to live work, learn and play. 🙂

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

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

—————

Appendix – CU > CC (CU Greater Than CariCom)

There have been some efforts at regional integration, but only for individual language groups.

The Caribbean Union is the next evolution from the structured economic integration that became the Caribbean Community, but now for all neighbors. The globally accepted 7 degrees of economic integration, which spurned CariCom, are defined as:

Preferential trading area
Free trade area, Monetary union
Customs union, Common market
Economic union, Customs and monetary union
Economic and monetary union
Fiscal union
Complete economic integration

CariCom was enacted in 1973 as Stage 3; but Stage 4 was ratified in 2001 and branded the Caribbean Single Market & Economy. This effort sputtered – see Anecdote # 1. The CU is a new manifestation of Stage 4; a graduation for CariCom.

Source: Book – Go Lean … Caribbean Page 3

—————

Appendix VIDEO – RUSM 40th Anniversary Timeline – https://youtu.be/R62eushQSdE

Ross University School of Medicine

Published on Jun 22, 2018 –

Category: Education

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Caribbean Unity? What a Joke – Tourism Missteps

Posted on August 23, 2018 in Government, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

A house divided against itself, cannot stand. – 16^th US President Abraham Lincoln

This Dead President – the Savior of the American Union – is right! A homeland cannot have unity, harmony or leverage if it is divided.

Being divided, things go from “bad to worse”.

For the Caribbean, despite the 30 different member-states, it is really just one house; we are all in the “same boat”, so then, we can think of it as the same “house boat”. 🙂

As a region, we are divided!

Why are we so dysfunctional in this regard?

One clue: Lack of war.

Wait, what?!

Yes, the opening comment by President Lincoln was uttered in the build-up to that country’s Civil War. In addition, the model that the Caribbean should be emulating, that of the European Union, was only possible after all the devastation and losses of World War II. Yes, this is a human reality:

Only at the precipice do people change.

This commentary declares that despite a lack of war, our Caribbean region is at “the precipice”. We have already suffered disasters, abandonment, insolvency and corruption. The only thing we have been spared, compared to other communities that were forced to unite, is the “blood on the streets”. (Though there are some that assess our uncontrollable crime problem as “blood on the streets”). So why have we not succeeded in any unification movement?

We have tried, but we only have failure to show for our efforts.

This is the focus of this series of commentaries on Caribbean unity – make that disunity. This first one – entry 1 of 4 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of the “misstep” in our societal attitudes – defects – that prevents us from collaborating and partnering together. We do not reform nor transform like other communities; we do not confederate nor consolidate; we somehow think that we are better than our neighbors and can survive alone – “Its Better in … ”

The commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

Caribbean Unity? What a joke – Tourism Missteps
Caribbean Unity? – Ross University Saga
Caribbean Unity? – No Freedom of Movement in/out of French Antilles
Caribbean Unity? – Religion’s Role: False Friend

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd unity in this region. But first we must accept that Caribbean Unity is a joke.

Ask anyone! Most people do not even realize that the full Caribbean region is 42 million people. Why is this surprising?

There is no unity!

Our primary outreach to the world – tourism – is a competition among the islands, rather than a collaboration. The fastest growing segment of Caribbean tourism is the cruise industry; and they are banking on our disunity, playing one port-of-call against another – to our peril. This charge of disunity is not just our movement’s complaint alone; no, even many government leaders lament this actuality. Consider here, this news article which asserts the same premise:

Title: Tourism can bring Caribbean together
Press Release:– Tourism has enormous potential to promote Caribbean regional integration. So said Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett who, at the time, was addressing the 54th annual general meeting of the St. Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association, which was held Friday (June 20) at Harbour Club St. Lucia. He was the featured guest speaker at the AGM.

“The Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world,” said Bartlett, adding, “The sector generates investments and jobs for all the islands and supports overall economic growth through critical sectoral linkages. The tourism sector, by its very nature, also promotes some of the main values of regional integration as tourism involves the close contact and interaction of millions of individuals from diverse cultural, ethnic, racial, socio-economic and national backgrounds working together for mutually-beneficial exchanges.’

Describing the tourism sector in the Caribbean as “cutting across many spheres, sectors and boundaries,” Bartlett characterized the sector as “a shared model of development for the region,” and one that shares a special place among Caribbean states.

“The sector thus provides considerable scope for collaboration and cooperation among many stakeholders at the regional level in a wide range of areas including; investment and product development, human resource development, tourism awareness, research and statistics, access and transportation, regional facilitation, environmental and cultural sustainability, marketing, communications and addressing crime that involves visitors,” said Jamaica’s tourism minister.

Bartlett buttressed his assertion by noting that CARICOM leaders attending the 29th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM held at Port-au-Prince, Haiti in February 2018 had acknowledged tourism as the Caribbean’s largest economic sector and declared that it needs to be “stimulated urgently and sustainably for the region’s long-term development prospects.”

Bartlett further noted that at the 39th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting held in Jamaica July 2, the regional leaders in attendance reaffirmed their commitment to the effective implementation of the CSME, which is aimed at facilitating the expansion of investment and trade in goods and services, and the free movement of people across the region.

“Tourism is also a catalyst for promoting the successful implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) framework which has been the leading initiative developed by CARICOM to promote regional integration,” he added.

Moreover, tourism could become a catalyst for increased intra-regional travel and a value-added component to diversify the region’s tourism product and spread the benefits of tourism across the region, said Bartlett. “Intra-regional tourism provides vast economic exchange and opportunities for the regional economy that would have otherwise gone to countries such as the USA, Canada and England. This form of inward-looking tourism is also a very practical approach to reversing the over-dependence of the region’s tourism sector on international markets,” Bartlett added.

Citing the recent signing of the Multi-lateral Air Services Agreement (MASA) by CARICOM heads as one of the region’s most noted successes in the promotion of intra-regional tourism, Bartlett said it could help to make travelling within and beyond the Caribbean much easier. The MASA is aimed at creating a liberalized environment that is consistent with emerging WTO aviation policies.

“It is anticipated that the full implementation of MASA will improve connectivity and facilitate increased trade in goods and services, including tourism. MASA has been expanded to include the conditions for a single security check for direct transit passengers on multi-stop intra-Community flights,” said Bartlett.

In addition, he said the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) aviation task force is currently working with intra-Caribbean carriers to ensure hassle-free movement and to boost connectivity around the region.

These include legal and regulatory concerns, safety and security issues, taxation and the high cost of airline tickets and the passenger’s experience, which involves persons requiring a visa to travel,” said Bartlett.

He suggested the development of a regional tourism rating or classification scheme as yet another way of deepening regional integration through tourism and enhancing the visitor experience, provided common standards and criteria could be agreed upon and the scheme is furnished with adequate resources and managed effectively and impartially

“Such a scheme could ensure a level of quality assurance for visitors and stimulate product and service quality improvement through the objective benchmarking of visitor facilities and service standards,” said Bartlett.

Bartlett also envisions the “economic convergence between complimentary economies” in the Caribbean through tourism as another way of deepening regional economic integration, citing this as an emergent perspective in the region.

“The suggestion was that there were better opportunities for growth through a more rational approach to economic integration between geographically proximate, complementary economies linked to much-improved transport infrastructure. This was not meant to replace CARICOM but to be a new route to economic convergence in the Caribbean basin.”

Bartlett acknowledged, however, that there are a number of obstacles that must be overcome in the quest to establish a sustainable regional tourism sector.

“It is no secret that there remain several impediments to the development of a sustainable regional tourism sector, including: the general lack of emphasis and promotion of intra-regional tourism at national levels, the prohibitive cost of intra-regional travel, continued restrictions to free movement and insufficient harmonization and coordination in the area of disaster risk management.”

The Caribbean’s vulnerability to climate change constitute another of the threats” to the region’s tourism sector, said Bartlett, stressing that these issues necessitate sophisticated resilience mechanisms and crisis management systems.

“Indeed, it was this spirit of regional cooperation that led to the recent conceptualization of the Caribbean Disaster Resilience Centre, the first of its kind in the region, which will be established at the University of the West Indies Mona,” he added.

Bartlett concluded by urging the Caribbean states to work together in order to take full advantage of tourism’s vast untapped potential to promote the sustainable development of the region.

“We must thus find common ground on a number of issues and strengthen our cooperation in a number of shared areas to ensure that tourism development truly brings us together,” he added.

Several government officials attended the SLHTA AGM, including Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, Minister for Tourism, Dominic Fedee, Minister for Agriculture, Ezechiel Joseph, Minister for Infrastructure, Stephenson King, Minister for Home Affairs, Hermangild Francis, and Minister for Health and Wellness Mary Isaac. Also present were Mayor of Castries, Peterson Francis, Parliamentary Representative for Castries South, Ernest Hilaire, several private sector executives and members of the diplomatic corps.

— END Press Release

About the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA)
The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) is a private non-profit membership organization [that provides sound and dynamic leadership for its members; it functions as the principal intermediary for tourism service providers and an influential lobby for tourism development issues].

Source: Posted July 31, 2018; retrieved August 22, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/07/31/tourism-can-bring-caribbean-together/

As related in the foregoing, these words by the Jamaica Tourism Minister ring loud:

“The tourism sector … promotes some of the main values of regional integration”

What a joke!

Don’t get it twisted! There is no Caribbean integration. We all think there should be; but we all acknowledge that such a construct does not exist. This fact has been proclaimed time and again by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. Just recently, this previous blog-commentary asserted the need to unite after natural disasters:

… this is a matter of image and geographic misconceptions, more so than it is about disasters or even tourism. The world is telling the Caribbean: Better band together to assuage your challenges. We are united in affliction, we might as well be united in solutions. Yes, it is no longer optional for our region to confederate as a Single Market.

Confederation is not a bad thing!
…

Tourism is the current dominant industry; the goal is to “stand on the shoulders” of previous accomplishments, add infrastructure not possible by just one member-state alone and then reap the benefits. Imagine this manifestation in just this one new strategy: inter-island ferries that connect all islands for people, cars and goods.

The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean seeks to reboot the economic engines of the Caribbean member-states. So while tourism is the region’s primary economic driver, the status quo is inadequate for providing the needs of the people in the region, and inadequate for dealing with the challenges of nation-building. We must do better! We must collaborate and not compete.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is designed to be a technocratic intergovernmental entity that shepherds economic growth for the full Caribbean region and mitigate against related security challenges. The goal is to use this new regional focus to reboot and optimize the region’s commerce or economics; plus the aligning security and governing engines.

The Go Lean/CU roadmap will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

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

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 elevate the Caribbean’s tourism product, across the full region. The book features anecdotes and Case Studies assessing the integration among Caribbean member-states, or the lack there of. One anecdote introduces the non-government organization (NGO), the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association and their plea for integration strategies. See this except from that anecdote in the book (Page 60):

Anecdote # 9 – Caribbean Strategy: Hotel & Tourism Association

Hotel Association urges Caribbean governments to take action…
By Caribbean News Now – Published on August 31, 2010 MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association President Josef Forstmayr has called for urgent action by all Caribbean governments for a sustainable cooperative marketing and promotion fund and regional integration and removal of barriers for intra-Caribbean travel. …..Forstmayr also quoted Robert Crandall, former Chairman of American Airlines, who remarked at the annual Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference (CHTIC) in May [2010] with, “The Caribbean is uniquely dependent on tourism. Everyone involved in travel and tourism knows that our 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.”

Crandall also urged that “travel and tourism should be at the center of our collective consciousness since the Caribbean is more dependent on travel and tourism than almost any other region. Of the 10 countries in the world most dependent on tourism, seven are in the Caribbean.” …

.
[Forstmayr] noted that American Airlines’ Robert Crandall “told us that 18 years ago in 1992, at a meeting held in Kingston, the Caribbean heads of government agreed to collaborate in a partnership with the private sector to organize and sustain – the key word is sustain – a regional marketing fund. However, despite substantial private sector contributions from CHTA and our members in 1993 which resulted in a regional advertising program and a 10.4% increase in visitor traffic to the Caribbean, governments cannot agree on a sustainable funding mechanism for a regional marketing program now.”

A tactic the book seeks to optimize is the promotion of the regional tourism product – think; island hopping (see Appendix), universal customs clearance, foreign gateway airports – by enabling such a promotion-administration role-responsibility into a Cabinet level department. This is described in the book as follows on Page 88 with the section title:

D. Commerce Department

D1 – Tourism and Film Promotion and Administration
This department will work in conjunction with the Tourism Promotion arms of each member states (not exclusive); the same too with film, video, and media productions. There is the opportunity to exploit regional tourism efforts like cruise ships, conventions, island hopping, foreign gateway airports, and excess inventory marketing. This agency will also spearhead a Regional Language Translation 24-hour Call Center to accommodate the needs for any foreign visitors in the region.

Imagine island hopping like this – see Appendix VIDEO …

… flying into one Caribbean airport – i.e. St. Martin in the Leeward Islands or Montego Bay in Jamaica – and receiving a “Customs Clearing” for all 30 Caribbean member-states. Wow! This is Free Movement of People, a benefit of a Single Market.

The Go Lean book explains that there is the need for better stewardship of the economic engines on these touristic islands. There are obvious challenges to being on an island – it is what it is! Optimizing island life was an original intent of the Go Lean roadmap. The opening Declaration of Interdependence stresses this (Page 11) with these pronouncements:

iii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our society is that of an archipelago of islands, inherent to this nature is the limitation of terrain and the natural resources there in. We must therefore provide “new guards” and protections to ensure the efficient and effective management of these resources.

iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.

vi. Whereas the finite nature of the landmass of our lands limits the populations and markets of commerce, by extending the bonds of brotherhood to our geographic neighbors allows for extended opportunities and better execution of the kinetics of our economies through trade. This regional focus must foster and promote diverse economic stimuli.

The Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for regional tourism promotion and administration. Consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15380	Industrial Reboot – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Offering a Glimpse
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15378	Industrial Reboot – Regional Tourism 2.0 – Middle Markets Targets
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15376	Industrial Reboot – Culture 101 – Tourism & Culture “Together”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15374	Industrial Reboot – Lottery 101 – A local Raffle could be Win-Win!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15059	Regional Tourism Coordination – No Longer Optional
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14989	Regional Tourism Plan: Attract more Snowbirds
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14767	The Need for Better Stewardship for Caribbean Air Travel
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13700	Increasing Tourism Market Share
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12668	Lessons from Colorado: Common Sense of Eco-Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11224	Loose Lips Sink Ships – The Dangers to Tourism from Hate Speech
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	What’s Next for Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5307	Being On Guard for Violent Threats to Tourists
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5210	Cruise Ship Commerce – Getting Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2750	Disney World – A Role Model for Touristic Self-Governing Entities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2571	Preparing for the Sharing Economy –vs- Hotel Rooms
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235	Tourism’s Changing Profile

The Caribbean has a problem. So many of our people flee their beloved homelands. The reasons they leave are defined as both “push” and “pull”. Pull refers to the perception that there are better economic opportunities abroad, so our citizens are lured or pulled to make a living elsewhere.

The reasons people leave is not just because “they are pulled”. Sometimes, they are pushed as well. This refers to our people fleeing in search of refuge. Economic refuge is perhaps the largest reasons why our citizens have abandoned their beloved homelands – a 70 percent brain drain rate has been reported among the professional classes. Since the economics of the region is principally based on tourism, we understand this cause-and-effect. Yes, for a primary industry, we sure do have a lot of defects in our business model. We have a “divided house” and the divisions are evident and obvious.

We must do better! We must start by working together … with our fellow Caribbean neighbors. We must collaborate and cooperate, not just compete. This is our only hope for future survival. Plus, we have role models in history to emulate; (US Civil War & Post-WWII Europe).

So we must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines so as to elevate our tourism product. The simple functions of a regional tourist packages/customs clearance is not “a bridge too far”. Yes, we can!

This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. These practical measures are conceivable, believable and achievable.

All Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – are urged to lean-in to this roadmap for change … and empowerment. We can make our region a better place to live work and play. 🙂

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

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

——————–

Appendix VIDEO – Island Hopping the Caribbean Islands: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao Adventures – https://youtu.be/erlk8h4txV8

Marko Roth // World Traveller
Published on Jul 8, 2016 – Explore the mind blowing beauty of the Caribbean! The crystal clear waters with dolphins and turtles, the island hopping to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao in small airplanes and the friendly locals made our time in the Caribbean worthwhile. We went scuba diving with dolphins, went sailing in the blue ocean and explored stunning caves. Read the full story on http://www.markoroth.com/caribbean-ab…

Check out all the details of our adventure on http://www.forthatmoment.de/2016/04/2…

Category: Travel & Events

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“Profiting” from Hurricanes – ENCORE

Posted on June 6, 2018 in Economics, Government, Industries

If only there was a way to make money on the hurricane season …

… there is.

Its called reinsurance sidecars – where investors buy-in to the risks and returns of insurance premiums.

Yes, we can …

This was detailed in a previous blog-commentary from the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean. As we embark on the Hurricane Season 2018, it is important to remember that there is a better way – a Way Forward – to optimize Caribbean life. Let’s Encore that blog from October 13, 2017 here-now:

——————

Go Lean Commentary – Funding Caribbean Risk

A penny saved is … a penny.

This is not exactly how the expression goes. It is supposed to refer to the good habit of “saving money”, which is a positive community ethos – underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices. “Saving money” is a practice that the stewards of any society should advocate for its people. It’s a simple formula: Earn money; spend some; save some!

This is easier said than done. A practice of saving money – for a rainy day or any catastrophe – takes discipline, the discipline not to spend. One tactic is to pay yourself first! Before paying other overhead expenses, the priority would be to set aside monies in a savings program or some insurance program. Yes, an insurance strategy could be even smarter for rainy days or catastrophes; it allows the hedging of risks by leveraging across a wider pool; more people – savers – put-in and only a few … or just one withdraws. This is also the approach of the thoughtful Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Fund (CCRIF).

It is very sad when communities are not able to save or insure a “Rainy Day” fund for when it rains, especially in the tropical region where it doesn’t just rain, but pours and storms.

What is sadder is when the heavy-lifting of “savings” or insurance is done, but the dollar amount is not enough; because a “penny saved is only just a penny”.

This is the Caribbean dilemma, today. We have just experienced 2 devastating hurricanes – Irma and Maria – that have wreaked havoc on our region. We now need to tap the “Rainy Day” fund and frankly, it is simply not enough!

See the actuality of this dilemma in the news article here and the related VIDEO on CCRIF:

Title: CCRIF to make payouts to countries affected by Hurricane Irma

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF SPC) will be making payouts totaling over US$15 million to three Caribbean countries affected by Hurricane Irma earlier this week.

“The CCRIF board and team offer condolences for the loss of life and hope these funds will provide some assistance. We stand ready to support the Government and people of these CCRIF countries as they recover from the effects of this devastating hurricane,” said CCRIF chief executive officer, Isaac Anthony.

Payments totaling US$15.2 million
The CCRIF plans to pay US$6.7 million to Antigua and Barbuda, US$6.5 million to Anguilla and US$2.2 million to St. Kitts-Nevis.

The storm has been blamed for at least 10 deaths and millions of dollars in property damages as it made its way through the Lesser Antilles this week.

In the case of Barbuda, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has ordered an immediate evacuation of some 1,800 people on the island. The government has also announced a state of emergency.

“Nothing is functional in Barbuda,” Browne said, adding that he has given instructions that ‘every single soul must be taken out of Barbuda”.

Verifying payouts
The CCRIF is verifying the payout calculations and is in discussion with the three governments about arrangements for the transfer of these funds. The transfer will be completed within 14 days after the storm, as mandated by CCRIF’s operational guidelines.

“Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis also have Excess Rainfall (XSR) policies and CCRIF is assessing if these policies were triggered by the rains from Hurricane Irma, which may possibly result in a second payout under those policies. The assessment under the XSR policies will be determined in the next few days,” the CCRIF added.

Segregated portfolio company
The CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall in the Caribbean and, since 2015, Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered.

Since its inception in 2007, the facility has made 22 payouts for hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall to 10-member governments totaling approximately US$69 million.

It said the new payments will bring the total payouts to approximately US$85 million. Last year CCRIF made payouts totaling US$29 million to four countries after Hurricane Matthew.

Source: Posted September 9, 2017; retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/caribbean-breaking-news-featured/ccrif-make-payouts-countries-affected-hurricane-irma/

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VIDEO – WorldBank CCRIF Caribbean Gold – https://youtu.be/IlZ56ON9KnI

CCRIF SPC

Published on Feb 28, 2017 – Working towards sovereign risk protection in the Caribbean and Central America.

We now know what CCRIF is; how it works; and who can engage this program in terms of investors and beneficiaries; see more encyclopedic details in the Appendix A below. But …

… it is the assessment of this commentary that CCRIF is flawed and inadequate for the Caribbean’s needs.

The CCRIF is designed for 1-in-15 year hurricane (Source: http://www.ccrif.org/content/rtfs-faqs). Truth be told, thanks to Climate Change we are seeing storms yearly.
There is a catastrophic trigger – complicated formula – which generates a “measly” payout for a hurricane or earthquake.
This is a sovereign fund only and the trigger level is dependent on the coverage purchased by individual countries.
The pool is too small. Member governments may purchase coverage which triggers for a ‘one-in-15-year’ hurricane and a ‘one-in-20-year’ earthquake, with maximum coverage of US$100M available for each peril. The cost of coverage is a direct function of the amount of risk being transferred, ensuring no cross-subsidisation of premiums and a level playing field for all participants.

This fund is “too little, too late” for what the region needs. But like all other Caribbean integration (CariCom) efforts, it is a good start! Still after 50 years of autonomous rule, the expectation is not just for a start, it is for solutions.

While the habit of “saving” or paying for insurance is a best-practice, the financial amount is important for the subjective assessment of success. The foregoing news article relates that $15.2 million will be paid-out to the affected countries. But this amount is so small, too small! Consider just for Hurricane Irma alone, the estimated damage amount has been tabulated at $62.87 billion. While $50 Billion of that amount relates to the US Mainland, the rest is the Caribbean. So the Caribbean’s share is $12.9 Billion; – see Chart here:

On the other hand. Hurricane Maria, has estimates for damages at $51.2 billion. None of that amount relates to the US Mainland, the amount is all Caribbean, considering Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; see Chart here:

An immediate result of these storms on the Caribbean will probably be the defection of masses of people from the region. As of this date – October 12, 2017 – Puerto Rico is still not relieved nor recovered from Hurricane Maria. In fact 84% of the island still does not have power. Since Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they have freedom of movement from the island to the US Mainland. In addition, many of the other Caribbean islands will also suffer abandonment as the Diaspora is large in North America and Europe; so bonafide family connections will allow for their emigration. Expect more societal abandonment in the region!

The quest of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – is to lower the abandonment rates of our Caribbean citizens fleeing the homeland. Our quest is conceivable, believable and achievable. But the status quo of the Caribbean Catastrophe Insurance Funds is inadequate; it must improve. It must reform and transform.

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

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a Homeland Security and Emergency Management 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 book 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.

Way Forward
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, despite the reality and risks of natural disasters. Accepting that the CCRIF is a government-member-state solution, the Go Lean book proposes a supplement of private solutions, instruments facilitated by the region’s Capital Markets – think the Caribbean version of Wall Street. The Go Lean book proposal is for region-wide (all 30 member-states; 4 language groups) private insurance companies and Re-insurance Side-cars traded on the Capital Markets.

Re-insurance Side-cars is a derivative product – see Appendix B below.

Consider these sample references to Re-insurance Side-cars in the book:

Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Agency There is also an economic/financial scope for this department. As the effort for a comprehensive property-casualty fund to cover the entire Caribbean region will also be coordinated by this agency. The classic solution is a large pool of premium payers and claims filed by the affected area. Beyond this model, there are also advanced products like re-issuance side-cars for market assimilation. The public can then invest and profit from the threat/realization of regional risks. This derivative product is a bet, a gamble, but in the end, the result is an insurance fund of last resort, much like the Joint Underwriters Agency (JUA) in Florida.	Page 76
Implementation – 10 Ways to Pay for Change #8 Homeland Security – *Hurricane Insurance Fund* The risk pool for a 42-million population is so much lower than each member-state’s sole mitigation efforts. The CU will establish (contract with a service provider) reinsurance funds (& sidecars) from Day One, and glean the excess premiums-over-claims as profit.	Page 101
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing #7 Hurricane Risk Reinsurance Fund This fund fits the Emergency Management objectives of rebuilding and restoring after disasters. This is similar to Florida’s Joint Underwriters Association but instead regulated at the CU so as to maximize the premium pool.	Page 161
Advocacy – 10 Revenue Sources #9 Natural Disaster Insurance Fund The CU’s Emergency Management Agency will maintain a regional reinsurance fund to offset the casualty coverage for insurance carriers in the region. The difference between premiums and claims constitute revenues for the CU.	Page 172
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Public Works #10 Capital Markets A Single Market and currency union will allow for the emergence of viable capital markets for stocks and bonds (public and private), thereby creating the economic engine to fuel growth and development. This forges financial products for “pre” disaster project funding (drainage, levies, dykes, sea walls) and post disaster recovery (reinsurance sidecars).	Page 175
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters #7 JUA-style Insurance Fund The fiduciary management of premiums and claims to allow the immediate response for reconstruction after disasters. These financial services, sidecars traded in markets can be direct or indirect as in reinsurance or insurer-of-last-resort.	Page 184
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve for Emergency Management #8 Casualty Insurance Plans – Reinsurance “Sidecars” There is also a financial battlefield for Emergency Management. Reinsurance “sidecars” allow investment bonds to be issued in the financial marketplaces to raise casualty insurance capital. The differences between premiums and claims (plus reserves) equal the profit to be shared with investors. The end result should be an insurance fund of last resort.	Page 196
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry #10 Homeowners Casualty Insurance Pre-Fab-ulous houses will be built with the structural integrity to withstand typical tropical storms/hurricanes. The CU will facilitate the Property Casualty insurance industry by offering Reinsurance sidecar options on the capital markets.	Page 207
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Improve Fisheries #7 Marine Financing There is also a financial element to facilitating the Fisheries industry. Most fishing vessels require financing and insurance products. These areas have gotten more challenging with “climate change” and the higher propensity of hurricanes. The CU will adopt advanced financial products for the region’s capital-securities markets (i.e. Reinsurance sidecars), to offer the prospects of risk-and-reward to investors, thus inviting more capital to the fisheries marketplace.	Page 210
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Help the Middle Class Prepare for Healthcare Realities While a Middle Class family may obtain a degree of financial security, just one catastrophic illness or injury can wipe out a family’s fortunes overnight. This is the proper place for insurance programs, and reinsurance to hedge the risk for carriers. The CU will proactively institute the measures (industry) to protect Middle Class prospects from this real threat.	Page 223
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact The Guianas #4 Disaster Planning, Preparation & Response Hurricanes are not as dire a threat for The Guianas as the Caribbean islands, yet still there are many natural disasters for this region to contend with, namely floods and earthquakes. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond, with Public Works initiatives (dams, reservoirs) and a professional Emergency Management Agency to recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by regional capital markets to restore economic engines in these Guiana states.	Page 241
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Belize #7 Disaster Planning, Preparation & Response Mother Nature, and the reality of hurricanes, has been a source of contention in Belize’s history. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond with a professional Emergency Management Agency and recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by capital markets so as to restore economic engines in Belize.	Page 243
Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact US Territories Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact British Territories Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact Dutch Territories Advocacy – 10 Ways to Impact French Territories #4 Disaster Preparation & Response Mother Nature, and the reality of hurricanes, plays no favorites for one island versus another due to political alliance. The CU will better plan-prepare-respond, with a professional Emergency Management Agency and recover with elite financial products (i.e. reinsurance sidecars) powered by regional capital markets to quickly restore economic engines in the islands.	Page 244 Page 245 Page 246 Page 247

As an individual or community, to devote a lot of time, talent and treasury to the practice of saving for a rainy-day fund is a positive ethos. To only get a measly payoff – after all that effort – is a negative. The manifestation of this measly scenario calls into question the whole viability of the Caribbean “pooled” risk strategy.

We must do better! Solutions abound!

Engaging a bigger-better regional risk pool, makes our quest realistic: a better homeland to live, work and play. We urge all Caribbean stakeholders – governments and citizens alike – to lean-in for the empowerments described here in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. 🙂

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.

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Appendix A – Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Segregated Portfolio Company (CCRIF SPC)

[This CCRIF SPC] is an insurance company headquartered in the Cayman Islands.^[1] The sixteen original member-countries of CCRIF included participants in CARICOM, and the membership of the Board of Directors is selected by CARICOM and by the Caribbean Development Bank.^[2]

Founded in 2007,^[3] CCRIF is the first multi-country risk pool in the world, and was the first insurance instrument to successfully develop parametric policies backed by both traditional and capital markets.^[4] These parametric polices release funds based upon factors of a calamity such as rainfall or wind speed, which can speed up the payout of policies rather than after damages are assessed. Unused funds are kept as reserves for the CCRIF. The fund can also draw upon $140 million in funds underwritten by reinsurance.^[5]

Other regions have since setup similar government disaster instance including in the African Union and the Pacific Islands Forum.^[5]

Source: Retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Catastrophe_Risk_Insurance_Facility_Segregated_Portfolio_Company

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Appendix B – Reinsurance sidecars

Reinsurance sidecars, conventionally referred to as “sidecars”, are financial structures that are created to allow investors to take on the risk and return of a group of insurance policies (a “book of business”) written by an insurer or reinsurer (henceforth re/insurer) and earn the risk and return that arises from that business. A re/insurer will only pay (“cede”) the premiums associated with a book of business to such an entity if the investors place sufficient funds in the vehicle to ensure that it can meet claims if they arise. Typically, the liability of investors is limited to these funds. These structures have become quite prominent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a vehicle for re/insurers to add risk-bearing capacity, and for investors to participate in the potential profits resulting from sharp price increases in re/insurance over the four quarters following Katrina. An earlier and smaller generation of sidecars were created after 9/11 for the same purpose. …

Market growth following 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina
In the years following 9-11, the idea of raising funds from capital markets investors in addition to re/insurers to support quota-shares arose and a handful of such ventures were consummated (Olympus, DaVinci, Rockridge). These were the first true sidecars, and were a natural outgrowth of the development of re/insurance as an asset class in the form of catastrophe bonds.

Following Hurricane Katrina, the sidecar idea became very prominent among investors because it was seen as a way to participate in the risk/return of the higher-priced (“hard”) reinsurance market without investing in either existing reinsurers (who might have liabilities from the past that would undermine returns) or new reinsurers (“newcos” that would have a lengthy and expensive “ramp up” period).

Source: Retrieved October 13, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_sidecar

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First Steps – CariCom: One-Man-One-Vote Defects

Posted on January 21, 2018 in Government, Implementation

Go Lean Commentary

Despite all the legal jargon, the concept of precedence* simply means that someone else has already dealt with an issue.

Think of big issues:

There is no need to open a new debate on these; there is already a well-documented, well-established precedence. Wrong is wrong!

There is need to re-establish precedence once again, in terms of government representation.

There is also a proposed new regime for the 30 member-states that constitute the Caribbean; 15 of these member are Full Members of the Caribbean Community (CariCom). While 5 states are Associate Members and 9 are Observers. The CariCom construct is therefore the best starting point for any regional integration.

This is the best First Step …

… but there is a defect with this structure in terms of government representation, CariCom is structured for One-Man/State-One-Vote. In the past such a structure has been found wanting! We need to learn from those experiences, discussions, debates, disagreements and resolutions; we need to consider the precedence. This precedent consideration comes from the early days of the United States of America.

After the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and until the enactment of the Constitution in 1789, there was a temporary period of 13 years under the Articles of Confederacy. During that structure, each state (former colony) was afforded 1 vote in Congress. So the BIG state of Virginia yielded the same political power as the small state of Delaware. This was a defect! The correction came with the adoption of the Connecticut Compromise into the Constitution; this called for the adoption of a bicameral legislature (2 chambers): Upper House & Lower House. See the full details in the Appendix Reference below.

There are lessons from this precedence for the Caribbean to learn and apply today. There are BIG population states – think Cuba or Haiti with more that 10 million people – and small member-states, think St Barthélemy, St Kitts and St Martin, all with less than 45,000 people. There is no way that all 30 member states can be expected to wield the same political power with One-Man-One-Vote suffrage. This is a clear-and-present defect!

This commentary is Part 4 of a 6-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean in consideration of the First Steps for instituting a new regime in governance for the Caribbean homeland. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

First Steps: EU – Free European Money – To Start at Top
First Steps: UK – Dignified and Efficient
First Steps: US – Congressional Interstate Compacts – No Vote; No Voice
First Steps: CariCom – One-Man-One-Vote Defects
First Steps: Deputize ‘Me’!
First Steps: A Powerful C.P.U.

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the Caribbean can finally get started with adapting the organizational structures to optimize the region’s societal engines. The Caribbean has the 30 member-states, 4 languages and 5 different colonial legacies; there are many different systems of governance. Any consideration for leadership in the region must weigh the different schemes in the balance and choose an optimal structure. Forging change involves starting from the Top (leaders) and starting from the Bottom (citizens) to assimilate Caribbean society. This is how to make the region better places to live, work and play.

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 30 member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create new jobs; (planning 2.2 million).
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.

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.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions for a Way Forward, a guide 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 implementation of the roadmap is the CU Legislature, with a design to neutralize the defects of a suffrage scheme. See this point here from the book Page 91:

The CU Legislative Branch represents the Caribbean Parliament; it is divided between two chambers: Upper House (Senate) and Lower House (House of Assembly). Despite their title, both houses have equal power.

Why is there the need for 2 houses? Simple; this mitigates the reasons for failure from previous Caribbean integration efforts. The West Indies Federation of 1958 – 1962 was criticized for imbalanced representation: the larger states had just as much representation in the Federation as the smaller state. For the CU, size does matter. But minority rights must be protected as well. The Senate allows for a 1-man-1-vote structure (actually 2 seats per state), while the House is represented proportionally by population. This model follows the best practices of many other successful democracies.

There will undoubtedly be differences in legislation originated from both chambers. So the constitution should allow for differences to be settled in a Compromise Conference; then the final law re-validated by the respective chambers.

In addition, there is the advocacy in the book (Page 135) entitled “10 Lessons Learned from the West Indies Federation“, where it details the many defects of the before-CariCom regional construct. Yes, the Caribbean has its own precedence to consider … and learn from. See this chart here of the bicameral distribution:

Forging change in the Caribbean territories means starting at the Top (leaders) and starting at the Bottom (citizens). But there must be an equitable distribution among the leaders from the member-state – size does matter.

The Action Plan in this new Caribbean regime, the Way Forward, is that Caribbean people would determine the Caribbean destiny. See how this governance theme has been detailed in other blog-commentaries over the years; see sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13749	New Caribbean Regime: Assembling the Region’s Organizations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13736	Past Failures for Caribbean Governing Integration
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13251	Funding Caribbean Risk
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10309	Not Satisfied with Representation? Then Consider Secession!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10043	Integration Plan for Greater Caribbean Prosperity
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8813	Lessons from China – Size Does Matter
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8351	A Lesson in Economic Fallacies – Independence: Hype or Hope
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=326	Model of Scottish Independence Pursuit – Self-Determination

The current regional construct – CariCom – has this suffrage defect of One-Man/State-One-Vote; this is not a design for governing efficiency or popular acceptance. The opening of the Go Lean book stressed that the plan is to avoid the defects of the Caribbean past and be better, do better:

This [Go Lean] movement is not an attempt to re-boot the CariCom, but rather a plan to re-boot the Caribbean. – Page 8

We cannot ignore the past, as it defines who we are, but we do not wish to be shackled to the past either, for then, we miss the future. So we must learn from the past, our experiences and that of other states in similar situations, mount our feet solidly to the ground and then lean-in, to reach for new heights; forward, upward and onward. – Page 3

We urge all member-states – large and small – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap – in fact all Caribbean stakeholders should lean-in – in order to be better, here in the Caribbean, to make our homeland better places 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.

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Footnote * – Precedent

In legal systems based on common law, a precedent, or authority, is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.

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Appendix Reference – Connecticut Compromise

The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise of 1787 or Sherman Compromise) was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman, along with proportional representation of the states in the lower house, but required the upper house to be weighted equally between the states. Each state would have two representatives in the Upper House.

Context
On May 29, 1787, Edmund Randolph of the Virginia delegation proposed the creation of a bicameral legislature. Under his proposal, membership in both houses would be allocated to each state proportional to its population; however, candidates for the lower house would be nominated and elected by the people of each state. This proposal allowed fairness and equality to the people. Candidates for the upper house would be nominated by the state legislatures of each state and then elected by the members of the lower house. This proposal was known as the Virginia Plan.

Less populous states like Delaware were afraid that such an arrangement would result in their voices and interests being drowned out by the larger states. Many delegates also felt that the Convention did not have the authority to completely scrap the Articles of Confederation,^[1] as the Virginia Plan would have.^[2] In response, on June 15, 1787, William Paterson of the New Jersey delegation proposed a legislature consisting of a single house. Each state was to have equal representation in this body, regardless of population. The New Jersey Plan, as it was called, would have left the Articles of Confederation in place, but would have amended them to somewhat increase Congress’s powers.^[3]

At the time of the convention, the South was growing more quickly than the North, and Southern states had the most extensive Western claims. South Carolina, North Carolina, and the State of Georgia were small in the 1780s, but they expected growth, and thus favored proportional representation. New York State was one of the largest states at the time, but two of its three representatives (Alexander Hamilton being the exception) supported an equal representation per state, as part of their desire to see maximum autonomy for the states. (The two representatives other than Hamilton had left the convention before the representation issue was resolved, leaving Hamilton, and New York State, without a vote.)

James Madison and Hamilton were two of the leaders of the proportional representation group. Madison argued that a conspiracy of large states against the small states was unrealistic as the large states were so different from each other. Hamilton argued that the states were artificial entities made up of individuals, and accused small state representatives of wanting power, not liberty (see History of the United States Senate).

For their part, the small state representatives argued that the states were, in fact, of a legally equal status, and that proportional representation would be unfair to their states. Gunning Bedford, Jr. of Delaware notoriously threatened on behalf of the small states, “the small ones w[ould] find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice.”

Elbridge Gerry ridiculed the small states’ claim of sovereignty, saying “that we never were independent States, were not such now, & never could be even on the principles of the Confederation. The States & the advocates for them were intoxicated with the idea of their sovereignty.”^[4]

The Compromise
On June 14, when the Convention was ready to consider the report on the Virginia plan, William Paterson of New Jersey requested an adjournment to allow certain delegations more time to prepare a substitute plan. The request was granted, and, on the next day, Paterson submitted nine resolutions embodying necessary amendments to the Articles of Confederation, which was followed by a vigorous debate. On June 19, the delegates rejected the New Jersey Plan and voted to proceed with a discussion of the Virginia Plan. The small States became increasingly discontented, and some threatened to withdraw. On July 2, the Convention was deadlocked over giving each State an equal vote in the upper house, with five States in the affirmative, five in the negative, and one divided.

The problem was referred to a committee consisting of one delegate from each State to reach a compromise. On July 5, the committee submitted its report, which became the basis for the “Great Compromise” of the Convention. The report recommended that in the upper house each State should have an equal vote and in the lower house, each State should have one representative for every 40,000 inhabitants,^[5] counting slaves as three-fifths of an inhabitant,^[5] and that money bills should originate in the lower house (not subject to amendment by the upper chamber).

After six weeks of turmoil, North Carolina switched its vote to equal representation per state and Massachusetts abstained, and a compromise was reached, being called the “Great Compromise.” In the “Great Compromise,” every state was given equal representation, previously known as the New Jersey Plan, in one house of Congress, and proportional representation, known before as the Virginia Plan, in the other. Because it was considered more responsive to majority sentiment, the House of Representatives was given the power to originate all legislation dealing with the federal budget and revenues/taxation, per the Origination Clause.

Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, both of the Connecticut delegation, created a compromise that, in a sense, blended the Virginia (large-state) and New Jersey (small-state) proposals regarding congressional apportionment. Ultimately, however, its main contribution was in determining the apportionment of the Senate. Sherman sided with the two-house national legislature of the Virginia Plan but proposed “That the proportion of suffrage in the 1st. Branch [house] should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants; and that in the second branch or Senate, each State should have one vote and no more.”^[6] Although Sherman was well liked and respected among the delegates, his plan failed at first. It was not until July 23 that representation was finally settled.^[6]

What was ultimately included in the constitution was a modified form of this plan, partly because the larger states disliked it. In committee, Benjamin Franklin modified Sherman’s proposal to make it more acceptable to the larger states. He added the requirement that revenue bills originate in the house.

The final vote on the Connecticut Compromise on July 16th left the Senate looking to the Confederation Congress. In the preceding weeks of debate, James Madison of Virginia, Rufus King of New York, and Gouverneur Morris of New York each vigorously opposed the compromise for this reason.^[7] For the nationalists, the Convention’s vote for the compromise was a stunning defeat. However, on July 23, they found a way to salvage their vision of an elite, independent Senate. Just before most of the convention’s work was referred to the Committee of Detail, Gouverneur Morris and Rufus King moved that state’s members in the Senate be given individual votes, rather than voting en bloc, as they had in the Confederation Congress. Then Oliver Ellsworth, a leading proponent of the Connecticut Compromise, supported their motion, and the Convention adopted the Compromise.^[8]Since the Convention had early acquiesced in the Virginia Plan’s proposal that senators have long terms, restoring that Plan’s vision of individually powerful senators stopped the Senate from becoming a strong safeguard of federalism. State governments lost their direct say in Congress’s decisions to make national laws. As the personally influential senators received terms much longer than the state legislators who elected them, they became substantially independent. The compromise continued to serve the self-interests of small-state political leaders, who were assured of access to more seats in the Senate than they might otherwise have obtained.^[9]

Aftermath
Senate representation was explicitly protected in Article Five of the United States Constitution:

…no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.^[10]

…

Source: Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia – retrieved January 21, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Compromise

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Failure to Launch – Governance: Assembling the Region’s Organizations

Posted on December 17, 2017 in Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26^th US President

This is such illustrative language: Imagining a “stick”. It denotes the idea of negotiating peacefully, simultaneously threatening with the “big stick”, or the strength of the military. Now there is another imagery of building material and governing efficiency:

Iron, or “Big Iron” to be exact. Iron is also used to refer to something sturdy, strong and tough. But since the ancient Western Days – see Appendix VIDEO below – the term is said to be a slang, referring to a handgun. This Big Iron term has now come into fashion to apply to very large, expensive and extremely fast computers, or more so effective computer server farms that have resilient steel stands. – Technopedia. See full reference in Appendix below.

There is the need to transform the societal engines – economics, security and governance – of the Caribbean. The approach of “speaking softly and carrying a Big Stick” would be effective in forcing compliance among the regional stakeholders. The President Roosevelt application – in the foregoing photo – was clearly addressing security dynamics, but the same approach can apply to the other societal engines:

Economics – Imagine a big corporate entity with the need for a large work force, the decision-making of where to locate a plant would cause a lot of bidding among different communities. That company would be wielding a Big Stick.
Governance – There is also an application in governance; having a Big Stick or Big Iron can force compliance among the governing entities. Imagine large computer systems for e-Government applications …

This consideration is in harmony with the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for change in the region, affecting the economics, security and governing engines. It presents new measures and new empowerments as it introduces the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) for the 30 Caribbean member-states to benefit from a super-national federal government with a lot of integrated solutions. This commentary is 4th of 4 parts, completing the series on the Caribbean’s Failure to Launch integrated solutions to elevate the societal engines in the region. The full series is catalogued as follows:

Failure to Launch – Past Failures for Integration
Failure to Launch – Economics: The Quest for a Single Currency
Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
Failure to Launch – Governance: Assembling the Regional Alphabet Organizations

There are many Alphabet Organizations – listed here and from Page 256 of the Go Lean book – that transcend services to one Caribbean country after another. The Go Lean roadmap (book and accompanying blog-commentaries) calls for assembling them under the same government umbrella – the Trade Federation – and process their operations on the CU e-government systems, the CU‘s Big Iron.

Page 96: This roadmap constitutes the assessment required to forge change in the region. Upon understanding the needs of the Caribbean people and the current organization structures available, this roadmap pursues an assembly of these different institutions and then to supplement them with the creation of new super-national organizations. This approach allows the CU to “stand on the shoulders” of previous efforts and then reach greater heights.

This initial phase entails incorporating all the existing regional organizations (ACS and CariCom) into the umbrella organizations of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation. These organizations include, (but are not limited to) the identified Alphabet Organization this this photo here:

The foregoing disclosed the quest to “stand on the shoulders” of previous efforts; this includes efforts to integrate. This is what the Go Lean book presents, a workable roadmap to integrate efforts from the region and leverage the economies-of-scale of the 30 member-states so as to effect change in all societal engines, and to do so using as much technology as possible. In fact, the roadmap features Launching integrated solutions following 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 CU seeks to “speak softly and carry a Big Iron” by providing the e-Government processing for all of these Alphabet Organizations. There are some basics to this plan to elevate Caribbean society:

Leverage …
Economies-of-scale …
Integration …

These are important consideration for efficient and effective governance; and since in each Caribbean member-state, the government there is the largest employer, better efficiencies – as in computer systems – can improve Caribbean governance and bring real change to society.

With Internet and Communications Technologies, it is easy to link governmental systems from one country to another. (Big companies – i.e. airlines reservation systems – do this all the time).

Why have we fail to even consider this type of integration for our governmental entities in the past?
Too expensive?
So why have we Failed to Launch shared computer systems?

This Failure to Launch integrated e-Government systems across a shared network is now inexcusable!

The subject of e-Government has been a consistent subject for this movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. In a previous commentary, the role and functionality of this Big Iron (unstated) was related:

Among the strategies, tactics and implementations in the Go Lean roadmap, is the deployment of e-Government services, systems and solutions. The Go Lean book explains how this implementation can streamline operations – lean, no heavy bureaucracy – for every level of government: municipal, state and the CU federal level. A type of computing implementation can leverage productivity against a very small level of staffing.

See how a lean structure is portrayed in the book (Page 51):

A lot of office automation and data processing can be provided in-house for member-state governments by [the CU] simply installing / supporting computer mainframe/midrange systems, servers, and client workstations; plus supplementing infrastructural needs like power and mobile communications. The CU’s delivery of ICT [(Internet & Communications Technologies)] systems, e-Government, contact center and in-source services (i.e. property tax systems [and “www.myCaribbean.gov”]) can put the burden on systems continuity at the federal level and not the member-states. (This is the model of Canada with the federal delivery of provincial systems and services – some Provincial / Territorial presence / governance is completely “virtual”).

The Go Lean book presents the plan to deploy many e-Government provisions. There must therefore be an advanced structure of computer systems for Data Processing. This means Data Centers, our Big Iron for the Caribbean. 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 is optimizing the deployment of 6 strategically-located Data Centers. Consider some specific details, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 106 entitled:

10 Trends in Implementing Data Centers

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market The CU treaty unifies the Caribbean region into one single market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby empowering the economic engines in and on behalf of the region. The CU embraces the cutting, “bleeding” edge concepts, systems and methodologies for data centers and computer server farms, as in high density computing, facilitating the maximum computing power with the least amount of space and power. The prerequisite for any serious data center deployment is power…stable, reliable electricity, with primary, secondary and tertiary solutions. The CU roadmap calls for deployment of a regional power grid, with above ground, underground & underwater cabling. Though data centers must launch now, power costs will be expected to decline with the grid. …
2	Fiber-Optics / Pipeline Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. The transparent fiber are made of high quality extruded glass, silica or plastic. The CU as a new Federation can apply a leap-frog approach to implement communication networks without having to contend with older methods or investments. Further the CU will embrace the strategy of installing elaborate pipelines thru out the region, enabling fiber-optics to traverse the network.
3	IP Convergence Internet Protocol (IP) is now ubiquitous for data, voice, and video communications – they all operate on the same type of fiber. This indicates that data centers also function as telecom hubs – central switching offices are now bygones.
4	Cloud Computing The CU will embrace cloud computing for many operational systems, thereby requiring optimal continuous processing. The roadmap calls for citizens to interact with their federal government via web portals, kiosks or phone contact centers.
5	High Availability (HA)
6	Colocation Data Centers A colocation center (colo, or coloc) is a type of data center where equipment space and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers. Colocation facilities provide space, power, cooling, and physical security for the server, storage, and networking equipment of other firms—and connect them to a variety of telecommunications and network service providers—with a minimum of cost and complexity. Colocation has become a popular option for companies as it allows the company to focus its IT staff on the actual work being done, instead of the logistical. Significant benefits of scale (large power and mechanical systems) result in large colocation facilities, typically 50,000 to 100,000 square feet. The CU will assume a role of coloc landlord for member-states, municipalities and NGO’s for their data center needs.
7	[Limestone] Caves as Data Centers
8	Storage Solutions – No need for humans
9	Security Issues Modern data centers require minimal human interaction, therefore physical security tend to be very restrictive. In some firms, even the CEO is not allowed access. The CU will implement biometric systems like fingerprints and iris scanning.
10	Unified Command & Control The data center may be void of humans, but there is still the need for many professional analysis, programmers and engineers. These are normally stationed in command centers to facilitate monitoring and cyber-security functions.

The technology to leverage the governmental administrations of the Caribbean will be available Step One / Day One of the Go Lean roadmap. Though there would be some need for customization and specialty programming. This development effort can be leveraged across the entire region.

Under the Go Lean plan, the expressions of the Caribbean Big Iron would be manifested by systems in government offices, self-serve kiosks, various websites (i.e. www.myCaribbean.gov), Social Media channels and smart phone applications.

These types of e-Government manifestations have been discussed in previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13524	The Future Focus of e-Government Portals
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13466	The Future Focus of e-Learning in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11453	Location Matters, Even in a Virtual World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	Lessons from China – WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7991	Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	e-Commerce Strategies for Tourism Stewardship
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5435	China Internet Policing – Model for Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	How to Re-invent Government in a Digital Image – Book Review
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=459	Plan to Integrate CXC into the CU Trade Federation for e-Learning

Let’s do this Big Iron – deploying advanced computer systems – to facilitate the e-Governmental transformation of our CU Federal government agencies – the Alphabet Orgaanizations, member-state agencies and even Non-Government Organizations!

We can no longer Fail to Launch …

We can “speak softly and carry a Big Iron“.

Our governing efficiencies depend on it.

Also, our economic and security engines can also benefit.

These efficiencies can help to reform and transform Caribbean governments and society in general. We urge all stakeholders to lean-in to this CU/Go Lean roadmap to make the Caribbean 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 – Big Iron

Definition – What does Big Iron mean?

Big iron is a slang word commonly used to describe a very large, expensive and extremely fast computer. It is often used to refer to oversized computers such as Cray’s supercomputer or IBM’s mainframe.

The term big iron originated in the 1970s, when smaller computers known as minicomputers were introduced. To describe larger computers compared to the small minicomputers, the term big iron was coined by users and the industry.

Big iron computers are primarily used by large companies to process massive amounts of data such as bank transactions. They are designed with considerable internal memory, a high aptitude for external storage, top-quality internal engineering, superior technical support, fast throughput input/output and reliability.

Techopedia explains Big Iron

The term is said to be a derivative of the term “iron”; when used as slang, this term refers to a handgun. Iron is also used to refer to something sturdy, strong and tough. The term big iron is frequently applied to highly effective computer ranches and servers that have resilient steel stands.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the market for mainframes, or big iron, was mainly through IBM and companies like General Electric, RCA Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Burroughs Corporation, Control Data Corp., NCR Corp. and UNIVAC. Later servers based on the microcomputer design, or “dumb terminals”, were developed to cut costs and create greater availability for users. The dumb terminal was eventually replaced by the personal computer (PC). Subsequently, big iron was restricted to mostly government and financial institutions.

Source: Retrieved December 17, 2017 from Technopedia: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2157/big-iron

———–

VIDEO – Big Iron- Marty Robbins – https://youtu.be/999RqGZatPs

Published on Mar 28, 2011

All rights belong to their respective owners

Lyrics:

To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn’t have too much to say,
No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip
The stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip,
Big iron on his hip …

Lyrics retrieved December 17, 2017 from: https://genius.com/Marty-robbins-big-iron-lyrics

Category: Music
License: Standard YouTube License
Music: “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

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Failure to Launch: Past Failures for Integration

Posted on December 9, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

“3 Generations of imbeciles are enough” – Justice of US Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes (1927)

“3 Generations of imbecilic governance is enough” – Summary from 2013 Go Lean…Caribbean Book (Page 3)

It has been that long!

According to Dictionary.com, a generation is “the term of years, roughly 30 among human beings, accepted as the average period between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring”. Integration is so important, yet there have been 3 generations of failure for integration-optimization efforts – explored herewith – in the Caribbean region:

West Indies Federation / Netherlands Antilles – 1950’s – Failed
CariCom – 1970’s – Failing
Caribbean Single Market & Economy – 2000’s – Failed

Enough failing already! Though no efforts have been made to integrate the Spanish-speaking nor French-speaking territories; historically these lands were governed as “overseas” territories with foreign masters (for planning and control).

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for a Single Market, the introduction and implementation of a technocratic inter-government agency to shepherd the elevation of the region’s societal engines: economics, security and governance. This agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), and is designed to benefit all 30 member-states for all 4 language groups. This Go Lean/CU roadmap is intended to be a deviation from the past record of failures. The book states (Page 3):

There have been some efforts at regional integration, but only for [2] individual language groups.

The Caribbean Union is the next evolution from the structured economic integration that became the Caribbean Community [(CariCom)], but now for all neighbors. The globally accepted 7 degrees of economic integration, which spurned CariCom, are defined as:

Preferential trading area

Free trade area, Monetary union

Customs union, Common market

Economic union, Customs and monetary union

Economic and monetary union

Fiscal union

Complete economic integration

CariCom was enacted in 1973 as Stage 3; but Stage 4 was ratified in 2001 and branded the Caribbean Single Market & Economy. This effort sputtered – see Anecdote # 1 [on Page 15]. The CU is a new manifestation of Stage 4; a graduation for CariCom.

This Go Lean/CU roadmap seeks to end the pattern of failure from these integration mis-steps of the past. This commentary opens a series on the Caribbean’s Failure to Launch workable solutions for the defects and deficiencies in our regional society; this is Part 1 of 4 on this subject. The full series is catalogued as follows:

Failure to Launch – Past Failures for Integration
Failure to Launch – Economics: Caribbean Central Bank and the Quest for a Single Currency
Failure to Launch – Security: Caribbean Basin Security Dreams
Failure to Launch – Governance: Assembling the Regional Alphabet Organizations

The Go Lean book defines failure in many different dimensions of relativity. It identifies the extreme of Failing-States, all the way down to the simple assessment: “All is not well”. But in general, there is the consensus that the Caribbean region is in crisis (Page 8) and declares that this “crisis would be a terrible thing to waste”.

The roadmap therefore has these 3 prime directives to assuage this crisis status:

Optimization of the economic engines – including a Single Currency – 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 against domestic and foreign threats.
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 forge a better future by learning lessons from past failures in regional integration movements. One advocacy embedded in the book is the specific lessons-learned from the previous Anglophone West Indies Federation. Consider the Appendix VIDEO below and these excerpts-headlines from Page 135 with this title, (which gleans analysis based on the history in the Appendix S and Appendix S1, starting on Page 301):

10 Lessons Learned from the West Indies Federation

1	WI Federation Quest for Independence replaced with CU Quest for Interdependence After 50 years of reflection (see Appendix S1 #1 thru #10), it is conclusive that the West Indies (WI) Federation strived more for independence than for governmental efficiency. It is also obvious that the instincts of the British Federation planners were right, that the common territories needed to integrate to deploy common solutions (Appendix S). As such, the CU advocates for “interdependence” for the Caribbean countries – the challenges of the region transcends any alignment to the European legacies, so the CU advocates that the former British colonies need to confederate with Dutch, French and Spanish former colonies and current American Territories. The CU will represent a population base of 42 million, with the largest population centers concentrated in the Spanish and French states, not Jamaica and Trinidad. However, the CU aggregation of $800 Billion in GDP (based on 2010 figures) represents a larger contribution (GDP per capita) from the English speaking countries.
2	Federal Government versus Provincial Governments The CU advocates a separation of powers between Federal Departments and the member-states administrations. The CU will avail itself of the “economies of scale” by deploying systems across the entire region designed for efficient and effective governance. Consider for example, implementing revenue systems for property assessments/collections. The CU will in-source the costs for the systems & people, while maximizing the return to State treasuries – Appendix S1 #2. The CU will also generate its own revenue streams, from regional-wide deployments (broadcast rights, lotteries, etc).
3	Jamaican Dynamic Among the Caribbean nations, Haiti is highest on the 2012 Failed State Index (#7), Jamaica is among the next set of Caribbean countries at #119, just slightly behind South Africa (#115) and Albania (#118). Obviously, the nation-building needs of Jamaica has been truncated, plus the country’s brain drain is worst in the region with almost a matching population living abroad in a Diaspora as opposed to residing in and contributing to the local economy. The CU will ensure better representation of larger populated states by employing a bicameral legislative branch: while the Senate is “one-man-one-vote” (2 Senators per state), the lower house has balanced representation based on population. Geographically, Jamaica is not the furthest west (Belize), nor south (Aruba) in the region. The Capitol for the CU is slated for a Federal District on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic – See Appendix S1 # 3.
4	Trinidad Dynamic Trinidad and Tobago has thrived, somewhat, as an independent nation, they have one of the highest per-capita GDP in the region and have just recently been upgraded from “developing” status. (They are the only oil-producing country in the region; but their oil reserves are due to be depleted in the next decade). Yet, the country has a huge gulf between the “haves-and-have-nots”, to the point that emigration continues to be a major deterrent to their nation-building efforts. Trinidad is #122 on the Failed State Index – See Appendix S1 # 4.
5	Lack of Local Popular Support (See Parallel at Appendix S1 #5) The CU empowers the economic engines, societal institutions and cultural provisions of the region to promote growth and development in the member-states. These efforts will be complemented with the invitation to repatriate for the Caribbean Diaspora. So the local markets will be the target of promotional campaigns and public media outreach.
6	Smaller Countries The smaller countries get the greatest benefit of the CU initiative as they get to leverage the size of the Caribbean Single Market to their advantage. They will enjoy the strength of the currency union, access to capital markets and the deployment of economic engines in the local market. The CU will assimilate the Eastern Caribbean Federation and Monetary Union into the governmental delivery structure – See Appendix S1 # 6.
7	Location of the Capitol Even though the CU will embrace e-Government delivery methods (data centers, call centers and web sites), the Trade Federation will still institute physical edifices (Post Offices, Administrative Centers, Libraries, Museums). There will be an actual Capitol. The CU capital is slated for a Federal District on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is a center-“ish” site considering north: Bermuda & Bahamas; west: Belize & Cuba; south: Guyana & Suriname).
8	University of the West Indies
9	West Indies Regiment The CU is also a security pact that will empower a Homeland Security Department. The State Militia and Naval Operations, derivatives of the West Indies Regiment, will enter a new phase of existence with the facilitation of an ultra-modern defense unit with drones, attack helicopters, underwater submersibles and intelligence gathering and analysis.
10	Relationship with Canada

The West Indies Federation was an Anglophone effort only! Though it sought the goal of “Step 7 – Complete Economic Integration“, as specified in the foregoing introduction, it failed miserably here. (This is the disposition of the United States of America, but unfortunately, due to societal defects of territorial status, this is not the disposition of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.)

So these developments refer to the English and American territories; this is not the full Caribbean. There are other legacies …

The Go Lean book also details effort in the Dutch Caribbean, or the Netherland Antilles. This excerpt – on Integration and Secessions – is derived from Page 16 of the book:

Anecdote # 2: Dutch Caribbean – Integration & Secessions

This Dutch Caribbean has had a varied history of integration and secession events. The Netherlands Antilles also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Although the country has now been dissolved, all of its constituent islands remain part of the kingdom under a different legal status and the term is still used to refer to these Dutch Caribbean islands ^[a].

The Netherlands Antilles consisted of two island groups. The ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are located just off the Venezuelan coast. The SSS islands of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are in the Leeward Islands southeast of the Virgin Islands near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles. The Dutch colonized these islands in the 17th century, (at one point, Anguilla, Tobago, the British Virgin Islands, and St. Croix of the US Virgin Islands had also been Dutch), and united them in the new constituent state of the Netherlands Antilles in December 1954. Wanting to shed the appearance of any colonial shackles, the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, and the Netherlands acceded as equal member-countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With this move, the United Nations deemed decolonization of the Dutch Caribbean territory complete and removed it from the UN’s official List of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Suriname sought and was granted independence in 1975, but continued their quest for regional integration. Today, they are a member of CariCom and are considered a Caribbean country with their trade and cultural links with the Caribbean nations.

The arrangement of the integrated Netherlands Antilles proved to be an unhappy one. The idea never enjoyed the full support of all islands, and political relations between islands were often strained. Geographically, the ABC Islands and the Leeward (SSS) Islands lie almost 1,000 kilometers apart. Culturally, the ABC Islands have deep connections with the South American mainland, especially Venezuela, and its population speaks a Portuguese-Dutch Creole language called Papiamento; the Leeward SSS islands, on the other hand, are part of the English-speaking Caribbean.

When the new constitutional relationship between the Netherlands and its Caribbean colonies was enshrined in the Kingdom Charter of 1954, the colonial administrative division of the Netherlands Antilles grouped all six Caribbean islands together under one administration. Despite the fact that Aruba calls for secession from the Netherlands Antilles originated as far back as the 1930s [b], the governments of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles did everything in their power to keep the six islands together.

First, Aruba became a separate state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986. Then between June 2000 and April 2005, each remaining island of the Netherlands Antilles had a new referendum on its future status. The four options that could be voted on were the following:

• closer ties with the Netherlands

• remaining within the Netherlands Antilles

• autonomy as a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (status aparte)

• independence

Of the five islands, Sint Maarten and Curaçao voted for status aparte, Saba and Bonaire voted for closer ties to the Netherlands, and Sint Eustatius voted to stay within the Netherlands Antilles.

In November 2005, a negotiation began between the governments of the Netherlands, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and each island in the Netherlands Antilles. The end results were autonomy status for Curaçao and Sint Maarten, as previously enacted by Aruba, plus a new status for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (BES) making these islands special municipalities.

In November 2006, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were granted an agreement for the autonomy they sought. After some political maneuvering and a subsequent referendum, the acts of parliament integrating the “BES” islands into the Kingdom of the Netherlands were given royal assent in May 2010. After ratification by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba, this Kingdom act amending the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands with regard to the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles was signed off by the three countries (Netherlands, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles) in September 2010.

The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit for interdependence, not autonomy – some problems are just too big for any one member-state to tackle alone. 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.

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.

In the past, the optimization of regional integration has been so elusive for Caribbean people. Our Failure to Launch has been a sad reality, despite the accepted wisdom that …

… only when a people come together to address issues that affect them collectively can they ever hope to resolve their problems. – Go Lean book Page 135.

Too bad … all our past efforts – despite limited to just one language – have failed. Integration is still a good idea, a Big Idea!

The CU is a big idea for the Caribbean … allowing for the unification of the region into one [a Single] Market of 42 million people [from all 30 countries & territories]. This creates the world’s 29th largest economy, based on 2010 figures. … After 10 years the CU’s GDP should double and rank among the Top 20 or G20 nations. – Page 127.

Let’s do this! The benefits from this Go Lean roadmap are too alluring to ignore. We can learn from failure; we can forge success. We can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

————-

Appendix VIDEO – West Indies Federation – https://youtu.be/wfoWBqUMAls

Audiopedia
Published on Jan 6, 2016 – The West Indies Federation, also known as the Federation of the West Indies, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that were colonies of the United Kingdom, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and those on the Leeward and Windward Islands, came together to form the Federation, with its capital in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state—possibly similar to the Canadian Confederation, Australian Commonwealth, or Central African Federation; however, before that could happen, the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts.

The territories of the federation eventually became the nine contemporary sovereign states of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago; with Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands becoming British overseas territories. British Guiana and British Honduras held observer status within the West Indies Federation.

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