Tourism – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: Tourism

Zero Sum: Regional Tourism should not be a competition – Encore

Posted on February 24, 2021 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Just recently in the Caribbean, we have had to contend with some superlative challenges to our regional tourism product. Consider:

Volcano – Saint Vincent and all Eastern Caribbean Islands
Category 5 Hurricanes
Pandemic – COVID-19
Cruise Industry Shut-down
<<< Enter Next Threat Here >>>

The Clear and Present Dangers of doing business in the Caribbean have been “clear” and “present”.

There is the need for Non-Zero-Sum Thinking. For far too long, Caribbean member-states have been thinking Zero Sum – for one to gain, another one must lose – just trying to outshine each other, with no consideration as to how well or badly the other places fare:

I got mine; I don’t care if you get yours!

Your loss is my gain!

This reflects competition, when really what we need is cooperation, collaboration, convention, collective-bargaining, collusion, consensus-building, confederation …

The requested change is for a new cooperative Community Ethos – the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of society – that we should adopt to coordinate our economic engine on a regional basis.

This is the continuation of the February 2021 Teaching Series for the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. (Every month, we present a series relevant to Caribbean life, culture and economics). For this month, we are looking at the subject of Zero Sum Thinking and lamenting how cooperation would be so much more preferred to competition. This fourth entry, 4-of-6, encores a previous blog-commentary that addressed this subject thoroughly; this aligned with the full treatment of this subject. Consider the full catalog of this series, as it is being presented:

Zero Sum: Lesson 101 – No more “Gold Standard”
Zero Sum: Realities of Globalism – “Non-Zero Sum” for the whole world
Zero Sum: ICT as a tool, the “Great Equalizer”
Zero Sum: Regional Tourism should not be a competition – Encore
Zero Sum: Book Review – Racism is a factor; “Us vs Them”
Zero Sum: How to fix “Inequality” – Raise the tide, all boats are elevated

We started this series on Zero Sum by looking at the economic principle that since we are no longer on a “Gold Standard”, any view of “haves versus have-nots” is no longer an issue. We, the full 30 Caribbean member-states, can now all win, gain and grow. Since we have been here and said this before, it is only apropos that we reconsider that previous blog-commentary from June 16 2018, as it relates this assertion.

———————-

Go Lean Commentary – Regional Tourism Coordination – No Longer Optional

No one can hide anymore!

There are 30 different member-states, with 5 different colonial legacies and 4 different languages, and yet people around the world only considers our region as One Caribbean:

Event	Consequence to Perception
Devastating hurricane	Oops, the Caribbean is unable to function commercially
Devastating earthquake	Oops, the Caribbean is unable to function commercially
Emergence of a pandemic	Oops, the Caribbean is unable to function commercially

All of the Caribbean member-states are in this “same boat”, so this is a matter of image and geographic misconceptions, more so than it is about disasters.

So, good or bad, the fate of one Caribbean member-state is tied to the other member-states, when it comes to tourism. See this point conveyed in this news article here:

Title: Geographic misconceptions hurting Caribbean economies
By Sarah Peter

Nassau, Bahamas – The mistaken perception among many travelers of the complete devastation of the Caribbean in the wake of the 2017 hurricane season caused further economic destruction to the region’s economy.

That’s according to the Chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Joy Jibrilu. She raised the concern amid staggering losses among countries which were not impacted by the 2017 Hurricane season.

Jibrilu says following the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria to some islands in the region, many travelers called and canceled for countries who were not impacted by the storm.

This resulted in a significant drop in hotel room demand across the entire Caribbean. In light of that another disaster, an economic storm, was created which resulted in great losses in tourism revenue and a challenge for tourism officials.

“All our travel partners, all of them without exception called and said that we have heard the Caribbean  is closed.”

She further added that  Caribbean islands irrespective of if they were not actually impacted by the storm were economically  affected.

“We all lost when people were not sure if or when to book if they canceled. You saw a dip in bookings because people thought that the islands which were not impacted were. We must quantify the figures of lost business so we can share the story with the world to tell them how serious it is. “

The chair of the CTO says that over one billion US dollars in tourism revenue was lost in the wake of last year’s hurricane season, the costliest hurricane season on record.

Jibrilu, who is also the Director of Tourism for the island of Barbados says the region’s reconstruction and recovery effort has been estimated at close to  6 billion dollars.

“Tourism is the region’s greatest driver of foreign exchange tax revenue and reliable vehicle of poverty reduction and human capital development for the region’s small island developing states. The tragedy is that the dampening of demand occurred even among islands that were not in the path of the storm.  This contributes to  an economic disaster as tourism visitation dropped of resulting in significant losses in revenue.”

Jilbrilu blamed the international media for the problem. She says their reports describes the region as if it was one country as opposed to several different islands. The chairman of the CTO says this inaccurate reporting is costing a region millions and negatively impacting lives in the region.

“First of all if we look at international news reporters when they talk about a hurricane they say the “Caribbean” has been impacted. They generalize and say the entire Caribbean. As a result, people look at the Caribbean as a whole unit as oppose to all these different countries, thousands of miles away from each other. To put it in context the Bahamas alone from north to south covers one hundred thousand square miles that is further than the distance of  Toronto to New York.  So if a storm happens in New York no one would say I am not going to Toronto. They just would not, it just does not make sense but when people lump the Caribbean  together as just one region ( as if it was just one country ) it  is negative.”

Jilbrilu says the region’s economy and people lives depend on accurate reporting and think making the international media more aware of this matter is a matter of economic prosperity or suffering for the region’s people.

“What we have done is to educate people of the geography of the Caribbean, that the same time it takes to travel from the Bahamas to Barbados is the same as traveling from London in the UK to Rome, Italy. So what happens to the Bahamas does not impact Barbados and vice versa.  We really  want to get that message out.”

Jilbrilu made the disclosure at the 2018 annual Caribbean Aviation Meetup in the Bahamas. Dubbed as the Caribbean region’s largest aviation conference the annual event brings together major players from the aviation and tourism industries aimed at tackling problems faced by the  World and the Caribbean’s Tourism and Aviation industries.
Source: Posted and retrieved June 15, 2018 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/06/15/geographic-misconceptions-hurting-caribbean-economies/

As related in the foregoing, the whole world knew of the 2017 devastation from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. But the affected (wiped-out) islands were only Barbuda, Grenada and Puerto Rico. And yet:

… following the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria to some islands in the region, many travelers called and canceled for countries who were not impacted.

Again, 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. This, we must do!

Confederation is not a bad thing! In a previous blog-commentary, it was asserted that our Caribbean member-states all suffer from the same inadequate image, and thusly we can all benefit from a regional elevation. Yes, the effect of regional integration could be an Increased Caribbean Tourism Market Share. That commentary quoted:

It’s time to take inventory of Caribbean tourism:

It has been weighed in the balance; it has been measured …
It has been found wanting!
…
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, it is inadequate for providing the needs of the people in the region, and inadequate for dealing with the crisis of natural disasters. We must do better!

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 Caribbean region and mitigate against all security-disaster challenges. The goal is to reboot and optimize the region’s economic, security and governing engines with a regional focus.

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. This includes a professional disaster planning and response organization.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies, as in 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 Caribbean image in good times and bad. One advocacy seeks to optimize the Caribbean tourism brand throughout the world; consider some specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 133 entitled:

10 Ways to Better Manage Image

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, with a GDP of $800 Billion (according to 2010 figures). In addition, the treaty calls for collective bargaining with foreign countries and industry representatives for causes of significance to the Caribbean community. There are many times when the media portray a “negative” depiction of Caribbean life, culture and people. The CU will have the scale to effectuate negotiations to better manage the region’s image, and the means by which to enforce the tenets.
2	Media Industrial Complex The Caribbean Central Bank will settle electronic payments transactions; this will allow electronic commerce to flourish in the region. With the payment mechanisms in place, music, movies, TV shows and other media (domestic and foreign) can be paid for and downloaded legally. For a population base of 42 million, this brings a huge economic clout.
3	Respect for Intellectual Property
4	Sentinel in Hollywood
5	Anti-Defamation League This Pro-Jewish organization provides a great model for marshalling against negative stereotypes that can belittle a race. The CU will study, copy, and model a lot of the successes of the Anti-Defamation League. This organization can also be consulted with to coach the CU’s efforts. (Consider the example of Uptown Yardies Rasta Gang in the game Grand Theft Auto [206]).
6	Power of the Boycott The CU is an economic negotiating bloc. The power to ban, boycott and censure trade in intellectual property is a powerful deterrent for producers to be balanced in their media portrayals. A CU federal agency will assume the role to rate pending moves, as performed by MPAA in the US. While the content may not be banned outright, placing a Rated R, NC-17 or X label to a film will affect the economic results from the box office. This is the “power of the purse”.
7	Freedom of the Press
8	Libel and Slander Litigation and Enforcement
9	Public Relations and Press Releases To facilitate effective communications, the CU’s agencies will embrace the role of “Press Secretaries” to disseminateaccurate records, news and portrayals of Caribbean life. This role is Offensive rather than the above Defensive tactics.
10	Image Award Medals and Recognition Following the model of the NAACP Image Awards, the CU will recognize and give accolades for individual and institutions that portray a positive “image” of Caribbean life and CU initiatives. This would be similar to the Presidential Medal of … / Congressional Medal of …

The likelihood of more hurricanes in the Caribbean is undeniable. This is further exacerbated with the reality of Climate Change. Our Caribbean region must be prepared to Rinse & Repeat. It is no longer an option to maybe manage our image on a regional level. The world must know that we are bigger than just whatever island has been recently impacted by a natural disaster. This challenge is heavy-lifting because, as a region, we rarely muster an adequate response to our natural disasters.

The Go Lean book explains further that the Caribbean region must install a security apparatus with the directive to prepare and respond to natural disasters. The efficiency and effectiveness of a Caribbean Emergency Management Agency must be streamlined to ensure the world of the business continuity of our systems of commerce. This quotation is derived from the book at Page 184:

Modeled after FEMA in the US, this agency will be charged with the preparation, response and reconstruction for the regions for the eventual manifestations of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and other declared disasters, natural and man-made like medical epidemic, drought, pollution, oil spills, terrorism, etc.

This is what it means to be a technocracy, to promote the best delivery arts and sciences, in this case for Professional Emergency Management; as explained further at Page 64:

The CU treaty calls for a collective security agreement for the Caribbean member-states to prepare-respond to natural disasters, emergency incidents and assuage against systemic threats against the homeland. The CU employs the professional arts and sciences of Emergency Management to spread the costs and risks across the entire region. Outside of hurricanes or earthquakes, the emergency scope includes medical trauma, pandemic incidents and industrial accidents (i.e. oil or chemical spills) – any scenario that can impact the continuity of the economic engines and/or community.

This above scenario describes the dynamics of regional tourism promotion and protection. Yes, managing regional tourism means optimizing the planning and response for natural disasters. This is no longer optional for this homeland. We are compelled to invest in this integration and collaboration. We must have the leverage to spread the costs, risks and premium base across the entire region. Only then will the rest of the world know that any hurricane in the Caribbean does not mean a shutdown of the entire Caribbean region. Our image will then be:

Be our guests … in rain and shine.

Consider this Hawaiian example; yes this problem of promoting tourism while contending with natural disasters is not just an issue for the Caribbean. Rather, the US State of Hawaii is contending with the same thing right now, with the active Kīlauea volcano. See related news VIDEO in the Appendix below.

There is the need for better stewardship of the economic engines on touristic islands, be it Hawaii or the Caribbean. It is what it is! And our situations will worsen; things will get worse before they get worst. This is due to the reality and eventuality of Climate Change. This need to assuage against the threats and realities of Climate Change was an original intent of the Go Lean roadmap. The opening Declaration of Interdependence stresses this (Page 11) in the first of many pronouncements:

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

The Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for disaster awareness and abatement. Consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15012	In Life or Death: No Love for Puerto Rico
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14925	‘Climate Change’ Reality!? Numbers Don’t Lie
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14832	Example of Manifesting Environmental Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391	After Maria, Failed-State Indicators: 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=11858	Looking and Learning from the Cautionary Tale of Kiribati
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9455	Fix ‘Climate Change’ – Yes, We Can
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7103	COP21 – ‘Climate Change’ Acknowledged
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6893	A Meteorologist’s View On Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4673	‘Climate Change‘ Merchants of Doubt … to Preserve Profits!!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2465	Book: ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2276	Climate Change May Affect Food Supply Within a Decade
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1883	Climate Change May Bring More Kidney Stones
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1817	Caribbean grapples with intense cycles of flooding & drought

In summary, the issues in this commentary relate more to image and geographic misconceptions than they do tourism and natural disasters. Do we have the global reputation to “take a punch and stand back up”.

Unfortunately, no!

So we must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines so as to assuage the dangers of Climate Change and natural disasters; pandemics too. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap, and this is not just a pipe dream; it is conceivable, believable and achievable for our regional stakeholders to do better and be better.

All Caribbean stakeholders – residents and tourists alike – are urged to lean-in to this roadmap for change … and empowerment. Yes, we can make the region a better place to live work and play. 🙂

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

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Appendix VIDEO – Hawaii tourism hit hard by Kilauea volcano eruption – https://youtu.be/89ppKLS5ufI

CBS Evening News
Published on Jun 2, 2018 – As molten lava destroys more homes in Hawaii, police have been ordered to arrest people who refuse to evacuate. Thousands have already been forced to flee to safety. Now, dramatic images broadcast around the world are having another impact — on tourism. CBS News correspondent Carter Evans reports.

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

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Disaster, Model, Tourism, Transform

Butch Stewart – A Full Caribbean Life, RIP

Posted on January 5, 2021 in Ethos, Industries, Locations, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Gordon “Butch” Stewart has died. 🙁

This is a sad day for his family and all of the Caribbean. He was a renowned entrepreneur for the regional travel industry, a hotelier – think Sandals, Beaches and others; see Appendix VIDEO – and the one-time owner of the airline Air Jamaica, now branded “Caribbean Airlines”. (The airline was sold back to the Jamaican Government in 2004.^[16])

See this published obituary from a local Caribbean media outlet (Bahamas):

Title: ‘Entrepreneur, statesman, dreamer’: Sandals founder Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart dies at 79
By: Ava Turnquest
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Jamaican hotelier and business mogul Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart died in hospital yesterday.

Stewart, the founder of Sandals Resorts International, ATL Group, and The Jamaica Observer, died at 79.

His death was confirmed in an internal memorandum issued to managers of the Sandals group by his son, Sandals deputy chairman Adam Stewart.

Adam Stewart acknowledged the death seemed unbelievable, noting his father chose to keep a very recent health diagnosis private.

He said his father will be missed forever.

“The Hon. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart OJ, a distinction he was so proud of, was a gifted entrepreneur,” Stewart said.

“He was a marketing genius and talented showman, but those who knew him best recognized that he was a dreamer who could dream bigger and better than anyone. It was often said: “the best thing for people around him to do is be dream catchers.”

Stewart continued: “That’s why he always credited his success to the incredible team around him, why he listened intently when it came to creating innovative things that would excite and delight our guests, and why it is so important that I remind you today of all days, that we will all continue to be his dream catchers.

“Together, we have all been part of something bigger than ourselves, led by a man who believed in us and who gave us opportunities to learn, grow and the tools to make dreams real.”

Stewart said: “For him and because of him ̧ we will continue to dream big and deliver on his certainty that true luxury is always best enjoyed by the sea. My Dad lived a big life – husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather entrepreneur, statesman, dreamer.”

“A singular personality and an unstoppable force who revelled in defying the odds, exceeding expectations and whose passion for his family was matched only by the people and possibility of the Caribbean, for whom he was a fierce champion.

“There will never be another quite like him and we will miss him forever,” he added.

Source: Posted and retrieved January 5, 2021 from: https://ewnews.com/entrepreneur-statesman-dreamer-sandals-founder-gordon-butch-stewart-dies-at-79.

Butch Stewart definitely had an impact on the Caribbean ecosystem. As of 2012, Stewart’s businesses employed more than 10,000 people in the Caribbean across various industries including hospitality, restaurant, automotive, retail, and media.^[9]

Butch Stewart labored to promote, provide and protect Caribbean interest all over the world. He proved to be a fine role model for the Caribbean youth to emulate. In fact, his profile was featured in the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – on Page 189 – this publication serves as a roadmap for rebooting the Caribbean societal engines of economics, security and governance. See that published profile in the Appendix below.

We can look back at Butch Stewart’s life and see how to prosper where planted.

His easy pace, infectious warmth and trademark striped shirt, belied the prowess and acute business acumen responsible for his estimated billion-dollar, privately-owned Jamaican-based empire that includes 24 Caribbean properties, Appliance Traders, ATL Automotive, ATL Autobahn and the Observer media company.

All told, Stewart spearheaded two dozen diverse companies that collectively represent the largest private sector group in Jamaica, the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner and its largest non-government employer. – Source: Retrieved January 5, 2021 from: https://www.breakingtravelnews.com/focus/article/breaking-travel-news-investigates-gordon-butch-stewart/

With Sir Richard Branson

He was a mover-and-a-shaker; we need many more Caribbean people – in the homeland and the Diaspora – to follow in those footsteps. This is even a Biblical precept; see here:

Remember those who led you … and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith. – The Bible: Hebrews 13:7 New American Standard Bible

The globe is mourning his passing, not as a Global Citizen, but rather as a Caribbean “Man of Distinction”. That labeling “Man of Distinction” is not our wording alone, but the array of organizations that honored him during his life. See this sample here:

Honours and awards
Stewart received several accolades and awards including Jamaica’s highest national distinctions: Order of Jamaica, and Commander of the Order of Distinction.^[29] He received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the University of the West Indies (2001) and from the University of Technology, Jamaica (2009). He also received an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Johnson & Wales University in 2011.^[30]

In 1992, Stewart was presented with the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Humanitarian Award from the Jamaica–America Society.^[29] Ernst & Young voted him Master Entrepreneur of the decade of the 90s. Stewart was a Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International‘s highest award. At the 2000 World Travel Awards, he was voted “Travel Man of the Millennium” for his work in promoting Caribbean tourism. In 2011, The Caribbean American Foundation presented Stewart with the Golden Eagle Humanitarian Award in recognition of his philanthropic contributions to education and entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. In 2014 Stewart was honored with the Most Innovative All-Inclusive Resort Executive by the Travalliance Travvy Awards, Hotelier of the Year at the Cacique Award held by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation and the Invest Caribbean Now Leadership Award presented at its global summit.^[31]

Stewart was a recipient of Caribbean World Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Jamaica,^[32] and was referred to as one of Jamaica’s most-admired businessmen by Kamal King, President of Cambridge College and Community Services Jamaica, in an address to graduating students.^[33][34]

He earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, Travel Weekly and Globe Travel Awards.^[35] – Source: Wikipedia.

This commentary is NOT in the business of doing one obituary after another. But we do identify, qualify and analyze the life and legacy of people who have had a major impact on Caribbean life and image. While we cannot bring back the dead, no one can, we can benefit by studying their words and actions. We can imitate their faith. This is a familiar theme in previous commentaries that we have published that have been dubbed obituaries. See this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=21038	David Dinkins – Former Mayor of NYC and hero to Caribbean Diaspora
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19180	RIP Katherine Johnson – STEM Forerunner & Rocket Scientist
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10114	Caribbean Roots: Actress Esther Rolle from TV Show ‘Good Times’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10015	E. R. Braithwaite, Author of ‘To Sir, With Love’ – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8165	Role Model Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight – RIP
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2726	Caribbean Role Model – Oscar De La Renta – RIP

Butch Stewart was a Jamaican, not American, Canadian or UK citizen. He was a Caribbean man that lived a full Caribbean life.

There is a familiar Meme – picture or phrase that a lot of people share with each other – in the Bahamas:

This actuality depicts our quest for the Caribbean: to optimize the societal engines so that we can all spend our days in the homeland, cradle to grave, with not sacrifice as to the quality of life. To accomplish this, we need some help, thusly, we introduced the concept of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to do the heavy-lifting for executing strategies, tactics and implementations that would elevate the entire Caribbean region.

For those people in the Caribbean homeland, we entreat you: Stay Home, help is on the way.
For those in the Diaspora, we urge you to come in from the cold. Your homeland awaits you.

Take your rest Gordon “Butch” Stewart; you have lived a full Caribbean life and you have shown us how to “prosper where we are planted” here in the Caribbean. RIP …

Yes, we can all prosper in the homeland. Let’s get busy and do the work, the heavy-lifting, to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙁

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————-

Excerpt: Anecdote # 18 – Caribbean Industrialist: Gordon “Butch” Stewart (Go Lean book Page 189)

Title: How I Did It: Butch Stewart of Sandals Resorts | Inc.com
By: Stephanie Clifford – (excerpt from) INC. Magazine – April 1, 2008
Gordon “Butch” Stewart’s voice is deep and slow, and he speaks with melodic phrasing, suggesting the sun-soaked climate of his native Jamaica, where he started Sandals Resorts, in 1981. Today (2008), Stewart owns and runs 20 resorts under the Sandals umbrella, including the original Sandals all-inclusive, couples-only resorts, the Beaches resorts for families, and four boutique hotels. Stewart serves as company chairman, while his son Adam, 27, is now the CEO. The resorts are sprawling, with flourishes like multicolored pagodas, swim-up bars, and poolside Greek temples. One resort boasts 100 separate swimming pools. From its small beginnings, Sandals, based in Montego Bay, has grown into a multibillion-dollar company.

I got a job at a trading company and was in charge of the appliance department. After five years, I was able to save over $3,000. [Starting in 1968, I realized that] Fedders air conditioners were not represented in Jamaica. I bought an airplane ticket and I headed to Edison, New Jersey. I met with the president’s nephew. We really hit it off. He said to the finance people, “Look, he’s paying cash for the first shipment, so there’s nothing to lose; give him a chance.”

I rented an old doctor’s office in Jamaica, a secondhand car, and a secondhand pickup. I was able to buy 27 room air conditioners. Before they arrived, I had them sold. I would install them in half a day, and so we made our money out of making people happy. Today, that company, ATL Group, is also in the office equipment business, we are the distributor for Honda motorcars, and we have a newspaper called The Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica had gone through a period of upheaval in the ’70s. It was a time of radical socialism, and the economy went to tatters. But we survived, and in 1980 we had a new government. We were so enthusiastic. I ended up buying two hotels. They were all in shambles. If I had known what I was doing, I would never have bought those hotels. The amount of Pandora’s boxes that were in there! We had to find out how to market and how to cook the food, and the kind of décor and rooms people wanted. That was 1981.

We set about trying to provide more than people expected. I was in Italy and I saw this hair dryer in the bedroom. I found out the manufacturer, and we were the first hotel to have hair dryers in the Caribbean. It’s not a big deal today, but in 1983, it was. We did our first swim-up pool bar in 1984. We were the first in the Caribbean to do it. When we were putting in our first hot tub, the people in the hotel association said, “Butch, take it easy, man, you don’t need to waste your money that way.” While they were talking, I was building a second and a third in different parts of the property, because I realized people like different locations to soak in the tub.

Everybody thought we’d be out of business the first month because the hotel is very close to the airport. We came up with the idea of everyone waving to the people that were leaving in the plane, and kissing the one you love when a plane flies by. I don’t think we had five complaints after that. Then the Concorde started flying to Jamaica once a week, and it made more noise than any airplane I’ve ever heard. The buildings shook. So we turned all the beach lounges to face the airport, and that magnificent airplane would get up right in front of everybody on the beach. Guests would come rushing in: “Has the Concorde taken off yet?” We made a promotion out of it.

The first two years, we lost more money than I ever dreamt possible. We realized that we didn’t have enough bedrooms. We only had 100 rooms, so I went in and built more rooms, and that same hotel now is 251 bedrooms.

In 1986, we were able to buy another hotel, Sandals Royal Caribbean it’s called today. And we’ve been able to build more. One is Sandals Grande Riviera Beach & Villa Resort, in the area where I grew up; in fact, the piano bar is built right where my grandmother’s home was. Sandals Negril ended up being the most successful hotel that the Caribbean has ever had. We opened it in November 1988. It opened full, and it has been full ever since.

Beaches came straight out of guests saying to me, “Butch, we have been here 15 times, 20 times. But now we have kids; we need a place that we can take the whole family.” So that’s how Beaches evolved, starting in 1997. We never realized that you needed to do so much to keep the entire family happy. Kids get bored if you don’t have organized things for them to do. The smartest thing I ever did was to make my second-youngest son, Adam, chairman of the youth committee to come up with creative ideas to make the younger people happy. We have water slides, swimming bars for kids — so it’s only juice and nonalcoholic drinks — and we have a little disco that converts into a movie theater.

We have spent $370 million over the past three years modernizing, redecorating, and expanding. Women — I mean, I hope I’m not saying something wrong — but women just want bigger and better-quality bathrooms every year. They want bathrooms that are like palaces, that have Jacuzzis in them, separate showers, bidets, twin basins, and now they want those big overhead showers, also soaking tubs. And our job is to please those requests.

…

I’ve never had any doubts about the business. I run on gut instinct to a large extent, but at the same time I never make a major decision without bouncing it off of a circle of people that I work with. Right now, we have an organization that has everybody in it. You want lawyers; we have them. Engineers; we have them. Accountants; we have them. Marketing people; we have them. People that understand how to cook the best food in the world; we have them.

Source: Retrieved November 2013 from: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080401/how-i-did-it-butch-stewart-sandals-resorts.html

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – The BEST SANDALS Resorts-The Pros & Cons of Each … – https://youtu.be/M39FJAHUlBk

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I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day. I will see you in my next video! – Vanessa

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Jamaica, Model, Obituary, Tourism

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Hello Travel Insurance – No Longer Optional

Posted on November 27, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The actuality of 2020 has changed the world. Period.

Many of the changes have been bad; but there are some that are shaping up to be good. One such is the emergence of Travel Insurance as a necessary product for visitors to the different Caribbean member-states (islands and coastal countries). Imagine a tourist contracting Coronavirus COVID-19 while vacationing in the Caribbean. How would that complicated situation be managed … and paid for?

The need for Travel Insurance is indisputable.

What exactly is Travel Insurance?

Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unforeseen losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies typically include coverage for trip cancellation, lost luggage, flight delays, public liability, and other expenses.^[1]

Cost calculation
Travel insurance, are risk-based, and take into account a range of factors to determine whether a traveller can purchase a policy and what the premium will be. This generally includes destination countries or regions, the duration of the trip, the age of the travellers, and any optional benefits that they require coverage for such as pre-existing medical conditions, adventure sports, rental vehicle excess, cruising, or high-value electronics.^[2] Some policies will also take into account the traveller’s estimated value of their trip to determine price. …

Journey departure and return conditions
Most travel insurance policies must be purchased prior to departure from home, or from the first departure point (e.g. an airport), depending on the product….

Complimentary travel insurance
Some credit card issuers offer automatic travel insurance if travel arrangements are paid for using their credit cards, but these policies are generic and do not take into account personal requirements and circumstances.^[5]

Common benefits
Medical
In the event of minor injury or illness overseas, medical benefits offer coverage for visits to general practitioners, medicine, ambulance fees, and limited dentistry benefits. In the event of hospitalisation, most travel insurance policies include emergency assistance services, which can offer guarantees of payment to hospitals for treatment, liaise treating doctors, and organise transfers between hospitals or medical evacuations back to the insured person’s country of origin.^[6] More comprehensive policies include an emergency companion cover, so that a family member can remain with the insured person while in hospital.

In the event of death overseas, medical benefit sections typically include cover for repatriation of remains to insured person’s the country of origin, or a funeral overseas.
…
Compulsory travel insurance
Certain countries require foreign visitors have proof of sufficient travel insurance as a condition for granting a visa or of approving visa-free entry. This includes travellers applying for a Schengen Area or UAE visa, and all visitors to Cuba, Turkey and Belarus.^[21] Thailand^[22] and Egypt^[23] have announced plans to introduce similar requirements. Tour companies and cruise providers may also require passengers possess a minimum level of travel insurance before the traveller can commence their journey. – Source: Retrieved November 28, 2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_insurance.

As related here in the foregoing, some countries have mandated Travel Insurance; we see now that a number of Caribbean member-states have followed suit, as a mitigating strategy to the actualities of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. See here, the details for Jamaica and the Bahamas:

Title 1: “This must become international”: Jamaica launches mandatory protection program
By: Cindy Sosroutomo
KINGSTON, JAMAICA — Jamaica has announced a groundbreaking – and mandatory – new program for all foreign travellers, effective next month [November 2020].

Jamaica Cares, a joint collaboration between the Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, and Global Rescue, is being hailed as a first-of-its kind traveller protection and emergency services program designed to protect both visitors and the people of Jamaica.

For approximately US$40, the end-to-end program provides all nationalities who are entering Jamaica with non-Jamaica passports with access to compulsory traveller protection and emergency medical services. It is comprised of two major components:

All Hazards program: Case management, transport logistics, field rescue, evacuation, and repatriation for medical emergencies, including COVID-19 and other crises up to and including natural disasters

COVID-19-specific program: International health coverage up to US$100,000 for visitors traveling to and from Jamaica, and on-island health coverage up to US$50,000

In a virtual press conference earlier this morning, Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, confirmed that the fee will go towards supporting its new Jamaica Operations Centre (JOC) based in Montego Bay, and additional expansion to other locations as necessary.

“The JOC will ensure a rapid boots-on-the-ground response capability for dealing with crises when they occur, including coordinating our COVID-19 response in Jamaica and the region,” said Richards. “We envision head count to grow as we grow out the program to Jamaica and, ultimately, throughout the region and potentially the world.

“We will not rest until we have accomplished our mission, and that is the restoration of Jamaican travel and tourism to pre-COVID-19 levels and ongoing support thereafter.”

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, stressed the need for a proactive approach to global tourism recovery, saying that “destination assurance” is becoming a critical pre-condition for travel today.

“Trust has to be earned, we can only do that with action – not just words – through innovation, partnership and empathy,” said Bartlett. “As thought leaders, Jamaica has proactively taken a vital role in recovering and building the spirit of travel by restoring the trust and confidence of travellers in our destination. Jamaica Cares represents another prong in our COVID resilience and has been designed very specifically and deliberately. The program’s protocols will ensure our ability to welcome travellers to Jamaica safely.”

Bartlett expects the program to be implemented by U.S. thanksgiving, and confirms that Jamaica has already begun speaking with other countries that wish to follow suit. More information regarding how travellers can access the program and when payment will be required will come in the next few weeks, though Bartlett said that “the market will be given enough time to be able to respond to whatever the requirements are to comply.”

For travellers who already have travel insurance in place, Richards said that Jamaica Cares is an additive program.

“The extent that the individual already has a mechanism in place, either a service provider or a travel insurance package that they’ve already purchased, our personnel will work with whatever insurance they have to deconflict that program with ours and to make sure the delivery of services is seamless,” said Richards. “At the end of the day, what we are aiming for is that seamless delivery of service with respect to these types of issues.”

Also joining the press conference was Gloria Guevara, president & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), and Dr. Taleb Rifai, Co-Chair of the GTRCMC and the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, and former Secretary-General of the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Guevara stressed the need for the global community to eliminate quarantines so that “people can freely move around”, and said that today’s announcement is an important step towards resuming international travel.

“From WTTC, we believe that we have to learn how to co-exist with this virus, and we cannot wait for a vaccine to be ready and be deployed around the world,” she said. “We see Jamaica Cares as a very important initiative that will be a good example around the world and will hopefully be replicated by other countries.”

Rifai also hailed the program, calling it a great initiative between the public and private sectors.

“Now it’s in the hands of governments,” he said. “This concept must become international and we must have most governments adhere to it. It’s the only way we can travel safely and have peace of mind.”

Source: Posted Monday, October 26, 2020; retrieved November 15, 2020 from: https://www.travelweek.ca/news/this-concept-must-become-international-jamaica-launches-mandatory-protection-program/

———-

Title 2: Travel Insurance for the Bahamas
Sub-title: Do I Need Travel Insurance for the Bahamas?

“Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama…” It’s no surprise the 1988 Beach Boys hit “Kokomo” features the Bahamas so prominently. Even today, the island getaway remains one of the most popular vacation destinations among travelers.

In light of recent hurricane activity in the area and COVID-19 pandemic, our customers are increasingly asking if travel insurance is required for trips to the Bahamas. As of November 14, 2020, travel health insurance is required for all incoming visitors. The cost for the mandatory insurance is included in the price of the Travel Health Visa that all tourists are required to apply for before entry. Travelers should keep in mind that this required coverage may be limited, so we recommend purchasing additional coverage to cover non-health-related expenses, like travel delays or baggage loss, for example.

Concerns about illness, injuries, and medical issues have historically been the top reasons those traveling to the Bahamas ask about insurance. However, the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian has changed the way people are thinking about coverage for the islands. Weather is now the number one concern driving Bahamas trip insurance inquiries. Unforeseen weather events can wreak havoc on travel plans by causing delays, cancellations, and even total destruction of your accommodations in some cases. Choosing an insurance plan that will cover these types of events is your best defense.

As mentioned above, many travelers to the Bahamas buy coverage to supplement or replace their domestic health insurance while they’re away. Most domestic health insurance providers do not provide coverage while you are out of the country. For this reason, those taking a trip to the Bahamas frequently purchase travel medical plans. This way, they can stay protected against hefty out-of-pocket costs as a result of unforeseen illnesses or injuries.

While healthcare and weather concerns are the main reasons travelers purchase trip insurance for the Bahamas, there are additional reasons worth considering. For example, the Bahamas is a popular destination among cruisers, so you might consider choosing a plan that incorporates cruise coverage if you plan to set sail. Other travelers may be flying internationally to reach the islands. In these cases, flight insurance can help travelers with unexpected issues, including delays, interruptions, and missed connections.

Many comprehensive travel insurance plans include specialized coverages, like baggage delay or loss, emergency medical evacuation, or dental care while abroad. It’s important to think about which coverages make sense for your Bahamian vacation or business trip before choosing a plan.

How Much is Travel Insurance for the Bahamas?
One of the most common questions we get from customers planning a visit to the Bahamas is “how much travel insurance will cost?” The cost of the required travel insurance is now included in the Bahamas Travel Health Visa. However, the cost of a plan with additional coverage varies due to several factors. First, the number of travelers in the group may affect the rate. In general, policies that cover more than one traveler have an increased cost. Second, traveler ages can play a role in determining pricing, as older travelers typically carry more risk as a result of medical concerns. This increased risk can translate to a higher cost, especially if one or more travelers in the group have any pre-existing conditions. Another important factor is the duration of your trip. Traveling for a longer period of time usually means there are more opportunities for travel hiccups. So, a plan that covers a week-long trip or vacation will be considerably cheaper than a plan that covers long-term travel. One of the most significant factors for determining the cost of travel insurance is the kind of coverage the plan offers. Typically, the price of a plan will increase for each coverage it includes.

Source: Retrieved November 16, 2020 from: https://www.insuremytrip.com/destinations/bahamas-travel-insurance/

The “pangs of distress” of this pandemic rages on. Leave well enough alone and “things go to hell”: residents and citizens alike end up in the Emergency Room and the ICU. There is the need for therapeutics, oxygen, breathing aids, ventilators and even lung transplants.

Leave well enough alone and things go from worse to worst.

We must act … before, during and after affliction. Travel Insurance is a good Way Forward. See the documented experiences of a Frequent Traveller-Couple in the Appendix VIDEO below.

Change is afoot! There is still the need for touristic hospitality while pragmatically addressing the real risk of this pandemic.

Expect more Caribbean member-states and cruise lines to follow this model, individually. How about collectively? Is there a need for a regional coordination of tourism activities and risk management?

Yes, indeed …

We needed this construct before COVID-19 … and we will need it after COVID-19. We simply need a strong regional foundation for economics, security (Public Safety) and governance, This has been the assertion since the publication of the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The 30 member-states of the region must collaborate, consolidate and confederate their tourism promotion and protection operations. This collectivity will create leverage across the entire regional base.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for that regional construct: the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). So why not also a locally-regionally owned insurance carrier; maybe even a CU/CCB subsidiary. We should be able to keep the profits here at home.

In a previous Go Lean commentary, from June 16, 2018, it was related how …

“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! In a different previous blog-commentary from December 7, 2017, it was asserted that our Caribbean member-states all suffer from the same inadequate infrastructure, and thusly need to benefit from regional empowerments. Yes, the effect of regional integration could even be an Increased Caribbean Tourism Market Share. That commentary quoted:

It’s time to take inventory of Caribbean tourism:

It has been found wanting! …

It has been weighed in the balance; it has been measured …

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 likelihood of more pandemics/epidemics in the Caribbean is great. We have already had to contend with:

The Go Lean book explains further that the Caribbean region must install a security apparatus to prepare the economic engines, with the directive to prepare and respond to pandemic and natural disasters. The efficiency and effectiveness of a Caribbean Emergency Management Agency must be streamlined to ensure the world that there is business continuity of our systems of commerce. This quotation is derived from the Go Lean book at Page 184:

Modeled after FEMA in the US, this agency will be charged with the preparation, response and reconstruction for the regions for the eventual manifestations of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and other declared disasters, natural and man-made like medical epidemic, drought, pollution, oil spills, terrorism, etc.

This is what it means to be a technocracy, to promote the arts and sciences of Professional Emergency Management; as explained further at Page 64:

The CU treaty calls for a collective security agreement for the Caribbean member-states to prepare-respond to natural disasters, emergency incidents and assuage against systemic threats against the homeland. The CU employs the professional arts and sciences of Emergency Management to spread the costs and risks across the entire region. Outside of hurricanes or earthquakes, the emergency scope includes medical trauma, pandemic incidents and industrial accidents (i.e. oil or chemical spills) – any scenario that can impact the continuity of the economic engines and/or community.

This commentary describes the dynamics of a regional tourism promotion and protection. Yes, managing regional tourism means optimizing the planning and response for pandemics and natural disasters. As we have asserted time and again, this is no longer optional for this Caribbean region. We must now invest in the earnest effort for integration and collaboration. We must have the leverage to spread the costs, risks and premium base across the entire Caribbean region. Only then will the rest of the world know that a trip to the Caribbean is safe, risk-free and rewarding.

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

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20561	Toxic Environment – Opposite of ‘Diversity & Inclusion’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19409	Coronavirus: ‘Clear and Present’ Threat to Economic Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19217	‘Live and Let Live’ – Allowing some Localism for Touristic Administrations
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18831	Opportunity: Supply Cruise Line with their Food needs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17919	‘Be our Guest’ – But the Rules of Hospitality damage Societal Ethics
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17072	Caribbean Cruise Ports can be ‘Held Hostage’ without Collective Bargaining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15521	Caribbean Unity? What a Joke – Tourism Missteps Again and Again
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15380	Industrial Reboot – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – A Better End-Product for All
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14761	Flying the Caribbean Skies – Optimizing the Regional Air Travel Ecosystem
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12879	Disaster Preparation: ‘Rinse and Repeat’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11544	Forging Change in the Cruise eco-system: Collective Bargaining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6341	Tourism Stewardship — What’s Next?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5210	Cruise Ship Commerce – Getting Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=235	Tourism’s changing profile

We have to get along with our neighbors better; we have to “share the load”.

The Go Lean book quotes the Singer-Songwriter Bill Withers in his 1970 Hit Song “Lean On Me”. (Bill Withers died earlier in 2020). Art imitates Life and Life imitates Art as the song lyrics explain, here:

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.

If one or two Caribbean countries adapt a mandatory Travel Insurance scheme, then really, all countries should consider. That universality can create more demand; a greater demand can create greater supply options; greater supply options can create better pricing and quality options.

This is Travel Insurance 101.

This is Economics 101.

People will get sick; people will die. Be prepared!

So we must reform and transform the Caribbean’s societal engines so as to assuage the dangers of global pandemics and natural disasters. This is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. and this is not just a pipe dream; it is conceivable, believable and achievable for our regional stakeholders to do better and be better with regional tourism promotion and protections.

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

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

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) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————

Appendix VIDEO – Travel insurance 2020 don’t make the mistake traveling without travel insurance – https://youtu.be/nWlWTy3kAEE

Jerry Brown Travels
Published July 12, 2020 – Understanding travel insurance protect yourself by using international travel insurance. COVID-19 has changed our lives and the way we travel.

Why should I consider international travel medical insurance?

Buying a travel medical insurance plan is a smart choice for international travelers. When you’re far from home, this type of plan provides insurance benefits designed for travelers and non-insurance travel assistance services.

Travel with Us on YouTube https://goo.gl/SCHrdw

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https://youtu.be/nWlWTy3kAEE

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Disaster, Model, Tourism, Transform

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Toxic Environment – Opposite of ‘Diversity & Inclusion’

Posted on September 24, 2020 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Picture this:

You spend $2,000 per night for accommodations for your Caribbean vacation.
You go to bed, only to be awaken by a fuzzing noise outside. You pull back the curtains and there it is:

A burning cross erected outside your window!

How long before you want to leave?
Will you ever return?
Will you tell your friends to come visit or stay away?
Why this persecution?

The guest in this scenario is a known Gay Man (LGBT), or …

The guest in this scenario is a foreigner from Wuhan, China, or …

The guest in this scenario is a Muslim from Dubai, in the Middle East.

This describes the Toxic Environment that we suffer here in the Caribbean. The 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, serving as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), asserts that Caribbean economic, security (Public Safety) and governing stakeholders must work to mitigate and remediate our societal defects.

Despite the mono-industrial landscape of tourism, where we need to be inviting and hospitable to all visitors, many times we have chosen the opposite instead, to be: intolerant and judgmental. We give in, on a daily basis to:

Homophobia – Negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
Xenophobia – Fear or dislike of strangers or the unknown, sometimes used to describe nationalistic political beliefs and movements.
- Sinophobia or Anti-Chinese sentiment involves sentiments such as hatred or fear against China, its people, its diaspora, or culture.^[5] It often targets Chinese minorities living outside of China and involves immigration, development of national identity in neighbouring countries, disparity of wealth, the past central tributary system, majority-minority relations, discrimination and racism.^[6][7][8] Its opposite is Sinophilia.
- Islamophobia – Fear of anything Islamic

This is not theory or conjecture; these intolerance, condemnations and judgments have happened and are happening … repeatedly.

Opponents of a gay rights bill gather in Guyana in 2003. (AP)

People march during a protest against gay rights in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, July 26, 2020.
The group marched demanding that President Jovenel Moise
rescind his most recent decree that rewrites the 185-year-old penal code,
addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation. Dieu Nalio Chery AP

Jamaican Anti-Gay Rally to Oppose Same-Sex Marriage, Even Though No One Has Proposed It

A previous Go Lean commentary from April 8, 2017 identified this example of our severe Caribbean Toxicity. Consider this summary:

‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – Leaders Undermine Tourism
… there is no war in the Caribbean, but we do have battles. We have trade wars and economic struggles to try and maintain our way of life and to improve it. For so many of our countries, tourism is the primary economic driver – our regional ship – we have to be on guard and aware of any kind of disparaging talk that can undermine the appeal of our destinations.

The United States is suffering the dire consequence of “loose lips sinking ships” right now. The new President – Donald Trump – has made disparaging remarks about certain foreign groups, and then introduced policies that reinforce his disdain for these foreigners.

As a result, more and more foreigners are refusing to come to the US for leisure travel. …

Nobody wants to spend their money in a place where they are not welcomed.

This lesson must be learned in the Caribbean. We have the same threats afoot. Unlike the US, who has the leverage and surety of “richest Single Market economy in the world” to absorb the fall, the Caribbean member-states are mostly Third World and failing.

… Yet, some leaders – Christian pastors in this case – have proclaimed, in a signed petition to this new American President, a heightened level of disdain for certain American tourists. They are protesting the US Human Rights agenda to seek relief for Caribbean populations with affinity for persons ascribing to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-Gender (LGBT) lifestyles.

Rather than love and leisure … in the Caribbean, these community leaders are projecting “a climate of hate”.

A Toxic Environment bears bad fruit. It is not just homophobia that we are inflicted with, as we have hate and intolerance embedded within our Community Ethos – this refers to (as defined in the Go Lean book Page 20):

the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period: In the Greek ethos the individual was highly valued.
the character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.

Look at these additional phobias that have plagued our society, here in the Caribbean. These are the opposite of the pluralistic society that we feature/want. See these examples of anti-Diversity & Inclusion reality:

Sinophobia
The problem with having an intolerant society is that our citizens are less inclined to embrace people that are different, even when you need them. This is the situation with China right now. As there is an exhaustion from North American and European investors in Caribbean communities, China has stepped-up and stepped-in with funds and development support.

We, in the Caribbean, badly need all the help.

Yet, our people are so reticent towards Chinese foreigners, despite that we “hung a Welcome Sign” for visitors from around the world. We must face it, we – a majority Black-and-Brown population in most of 30 member-states – are part of the problem, as it appears that we only want to embrace “White Christian” foreigners.

Fears of new virus trigger anti-China sentiment worldwide – February 2, 2020
As fears of a new coronavirus from China spread around the world, many countries are seeing rising anti-Chinese sentiment, calls for a full travel ban on Chinese and even public aversion to those from the epicenter of the outbreak.

The subject of the Sinophone eco-system – China, Chinese people and culture – has been an important subject for Caribbean considerations. We have published previous commentaries that advocated for a healthy relationship with the Sino World; consider the list of previous blog-commentaries here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18963	Happy Chinese New Year – Embracing the Sinophone World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18301	After Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16530	European Reckoning – China seeks to de-Americanize World’s economy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9550	10 Things We Want from China and 10 Things We Do Not Want
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231	China’s Caribbean Playbook: America’s Script

Islamophobia
The actuality of Intolerance is the opposite of the qualities a pluralistic society like the Caribbean needs to develop. We have a new found economic engine that we can now exploit: Global Tourism. Imagine the profits that can be garnered for just being Better Versions of ourselves, “to just live and let live”. While this is just Common Sense, we find that Common Sense is not so common. In fact, just the opposite have occurred; in some societies Islamophobia has been enshrined in Public Policy. See the example from Australia here:

Islamophobia is practically enshrined as public policy in Australia
… any 28-year-old in Australia has grown up in a period when racism, xenophobia and a hostility to Muslims in particular, were quickly ratcheting up in the country’s public culture.

In the period of the country’s enthusiastic participation in the War on Terror, Islam and Muslims have frequently been treated as public enemies, and hate speech against them has inexorably been normalised.

We must do better in the Caribbean. In fact, Muslims are an integral part of our regional society; they have every right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If we honor that, not only can we have peace, but profit too. Imagine catering to the global Muslim community to enjoy our hospitality. (We had asserted the same about the Hindu community). See the Appendix VIDEO below for a glimpse of a previous celebration.

That requires a welcoming attitude of Diversity & Inclusion. Some communities see the need for this work – see here:

Trinidad – Confronting issues in Islam
… Non-Muslims should always be encouraged to exercise tolerance and understanding. But the standard defence of denying the ‘perpetrators as true Muslims’ or stating that ‘this is not Islam’ is no longer convincing. This may be part of the reason for the absence of worldwide outpouring over the massacres in Istanbul, Baghdad and Saudi Arabia as opposed to the response that Paris, Brussels and Orlando received. The backlash has gone beyond hate crimes and prejudice and is now one of apathy and indifference ie, ‘If they want to kill each other, let them go right ahead, as long as they leave the rest of us alone.’ The unfortunate truth is that Muslims, regardless of how friendly or moderate they may appear, are still looked upon with suspicion.

This is what is meant by “Good Community Ethos”, the positive group qualities, that this Go Lean movement encourages our people to foster.

Diversity & Inclusion is not automatic; in fact, it is the opposite; it takes hard work. But if we do the work, we can have benefits; we can remediate and mitigate a Toxic Environment. Diversity & Inclusion can and do work. Look at this opportunity:

How an ancient Islamic holiday became uniquely Caribbean on Trinidad shores
In Trinidad, the 100,000 Muslims who make up 5 percent of the island’s total population, celebrate the day of Ashura, as Hosay – the name derived from “Hussein.”

The first Hosay festival was held in 1854, just over a decade after the first Indian Muslims began to arrive from India to work on the island’s sugar plantations.

But Trinidad at the time was under British colonial rule and large public gatherings were not permitted. In 1884, the British authorities issued a prohibition against Hosay commemorations. Approximately 30,000 people took to the streets, in Mon Repos, in the south, to protest against the ordinance. Shots fired to disperse the crowd killed 22 and injured over 100. The ordinance was later overturned.

The “Hosay Massacre” or “Muharram Massacre,” however, lives in people’s memories.

As we see, Orthodoxy – from religious and cultural heritage – can hurt community harmony; it can discourage people from the libertarian view to “live and let live”. The Muslim World so often was on the receiving side of religious intolerance. But don’t get it twisted, Islam and the Muslim World is not a model for Diversity & Inclusion themselves; we have lots of examples of their intolerance (i.e. Middle East country of Jordan and their LGBT Intolerance).

This commentary is a continuation on the Teaching Series related to Toxic Environments where we addressed the pseudo-phobias – irrational fear or hatred – that have made life unbearable in the homeland. But now we see how this kind of intolerance imperils the economic engines as well. Yes, we’ve “shot ourselves in the foot” … again!

… we get homophobia, xenophobia and islamophobia; which are not real “phobias” (fear) but instead are representative of dislike, disapproval, prejudice, hatred, discrimination and/or hostility.

This means that we are not exactly the “greatest address on the planet”. Nope, our homelands are among the identified Toxic Environments on the planet. This is entry 3-of-6 in this series; this one presents the thesis that “our toxicity have long reaching consequences on the community quest to “live, work and play” here in the region. Our Toxic Environment makes it hard to retain our guests and tourists with encouragements for future and frequent visits. Instead, our Caribbean (tourism) industrial stakeholders must do the heavier lifting to always attract newer-and-newer visitors, rather than the easier job of repeat customers.

Consider here, the full catalog of the series this month:

Toxic Environment: Ready for Football – Washington “Redskins”
Toxic Environment: Homophobia – The problem is the Hate, not the Fear
Toxic Environment: Opposite of Diversity & Inclusion
Toxic Environment: Lessons from Yugoslavia
Toxic Environment: Ease of Doing Business
Toxic Environment: Make the Caribbean Great (Anew)

How can we abate the Toxic Environment described here-in:

Answer: Promote Diversity and Inclusion.

A previous Go Lean commentary from December 19, 2019 identified the benefits of an inclusive foundation – the opposite of a Toxic Environment – by studying the international conglomerate Mercedes-Benz or DaimlerBenz. Consider this summary:

Learning from Another ‘Great Place to Work’: Mercedes-Benz
A lot of companies formed 133 years ago are no longer around.

Time takes its toll

Business models change

Technology improves

Values are reformed

For the companies that have survived the “Win or Go Home” tournaments, it is important to study them and learn lessons of their successes … and failures. …

This “Old Dog” has learned a lot of “New Tricks”.

They are considered one of the Great Places to Work, by the formal Great Place to Work® Institute; they are in the Top Ten on the 2018 List. …

One such Value Reformation that Mercedes-Benz has completed that other companies, institutions and regions – this mean YOU Caribbean stakeholders – can learn from is the emphasis on Diversity and Inclusion. …

How we shape Diversity & Inclusion
Daimler employs more than 298,000 people from around 160 nations. And that is just one aspect of our company’s diversity. We shape Diversity & Inclusion with appropriate offers and measures for our employees in five dimensions:

We work in international teams.

We bring people from different generations together.

We promote equal opportunity for all genders.

We defend the rights of the LGBTI+ Community.

We include people with disabilities on an equal footing.

Source: Posted December 9, 2019; retrieved December 19, 2019 from https://www.daimler.com/sustainability/basics/employees/how-we-shape-diversity-inclusion.html

The subject of Diversity & Inclusion has been an important subject for Caribbean considerations. We have thusly published a few commentaries that advocated for more Diversity & Inclusion. Consider this list of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19217	Brain Drain – ‘Live and Let Live’: Introducing Localism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19203	Brain Drain – Brain Gain: Yes we can!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	Caribbean ‘Pride’ – “Can we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16532	European Reckoning – Settlers -vs- Immigrants
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15998	Good Governance: The Kind of Society We Want – Minority Protections
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14316	Soft Power – Clean-up the Toxic Environments for Economic Benefits
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321	Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8186	Respect for Minorities: ‘All For One’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3999	Sir Sidney Poitier – ‘Breaking New Ground’ as a Diversity Role Model

Majority versus minority; strong versus the weak; rich versus poor; Haves versus Have Nots…

… everywhere we turn, there are diverse people that needs to be included in the manifestation of society. This inclusion means a “seat at the table, not just being on the menu”. It is simpler than it sounds; all we have to do is “Live and Let Live”.

This has not always been the case in the past. In fact, we have some Bad Orthodoxy – many times the Caribbean religiosity has hurt rather than helped – that we must distance ourselves from. A lot of our friends, have not always been so friendly; a lot of our enemies have not been so adversarial. We need to reform from the past as we work for the new, brighter, better future.

Yes, we can …

Let’s accept the truth: we have been toxic! Let’s do the work that must be done to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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.

xiv. 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.

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

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

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

——————–

Appendix VIDEO – Hosay in Cedros, Trinidad (2007) – https://youtu.be/VtbaGduFVHE

Dion Samsoondar
Posted October 8, 2011 – A look at the final day of Muharram, or “Hosay” , a Shiite muslim ritual as observance in the tiny southern seaside village of Cedros, Trinidad in the Caribbean. Natural sound of tassa drums fill the air as villagers parade the tadjahs on the main street of this fishing community before the mini replica tomb are lead to the ocean for final rites. Video shot in 2007 with JVC GY-HD100U ,and edited in CS3 by Dion Samsoondar (2007).

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Toxic Environment – Homophobia: Hate not Fear – Encore

Posted on September 23, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Government, Social

What is a phobia?

Well, a summary of the definition is a “persistent and excessive fear”. The encyclopedic definition is as follows:

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation.^[1] Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are present for more than six months.^[1] Those affected will go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed.^[1] If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress.^[1] Other symptoms can include fainting, which may occur in blood or injury phobia,^[1] and panic attacks, which are often found in agoraphobia.^[6] Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.^[1] – Source: Wikipedia

There are other fears that are mistakenly called phobias that are really something else. (This is the focus on this commentary). See the continuation of the above definition:

Several terms with the suffix -phobia are used non-clinically (usually for political or deterrent purpose) to imply irrational fear or hatred. Examples include:

Chemophobia – Negative attitudes and mistrust towards chemistry and synthetic chemicals.

Homophobia – Negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).

Xenophobia – Fear or dislike of strangers or the unknown, sometimes used to describe nationalistic political beliefs and movements.

Islamophobia – Fear of anything Islamic

Usually these kinds of “phobias” are described as fear, dislike, disapproval, prejudice, hatred, discrimination or hostility towards the object of the “phobia”.^[53]

Don’t get it twisted, these are not fears; these constitute hatred. Prejudice, hatred and discrimination exercised in a persistent and excessive manner is truly toxic. Imagine being on the receiving end of such treatment, such irrational fear or hatred.

How much can you tolerate? How much should you tolerate? This is like having a burning cross on your front lawn. How long before you want to leave?

This is a continuation on the Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, related to Toxic Environments. The pseudo-phobias – irrational fear or hatred – all contribute to unbearable circumstances at home; thusly they contribute to the Exodus of so many Caribbean people; this exacerbates the Brain Drain and societal abandonment in the region. We’ve got it bad!

Every month, the movement behind the Go Lean book presents a Teaching Series to address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. For this month of September 2020, we are looking at the actuality of persecuted minorities in this homeland. Unfortunately, Toxic Environments have long reaching consequences on the community quest to live, work and play. This is entry 2-of-6; it presents the thesis that the “strong in society should not be allowed to abuse the weak” just to allay some pseudo-fears. This is an important consideration, as it depicts the heavy-lifting that the Caribbean stakeholders must do.

Consider here, the full catalog of the series this month:

Toxic Environment: Ready for Football – Washington “Redskins”
Toxic Environment: Homophobia – The problem is the Hate, not the Fear
Toxic Environment: Opposite of Diversity & Inclusion
Toxic Environment: Lessons from Yugoslavia
Toxic Environment: Ease of Doing Business
Toxic Environment: Make the Caribbean Great (Anew)

The Go Lean book, serving as a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), asserts that Caribbean stakeholders must do the heavy-lifting to mitigate and remediate societal defects. While the purpose of the roadmap is to optimize the economic, security and governing engines of society, the roadmap recognizes that we must retain people in the homeland. No people = no society = no culture. Therefore, we must have a good societal foundation; respect and protection of all people and their rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The purpose of this month’s Teaching Series is to focus on that foundation. There is a glaring need for reform, as we have a long track record of bad behavior like hate, bigotry, xenophobia and intolerance in our Caribbean communities.

As related in the previous submission in this month’s series, the Caribbean has fostered a Toxic Environment in our culture; it has been so bad that these identified bad behaviors have flourished. This is not good, as a Toxic Environment pits villains against victims and in the long run, the victims – and all those that love them – will seek refuge elsewhere. This is true with all Toxic Environments – think Asylum-seekers. Asylum-seeking is the manifesting of the Push dynamics for Caribbean abandonment:

“Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
“Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more liberal life abroad; many times our people are emigrating for societies that have better expressions of the rights for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

The Caribbean is not the first nor the last Toxic Environment; there have been many in the past and even now in the present. Think Nazi Germany, who persecuted (i.e. Concentration Camps) many minority groups (Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc.). Today, we have more bad role models of hate, bigotry, xenophobia and intolerance – like in the Muslim Word, (think ISIS), where persecuted minorities are frequently targeted. (There have been instances of public killing of convicted homosexuals).

We must look, listen and learn from these past and present Toxic Environments, then work towards making our society better – more tolerant. We cannot afford to keep losing our people; that will degrade our culture further. Using an analogy from medical trauma, our society is bleeding populations – we must stop the bleeding – otherwise the patient – our unique culture – will die.

How bad is our society? While not ISIS, we are recognized as one of the worst in our attitudes and toleration of homosexual practices.

Say it ain’t so …

This was our initial reaction in researching and writing about the Buggery Laws in the Anglo-Caribbean. Those laws seemed so barbaric for our modern times. And yet, they persists. A previous Go Lean commentary from July 2, 2015 identified this example of our severe Caribbean Toxicity. Consider this summary:

While this commentary directly targets Jamaica, the majority of the countries and overseas territories of the former British Empire, still criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. This has been described as being the result of “the major historical influence” or legacy of the British Empire. In most cases, it was former colonial administrators that established anti-gay legislation or sodomy acts during the 19^th century. … The majority of countries then retained these laws following independence.

Since that 2015 date, we have published a few additional commentaries that advocated for more tolerance for citizens – and visitors – with alternative life styles. Consider this list of previous blog-commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=20292	Conscientizing on VIDEO: Advocating for Empathy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19217	Brain Drain – ‘Live and Let Live’: Introducing Localism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17820	Caribbean ‘Pride’ – “Can we all just get along”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14830	Counter-culture: Embracing the Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11224	‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – Leaders Undermine Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10216	Waging a Successful War on Orthodoxy
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8200	Respect for Minorities: Climate of Hate
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8186	Respect for Minorities: ‘All For One’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341	Homosexual Intolerance listed among blatant human rights abuses

It is simple, if we want to grow our society, we must work hard to make it a better place to live, work and place for everyone, not just some people. Remember the old nursery rhyme: “rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief; doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief”.

It is Toxic to allow the “Strong to Abuse the Weak” – including LGBT – in our society.

Now is a good time to address those bad Buggery Laws that still prevail in the Anglo-Caribbean. It is apropos to Encore the full blog-commentary from July 2015; see that here now:

——————-

Go Lean Commentary – Buggery in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!

This commentary has asserted that the Caribbean region can be a better society than the United States of America. Yes, we can!

But to even start the discussion, we must first:

Live and let live!

The topic of intolerance has been acute in the news as of late. We have the extreme example of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beheading non-Muslims because… well, just because. And the example of the US legalizing Gay Marriage may be considered too tolerant for some people’s good taste.

Where does the Caribbean fit in this discussion?

If ISIS is one end of a scale and Gay Marriage in America is another end, then one Caribbean member-state, Jamaica, would be closer to …

ISIS!

Yes, it is that bad. Say it ain’t so.

See Appendix-VIDEO’s below …

While this commentary directly targets Jamaica, the majority of the countries and overseas territories of the former British Empire, still criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. This has been described as being the result of “the major historical influence” or legacy of the British Empire. In most cases, it was former colonial administrators that established anti-gay legislation or sodomy acts during the 19^th century; see Appendix below. The majority of countries then retained these laws following independence.^[1][2].

There is an effort now to transform society in Jamaica (and other countries) in this regards. There are Gay Pride Activities being planned for this Summer of 2015. See the relevant news article here:

Title: J-FLAG Is Planning Gay Pride Activities, But No Parade For August – Exec
Source: Jamaica Gleaner Daily Newspaper Online Site; posted June 30, 2015; retrieved from: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150630/j-flag-planning-gay-pride-activities-no-parade-august-exec

Local gay lobby, J-FLAG, is refuting reports that it will host a road parade in August when the group plans to have a series of gay pride activities.

Social media has been abuzz since yesterday following a report that the group would host a parade, similar to what is done in the United States and other countries.

However, executive director of J-FLAG, Dane Lewis, says the report is wrong, adding that Jamaica is not ready for such an event.

Meanwhile, he says the group is planning a week-long series of activities starting on Emancipation Day, August 1, to mark growing tolerance for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

Some years ago, an attempt to host a gay parade was thwarted after anti-gay supporters reportedly planned attacks against marchers.

Jamaica is accused of being one of the most homophobic places on earth.

Last week, the US government released a report noting that anti-gay laws and the dancehall culture are responsible for perpetuating homophobia in Jamaica.
Additional reference sources: http://jflag.org/

———–

VIDEO: Executive Director of JFLAG, Dane Lewis: “We Are Jamaicans” – https://youtu.be/sJ-17R5DCoI

Published on Jan 17, 2013 – “We Are Jamaicans” is funded with the kind support of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) through its Global Fund Vulnerablised Project.

Building a diverse society is not easy. The book Go Lean … Caribbean describes the challenge as heavy-lifting. Though the US had failed at this challenge, it proudly boasts that it got better with every generation. The Caribbean on the other hand, leaves much to be desired in terms of the willingness to change and keep pace with progressive societies. (Now the US, Canada, Ireland and other countries have legalized Gay Marriage).

In a previous blog-commentaries, this defect – Homosexual Intolerance – was listed among the blatant human rights abuses in the region.

This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried to be as tolerant as may be required, expected and just plain moral.

We must do better!

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that Caribbean society’s prosperity has been hindered with a high abandonment rate – reported at 70% for educated classes region-wide, but an even higher 85% in Jamaica. The primary mission of the Go Lean book is to “battle” against the “push-and-pull” factors that draw so many of our Caribbean citizens away from their homelands to go to more progressive countries.

The Go Lean book campaigns to lower the “push” factors!

The purpose of the Go Lean book is to fix the Caribbean; to be better. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to pursue the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through empowerments in economics, security and governance. It is the assertion that Caribbean citizens can stay home and effect change in their homelands more effectively than going to some foreign countries to find opportunities for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The book therefore asserts that the region can turn-around from failing assessments by applying best-practices, and forging new societal institutions to impact the Greater Good for all the Caribbean. This point was pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 10 – 14) with these acknowledgements and statements:

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

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

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of communities like … Egypt. On the other hand, the Federation must also implement the good examples learned from developments/ communities like New York City, … Canada, … and tenants of the US Constitution.

The CU/Go Lean vision to elevate Caribbean society must also consider the issue of image. There is the need for a sentinel role for Caribbean image, as there are a lot of times that Caribbean life and people are denigrated in the media: news, film, TV, books, magazines. It’s unfortunate when we are guilty of scathing allegations. The Go Lean roadmap calls for the CU to assume a role of protecting and projecting positive Caribbean images. The plan is to use cutting edge delivery of best practices; the applicable CU agencies will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact the Go Lean prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate challenges/threats to public safety for all citizens… LGBT or straight.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Jamaica has a failing economy.

Jamaica’s primary economic driver is tourism. So …

Is the Caribbean ready for this economic activity? A bridge too far, too soon?

Jamaica has a long way to go; the country has been described by some Human Rights groups as the most homophobic place on Earth because of the high level of violent crime directed at LGBT people; (Padgett, Tim: “The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?”. Time Magazine posted 12 April 2006). The United States Department of State said that in 2012, “homophobia was [unacceptably] widespread in the country” (2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Jamaica, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, pages 20-22). As depicted in the VIDEO below, even President Obama indicted the island on a recent official State Visit.

Why is this country’s homophobia so acute compared to other countries? For one, they have held on emphatically to the British Laws on Buggery – see Appendix below – from their colonial days; even though the host country of England has already abandoned the laws (in 1967).

Jamaica is partying like it’s 1899!

This is therefore a matter of community ethos. The Go Lean book defines community ethos as the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; the dominant assumptions of a people or period. This tropical paradise of Jamaica, as defined in the foregoing news article and VIDEO continues to spur bad attitudes, bad ideas, bad speech and bad actions towards the LGBT community. This is unbecoming of a progressive society in 2015.

Alas, this is a crisis…for victims and their loved ones. The Go Lean book posits that this crisis can be averted, that the crisis is a “terrible thing to waste”. The Go Lean roadmap seeks to optimize the eco-systems for Jamaica and the entire Caribbean. The book stresses new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to transform and turn-around the eco-systems of the regional society. These points are detailed in the book as follows:

Who We Are – SFE Foundation – Comprised of Caribbean Diaspora	Page 8
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate all 30 member-states into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Build and foster local economic engines	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Repatriate the Diaspora, even Minorities like those of the LGBT community	Page 46
Tactical – Ways to Foster a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing the Economy to $800 Billion GDP	Page 68
Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – CU Federal Government versus Member-State Governance	Page 71
Anatomy of Advocacies – Examples of Individuals Who Made Impact	Page 122
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – Homeland Security Pact	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Minority and Human Rights	Page 134
Planning – Lessons Learned from US Constitution – Equal Protection for all Minorities	Page 145
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – For All Citizens	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Security against “Bad Actors”	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Internal Affairs Reporting Line	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime – Hate Crime Qualifiers	Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism – Consider Bullying as Junior Terrorism	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth – Collaborating with Foundations	Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Jamaica	Page 239
Advocacy – Ways to Impact British Territories	Page 245

Looking at the disposition of the island nation of Jamaica’s, we see that its societal engines are failing.

Could the investment in the diversity of its people be at the root of the problem?

The failing indices and metrics of Jamaica have been considered in previous blog/commentaries; see sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4840	Jamaican Poll: ‘Bring back the British!’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3694	Looking for a job in Jamaica, go to Canada
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2830	Jamaica’s Public Pension Under-funded
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=313	What’s Holding Back Jamaica’s Reforms

The Go Lean roadmap seeks to empower and elevate Caribbean societal engines to make Jamaica, and the rest of the Caribbean, better places to live, work and play … for all citizens, including the LGBT communities.

Most of the Jamaican Diaspora that has abandoned the island now lives in the US, Canada or the UK. Their new home-communities are more tolerant societies of their LGBT neighbors.

Perhaps, there is some correlation.

This commentary is not urging the abandonment of the Judeo-Christian moral code; Jesus Christ instructed to “let them be” at Luke 22:51 (The Message Translation). Rather this commentary urges tolerance and moderation: Live and let live!

Fight the hate!

Yes, we can … do this. Yes, we must do this. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
———–

Appendix VIDEO: US President Obama’s LGBT comments at Youth Leaders Town Hall – https://youtu.be/636mgw1THpc?t=5m1s

Published on Apr 9, 2015 – President Obama delivers remarks and answers questions at a town hall with Young Leaders of the Americas at University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. April 9, 2015.
———–

Appendix VIDEO: Gay rights in Jamaica – https://youtu.be/_nSgMGoBAmU

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Appendix – Encyclopedic Reference: Buggery in English Common Law

The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may also be a specific common law offenceencompassing both sodomy and bestiality.

In English law “buggery” was first used in the Buggery Act 1533, while Section 61 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, entitled “Sodomy and Bestiality”, defined punishments for “the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal”. The definition of “buggery” was not specified in these or any statute, but rather established by judicial precedent.^[1] Over the years the courts have defined buggery as including either [of these]:

anal intercourse or oral intercourse by a man with a man or woman^[2] or
vaginal intercourse by either a man or a woman with an animal,^[3]

But [no other] form of “unnatural intercourse”^[4] [was defined], the implication being that anal sex with an animal would not constitute buggery. Such a case has not, to date, come before the courts of a common law jurisdiction in any reported decision. However, it seems highly improbable that a person would be exculpated of a crime associated with sex with animals only by reason of the fact that penetration involved the anus rather than the vagina. In the 1817 case of Rex v. Jacobs, the Crown Court ruled that oral intercourse, even with an underage and/or non-consenting person, did not constitute buggery or sodomy.^[4]

At common law consent was not a defence^[5] nor was the fact that the parties were married.^[6] In the UK, the punishment for buggery was reduced from hanging to life imprisonment by the Offences against the Person Act 1861. As with the crime of rape, buggery required that penetration must have occurred, but ejaculation is not necessary.^[7]

Most common law jurisdictions have now modified the law to permit anal sex between consenting adults.^[8] Hong Kong did so retroactively in 1990, barring prosecution for “crimes against nature” committed before the Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance 1990 entered into force except those that would still have constituted a crime if they had been done thereafter. In England and Wales, homosexual buggery was decriminalised in 1967 with an age of consent at 21 years, whereas all heterosexual intercourse had an age of consent at 16 years. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 did not fully remove buggery as a concept in United Kingdom law, as the previous law is retained for complainants (consensual or “pseudo-consensual”) under the age of 16, or 18 with regards to an adult perceived to be in a “position of trust”. As the law stands, buggery is still charged, exclusively regarding “pseudo-consensual” anal intercourse with those under 16/18, because children cannot legally consent to buggery although they may appear to do so. Rape is charged when the penetration is clearly not consensual. Buggery with an animal is still unlawful under Section 69 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

In the Republic of Ireland, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 abolished the offence of “buggery between persons”.^[9] For some years prior to 1993, criminal prosecution had not been made for buggery between consenting adults. The 1993 Act created an offence of “buggery with a person under the age of 17 years”,^[10] penalised similar to statutory rape, which also had 17 years as the age of consent. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 replaced this offence with “defilement of a child”, encompassing both “sexual intercourse” and “buggery”.^[11] Buggery with an animal is still unlawful under Section 69 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. In 2012 a man was convicted of this offence for supplying a dog in 2008 to a woman who had intercourse with it and died.^[12]

Etymology – The word bugger and buggery are still commonly used in modern English as a mild exclamation. “Buggery” is also synonymous with anal sex.

The word “bugger” was derived, via the French bougre, from Bulgar, that is, “Bulgarian”, meaning the medieval Bulgarian heretical sect of the Bogomils, which spread into Western Europe and was claimed by the established church to be devoted to the practice of sodomy.^[13] “Buggery” first appears in English in 1330, though “bugger” in a sexual sense is not recorded until 1555.^[14]

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buggery)

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Civil Rights, Diaspora, Gender, Jamaica, Power, Tourism, Transform

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Keep the Change: Mono-Industrial Economy Exhaustion

Posted on April 26, 2020 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

We have all seen-heard the common expressions of exhaustion:

I am sick and tired of being ‘sick and tired’.

Grow up Already, and take care of your own business.

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I am changing the things I cannot accept.

From the very beginning we, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean, set-out to correct this blatant flaw in our societal design – Page 3, Paragraph 2:

Many people love their homelands and yet still begrudgingly leave; this is due mainly to the lack of economic opportunities. The Caribbean has tried, strenuously, over the decades, to diversify their economy away from the mono-industrial trappings of tourism, and yet tourism is still the primary driver of the economy. Prudence dictates that the Caribbean nations expand and optimize their tourism products, but also look for other opportunities for economic expansion. The requisite investment of the resources (time, talent, treasuries) for this goal may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state. Rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).

Enough already! We are exhausted from all this deficiency.

Thanks to the Coronavirus – COVID-19 crisis, the world is re-thinking mono-industrial trappings. It is not good to “put all the eggs in one basket”. See this dramatization in the Appendix VIDEO below.

If you are dependent on tourism, be On Guard, with no COVID-19 vaccine or treatment, travel restrictions and social distancing will be the new normal for a long time still – maybe 18 months. This means 2022 before a return to 2019 levels of economic output.

Those dependent on tourism are hereby being forced to accept changes and make adjustments.

They are being forced to make a change, not just temporarily to get past this crisis, but rather permanent change to fix the “cracks in the foundation”. They want to Keep the Change and complete the diversification pledge.

This is also the narrative for another industry and another country, that of Saudi Arabia. Right now; their society is mono-industrial – oil – but they want to be less vulnerable to the volatility of oil prices and oil revenues. So they want to contemplate other ways to diversify their economy. They want to Keep the Change; see the Appendix below. Their ‘Will to Change’ is strong as they have been Oil Rich for a long time.

Movie Quotes: Trading Places (1983)
“The best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people” – Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy)

The price of oil dropped to $11.26 a barrel (55 ga1lons) earlier this month; this was the absolute lowest in recent history. Oil revenues cratered for all such Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

How about us in the Caribbean?

While we do have some OPEC members in our region – 2 of 30 – the vast majority of the Caribbean depend on a different mono-industrial engine: tourism. Likewise, most of our countries too, have failed to deliver any diversification to the industrial offering.

The problem is the mono-industrial engine.

The solution is diversification.

How do we go about manifesting this change, Keeping this Change?

(Saudi Arabia is out of scope for the movement behind the Go Lean book).

The Go Lean book presented strategies, tactics and implementations to pursue this goal. The diversification mission was stated as follows (Page 45):

Build and foster local economic engines. This will diversify the economy, while still enhancing the tourism product, and create a perpetual eco-system for job creation. Whereas certain provisions are impractical for a small-population-market, once that market is super-sized, there must be local solutions. This is best illustrated with the regions undeniable need for food, clothing and shelter. A market-size of 42 million must foster industries on Main Street to produce and supply these basic needs. By fulfilling this mission, a strategic and defensive stance, other aspects of the economy gets the peripheral benefit: jobs, lower costs of living, control of inflation – fostering middle class prospects.

Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this April 2020, our focus was on the impact of the Coronavirus on the economic engines in the region. There is now the need to re-focus on the changes this crisis has ushered in and to Keep the Changes that are good and may have always been needed, like industrial diversification. This is entry 5 of 5 for this series, it completes the series and encores the certainty and urgency to flex our economic muscles to “put our eggs in more than one basket”.

The full catalog for this month’s series is listed as follows:

Keep the Change – Lower Carbon Consumption abating Climate Change
Keep the Change – Working From Home & the Call Center Model
Keep the Change – Schools – Primary to Tertiary – making e-Learning work
Keep the Change – Basic Needs: Cannot just consume; we must produce as well
Keep the Change – Mono-Industrial Economy: ‘All eggs in 1 basket’

Don’t get it twisted, this Coronavirus-COVID-19 threat means death and devastation for many people and it has devastated the economic engines of most countries. There are no Ands, Ifs or Buts; we are not immune here in the Caribbean. We must abide by best-practices or suffer the consequences. Crises bring challenges, challenges bring changes. Some good, some bad and some ugly.

Yes, we can … Keep the Changes for the good benefits. We have always needed to pursue a diversification of our industrial footprint, to accomplish this finally would be good. This diversification goal was previously identified, qualified and proposed with different Industrial Reboot solutions, spread across 2 years. See this chronological list of previous submissions:

Industrial Reboots – Ferries 101 – Published June 27, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Prisons 101 – Published October 4, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Pipeline 101 – Published October 5, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Frozen Foods 101 – Published October 6, 2017
Industrial Reboots – Commercial Gigs 101 – Published February 8, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Call Centers 101 – Published July 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Prefab Housing 101 – Published July 14, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Trauma 101 – Published July 18, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Auto-making 101 – Published July 19, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Shipbuilding 101 – Published July 20, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Fisheries 101 – Published July 23, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Lottery 101 – Published July 24, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Culture 101 – Published July 25, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Cruise Tourism 2.0 – Published July 27, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Reinsurance Sidecars 101 – Published October 2, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Navy Piers 101 – Published October 9, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Payment Cards 101 – Published October 11, 2018
Industrial Reboots – Medical Schools 101 – Published March 1, 2019
Industrial Reboots – Amusements Parks 101 – Published May 8, 2019

In summary, our Caribbean region needs a diversified industrial landscape to improve our economics, security and governance. This is why we must Keep the Change. emanating from this Coronavirus-COVID-19 crisis.

If the only positive thing that comes from this crisis is a diversified economy, then that would be a good benefit from a bad sacrifice, a good return on a huge investment.

The sacrifices would not have been in vain.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste!

We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to work to reform and transform our homeland. We urge you to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to reboot the industrial landscape. This is how we will make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————-

Appendix VIDEO – Idioms – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – https://youtu.be/EFkSIuNTdXc

Posted December 2, 2016

Sprachenzentrum Hochschule Nordhausen

Category: People & Blogs

——————-

Appendix – A new direction for the Saudi Arabian economy
Sub-title: As Saudi Arabia moves to diversify its economy away from oil, its private sector is beginning to truly thrive

Saudi Arabia finds itself at a significant economic crossroads. Home to the second-largest oil reserves in the world, the kingdom’s economy has been largely defined by the crude industry since drillers first struck oil in Dammam in March 1938. The discovery marked a watershed moment in the nation’s history, sparking an economic boom and propelling Saudi Arabia towards becoming one of the world’s wealthiest countries. Today, the nation is recognised as a global economic powerhouse, sitting among the G20 countries and boasting one of the highest GDPs in the Middle East.

While oil has brought Saudi Arabia great wealth and prosperity, we know one thing for certain – it won’t last forever. Crude is a finite resource and, although there is much debate surrounding the extent of the nation’s vast oil reserves, some estimates predict that supplies will last just 70 more years. This looming time limit – coupled with a global push to create a greener future – has seen Saudi Arabia begin to craft its vision for a post-oil era.

In 2016, Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the ambitious Vision 2030, a far-reaching reform plan that aims to diversify the economy away from oil, bolstering the private sector and improving employment opportunities for young people. The plan seeks to create a thriving economy where non-oil sectors such as tourism, manufacturing and renewable energy can drive growth, and entrepreneurial activities are encouraged. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a main focus for Vision 2030, with the project seeking to increase the contribution of SMEs to the Saudi Arabian GDP from 20 to 35 percent over the next decade. As the government forges ahead with its diversification drive, Saudi businesses must develop in line with these exciting transformations. A new economic ecosystem is emerging in Saudi Arabia and opportunities are plentiful for those businesses that contribute to its creation.

Burgeoning businesses
With Saudi Arabia ramping up its economic transformation plan, the nation’s private sector is truly coming into its own, and non-oil industries are beginning to drive growth. One such industry is the Saudi insurance market, which has shown great promise in recent years, emerging as one of the largest insurance sectors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Since first opening its doors to customers in 1986, the Company for Cooperative Insurance (Tawuniya) has grown into one of the nation’s foremost insurance providers, offering more than 60 insurance products – including medical, motor, fire, property, engineering, casualty, marine, energy and aviation insurance – in order to protect Saudi citizens from all manner of risk.

See the full article here: https://www.worldfinance.com/featured/a-new-direction-for-the-saudi-arabian-economy published October 3, 2019 retrieved April 26, 2020.

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Jobs, Model, Tourism, Transform

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Coronavirus: ‘Clear and Present’ Threat to Economic Security

Posted on March 11, 2020 in Economics, Government, Planning, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

There is a Clear and Present Danger threatening the world’s economic establishments – Coronavirus. Everyone will be affected! If you catch this flu, you are affected. If you do not catch this flu, you are still affected!

Travel, transport and systems of commerce are preparing for the worst-case scenario. This is the …

Sum of All Our Fears.

Things will get worse before it gets worst. Expect a global recession!

For the 30 Caribbean member-states, the dangers are starting to materialize in this region and among the Diaspora:

Travel alerts are going up; with restrictions to/from countries like: China, Italy, South Korea, Singapore, Iran, Spain, France and Germany – Consider this instance in the Bahamas:
Updated Border Control and Quarantine Measures for Persons Coming from Selected Countries
https://bahamaschronicle.com/updated-border-control-and-qu…/
Jamaica has Coronavirus incidents:
BREAKING: 2nd case of COVID-19 confirmed in Jamaica
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/BREAKING:_2nd_case_of_COVID-19_confirmed
Cruises are being cancelled: https://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/as-seen-on/coronavirus-impact-on-the-tourism-industry/2202976/
See Appendix VIDEO below.
Events are being cancelled: https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/coronavirus-concerns-in-south-florida-a-guide-to-which-events-are-cancelled-which-arent/2201679/

All in all, there is impact on the Caribbean region, and the whole world for that matter. These are not our words alone; these are the words of the cover story of this week’s edition of the globally iconic journal The Economist Magazine (March 7, 2020). This story looked at how governments should prepare for the spread of this virus, COVID-19. In truth, the pandemic threatens an economic crisis as well as a health crisis and both will need fixing. So far, as of this publication date, the disease is in 85 countries and territories, up from 50 a week earlier. More than 95,000 cases and 3,200 deaths have been recorded. See the full “The Economist” article here and a related VIDEO:

Title: COVID-19 – The right medicine for the world economy
Sub-Title: Coping with the pandemic involves all of government, not just the health system

It is not a fair fight, but it is a fight that many countries will face all the same. Left to itself, the COVID-19 pandemic doubles every five to six days. When you get your next issue of The Economist the outbreak could in theory have infected twice as many people as today. Governments can slow that ferocious pace, but bureaucratic time is not the same as virus time. And at the moment governments across the world are being left flat-footed.

The disease is in 85 countries and territories, up from 50 a week earlier. Over 95,000 cases and 3,200 deaths have been recorded. Yet our own analysis, based on patterns of travel to and from China, suggests that many countries which have spotted tens of cases have hundreds more circulating undetected (see Graphic detail). Iran, South Korea and Italy are exporting the virus. America has registered 159 cases in 14 states but as of March 1st it had, indefensibly, tested just 472 people when South Korea was testing 10,000 a day. Now that America is looking, it is sure to find scores of infections—and possibly unearth a runaway epidemic.

Wherever the virus takes hold, containing it and mitigating its effects will involve more than doctors and paramedics. The World Health Organisation has distilled lessons from China for how health-care systems should cope (see Briefing). The same thinking is needed across the government, especially over how to protect people and companies as supply chains fracture and the worried and the ill shut themselves away.

The first task is to get manpower and money to hospitals. China drafted in 40,000 health workers to Hubei province. Britain may bring medics out of retirement. This week the World Bank made $12bn and the IMF $50bn available for COVID-19. The Global Fund, which fights diseases like malaria and tb, said countries can switch grants. In America Congress is allocating $8.3bn of funding. The country has some of the world’s most advanced hospitals, but its fragmented health system has little spare capacity. Much more money will be needed.

Just as important is to slow the spread of the disease by getting patients to come forward for testing when outbreaks are small and possible to contain. They may be deterred in many countries, including much of America, where 28 [million] people are without health coverage and many more have to pay for a large slug of their own treatment. People also need to isolate themselves if they have mild symptoms, as about 80% of them will. Here sick pay matters, because many people cannot afford to miss work. In America a quarter of employees have no access to paid sick leave and only scattered states and cities offer sickness benefits. Often the self-employed, a fifth of Italy’s workforce, do not qualify. One study found that, in epidemics, guaranteed sick pay cuts the spread of flu in America by 40%.

Sick pay also helps soften the blow to demand which, along with a supply shock and a general panic, is hitting economies. These three factors, as China shows, can have a dramatic effect on output. Manufacturing activity there sank in February to its lowest level since managers were first surveyed in 2004. In the quarter to March the economy as a whole could shrink for the first time since the death of Mao Zedong. The OECD expects global growth this year to be its slowest since 2009. Modelling by academics at the Australian National University suggests that GDP in America and Europe would be 2% lower than it would have been in the absence of a pandemic and perhaps as much as 8% lower if the rate of deaths is many times higher than expected. Financial markets are pricing in fear. The S&P 500 has fallen by 8% from its peak on February 19th. Issuance of corporate debt on Wall Street has more or less stopped. The yield on ten-year Treasuries dipped below 1% for the first time ever.

In rich countries, most of the economic effort has been directed towards calming financial markets. On March 3rd America’s Federal Reserve cut rates a fortnight before its monetary-policy meeting, and by an unusually large half-a-percentage point (see article). The central banks of Australia, Canada and Indonesia have also acted. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are both expected to loosen policy, too.

Yet this slowdown is not a textbook downturn. Lower rates will ease borrowing costs and shore up sentiment, but no amount of cheap credit can stop people falling ill. Monetary policy cannot repair broken supply chains or tempt anxious people into venturing out. These obvious limitations help explain why stockmarkets failed to revive after the Fed’s cut.

Better to support the economy directly, by helping affected people and firms pay bills and borrow money if they need it. For individuals, the priority should be paying for health care and providing paid sick leave. The Trump administration is considering paying some hospital bills for those with the virus. Japan’s government will cover the wages of parents who stay at home to care for children or sick relatives; Singapore’s will help cab drivers and bosses whose employees are struck down. More such ideas will be needed.

For companies the big challenge will be liquidity. And although this shock is unlike the financial crisis, when the poison spread from within, that period did show how to cope with a liquidity crunch. Firms that lose revenues will still face tax, wage and interest bills. Easing that burden, for as long as the epidemic lasts, can avoid needless bankruptcies and lay-offs. Temporary relief on tax and wage costs can help. Employers can be encouraged to choose shorter hours for all their staff over lay-offs for some of them. Authorities could fund banks to lend to firms that are suffering, as they did during the financial crisis and as China is doing today. China is also ordering banks to go easy on delinquent borrowers. Western governments cannot do that, but it is in the interest of lenders everywhere to show forbearance towards borrowers facing a cash squeeze, much as banks did to public-sector employees during America’s government shutdown in 2018-19.

There is a tension. Health policy aims to spare hospitals by lowering the epidemic’s peak so that it is less intense, if longer-lasting. Economic policy, by contrast, aims to minimise how long factories are shut and staff absent. Eventually governments will have to strike a balance. Today, however, they are so far behind the epidemic that the priority must be to slow its spread. ■

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The right medicine for the world economy”

Source: Retrieved March 5, 2020 from: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/03/05/the-right-medicine-for-the-world-economy?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2020/03/5n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/420030/n

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VIDEO – Coronavirus | Plunging stocks on Wall Street over COVID-19 outbreak anxiety – https://youtu.be/Boof8NfPQRI

SABC Digital News
Mar 10, 2020 – A chaotic trading day on Wall Street ended with plunging stocks coupled with collapsing crude oil prices as the global anxiety from the Coronavirus continues to take hold. The Dow Jones industrial average ended over 2000 points lower while other indexes also followed suit. The stock deluge was intensified after a dispute between OPEC members and Saudi Arabia’s decision to slash its oil prices while boosting output in an angry response to Russia’s refusal to reduce production due to a fall in Chinese demand. For more news, visit sabcnews.com and also #SABCNews on Social Media.

Category: News & Politics

The present Caribbean region is short-handed for the kind of cross-border coordination that is needed to manage this pandemic – and others like it. This is truly the Sum of All Our Fears. This is a crisis …

… alas, according to the noted Nobel-prized winning Economist Paul Romer, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Now, more than ever, we need a super-national organizational structure, a technocracy, to shepherd the protection for the people and trading partners in the region.

Economists …
Economist Magazine

You see the trend, right? The Coronavirus is appearing on the radar screens for the world’s community of Economists. The world in general, and the Caribbean in particular, is about to “get hammered with the surge and tides of an economic tsunami”. Be afraid; be very afraid. (See the related experiences in the Appendix VIDEO below).

We have been here before …

This is very similar to the events of 2008, the exigency of the Great Recession and International Financial Crisis. This actuality inspired the composition of the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book traced that crisis, and availed the opportunity to propose strategies, tactics and implementations to mitigate against future crises. The premise was that the Caribbean status quo was not equipped to contend with trans-border crises alone; that not one of the 30 member-states that constituted the political Caribbean is fortified for any serious economic upheavals or threats to homeland security.

This is our actuality today!

We need those mitigations, those strategies, tactics and implementations. We need “them” now!

The book presents a roadmap to introduce the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to empower the economic, security and governing engines of the region for when there is a “Clear and Present Danger”. We are there now!

We must not delay in confederating this regional technocracy.

This will not be the last. We must prepare for global, regional and national crises as the New Normal.

This was the assertion in many previous Go Lean blog/commentaries, that highlighted the theme of a “Clear and Present Danger”; see this sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18195	Disaster Planning – Rinse and Repeat
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16836	Crypto-currency: Here comes ‘Trouble’ – Clear and Present Danger?
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15796	Lessons Learned from 2008: Righting The Wrong
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12348	Caribbean Economists: ‘Region is in Trauma’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8132	Venezuela: Watching a ‘Train Wreck in Slow Motion’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7345	The Urgency of ISIS reached the Caribbean Region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7327	The Exigency of Zika – Lessons Learned on Threat Management
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7119	The Need for a Standby Force for Threats to the Homeland
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6531	A Lesson in History – ‘Exigency of 2008’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002	Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2397	Stopping the Clear and Present Danger from ‘Ebola’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1003	Painful and rapid spread of Chikungunya virus in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=623	Harsh Reality: ‘Only at the precipice, do they change’

This Coronavirus threat will not subside anytime soon. We must prepare!

We are not the only entities around the world with this concern; States and governments everywhere have the same urgency. This is the whole premise of the standard 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.

The Caribbean member-states are not equipped on the national level; they need a super-national solution. The CU ascension creates another layer of government hierarchy for the region. This is the long awaited Way Forward for Caribbean survival.

Let’s get to work.

This is very much so the theme of the 1970 song “Lean On Me” by Singer-Songwriter Bill Withers; this became the clarion call for the Go Lean moment. Be reminded of these lyrics, as quoted in the Go Lean book (Page 5):

Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won’t let show
You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

(Chorus)

We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’d understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Second Verse

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

Today’s reality is the manifestation of this song (lyrics). It is time for the Caribbean neighborhood to “lean on” each other, for the mitigation of this Coronavirus. This is how we make our regional homeland a better place to live, work, heal and play. 🙂

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

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

ix. Whereas the realities of healthcare and an aging population cannot be ignored and cannot be afforded without some advanced mitigation, the Federation must arrange for health plans to consolidate premiums of both healthy and sickly people across the wider base of the entire Caribbean population. The mitigation should extend further to disease management, wellness, mental health, obesity and smoking cessation programs. …

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

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

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

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

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

———————-

Appendix VIDEO – The Impact of Coronavirus on Tourism Industry – https://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/as-seen-on/coronavirus-impact-on-the-tourism-industry/2202976/

March 10, 2020 – NBC 6 Investigator Tony Pipitone reports on the Coronavirus’ impact on the cruise industry.

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Disaster, Health, Tourism

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

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

Go Lean Commentary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Live and let live …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————-

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

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

————-

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

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

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

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

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

Notice the trending …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forging change in society is an Art and a Science.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are there now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Category: News & Politics

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Civil Rights, Diaspora, Model, SGE, Tourism

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Happy Chinese New Year

Posted on January 25, 2020 in Economics, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

Happy New Year …

No, not the January 1^st thing, but rather the January 25^th thing – the Chinese New Year.

This is a Big Deal in China and among the Chinese Diaspora – Sinophone – throughout the world. There is great importance to this observation. See this VIDEO and encyclopedic reference here:

VIDEO – Everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year – https://youtu.be/3I-R5S3czyw

TRT World
Posted January 24, 2020 – Here’s everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year – how it’s celebrated, it’s history, and what the animals represent.

#Chinese New Year #Spring Festival #metalrat

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Category: News & Politics

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Title: Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year^[a], also referred to as Lunar New Year, is the Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The festival is usually referred to as the Spring Festival in mainland China,^[b] and is one of several Lunar New Years in Asia. Observances traditionally take place from the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.^[2] In 2020, the first day of the Chinese New Year will be on Saturday, 25 January, initiating the Year of the Rat.

Chinese New Year is a major holiday in China, and has strongly influenced Lunar new year celebrations of China’s neighbouring cultures, including the Korean New Year (seol), the Tết of Vietnam, and the Losar of Tibet.^[3] It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries with significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations, including Singapore,^[4]Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,^[5]Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines,^[6] and Mauritius,^[7] as well as many in North America and Europe.^[8][9][10]

Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors.^[11] Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the New Year vary widely,^[12] and the evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day is frequently regarded as an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean their house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Another custom is the decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets. Popular themes among these paper-cuts and couplets include that of good fortune or happiness, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. For the northern regions of China, dumplings are featured prominently in meals celebrating the festival. It often serves as the first meal of the year either at midnight or as breakfast of the first day.
…
Festivities
New Year’s Eve
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year’s Eve is the annual reunion dinner. Dishes consisting of special meats are served at the tables, as a main course for the dinner and offering for the New Year. This meal is comparable to Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. and remotely similar to Christmas dinner in other countries with a high percentage of Christians.

In northern China, it is customary to make jiaozi, or dumplings, after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese sycee. In contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means “new year cake” with a homophonous meaning of “increasingly prosperous year in year out”.^[44]

After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called “opening the door of fortune” (开财门; 開財門; kāicáimén).^[45]

Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year’s Gala is broadcast in China four hours before the start of the New Year and lasts until the succeeding early morning. Watching it has gradually become a tradition in China. A tradition of going to bed late on New Year’s Eve, or even keeping awake the whole night and morning, known as shousui (守岁), is still practised as it is thought to add on to one’s parents’ longevity.

First day
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers and to make as much of a din as possible to chase off the evil spirits as encapsulated by nian of which the term Guo Nian was derived. Many Buddhists abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed to ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to use the broom, as good fortune is not to be “swept away” symbolically.

Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one’s elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

For Buddhists, the first day is also the designated holy day of Maitreya Bodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.

Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash known as lai see (Cantonese dialect) or angpow (Hokkien, Chaozhou, and Fujian dialects), or hongbao (Mandarin), a form of blessings and to suppress the aging and challenges associated with the coming year, to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red packets to employees for good luck, smooth-sailing, good health and wealth.

While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards. For this reason, various city governments (e.g., Kowloon, Beijing, Shanghai for a number of years) issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain precincts of the city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks display have been launched by governments in such city-states as Hong Kong and Singapore. However, it is a tradition that the indigenous peoples of the walled villages of New Territories, Hong Kong are permitted to light firecrackers and launch fireworks in a limited scale.

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

What’s the Big Deal? Well, for starters, this relates to the 1.4 Billion people in China. That’s a market size that is bigger than North America and the European Union … combined. Consider the encyclopedic details in the Appendix below.

You see it, right? You do see why this is important; 1.5 Billion people (out of 7.7 Billion) in a world where Size Matters (as related in this previous blog-commentary from August 26, 2016):

For Hollywood – a metonym for the film-television-video industry – any access to large markets is a win-win.

Enter China…

… this country has 1.3 billion people. That’s a lot of “eye-balls”. This country, considering its history, used to be closed to western commerce and movie distributions. Now, its open … and advancing. Those 1.3 billion pairs of eye-balls are presenting a lot of opportunities and now starting to wield power.

For the Caribbean, this is a necessary discussion for the planners and stewards of a new Caribbean; this requires a consideration of the economic engines for our communities. This is the assertion of the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – that size matters when it comes to marketing your “Export Products & Services”. For us in the Caribbean, our primary export is tourism – we sell travel experiences to consumers around the world. – we must consider the 20-percent of the population that features Sinophone culture.

We must curry their favor!

So Happy New Year to our Sinophone friends and family.

Yes, we have Sinophone family members in the Caribbean. In a previous blog-commentary, it was detailed how Chinese immigrants were “recruited” to come and impact the Caribbean eco-system. Consider this excerpt:

10 Things We Want from China and 10 Things We Do Not Want
Like it or not, the Caribbean is in competition with the rest of the world – and we are losing! …

Now we must consider other countries … that compete with us and are doing MUCH BETTER jobs of contending in this competitive environment. We must consider China and India:

China … went from “zero to hero”, emerging as an economic Super Power in short order. We can look, listen and learn from the Chinese eco-system; their mainland (the Peoples Republic of China), the special territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Republic of China). We can lend-a-hand in reforming and transforming our own Caribbean region – as China has had to do – and we can eventually lead a reboot and turn-around of Caribbean society; again as China has done. …

While Caribbean people are not fleeing their homeland to relocate to China. there is a Diaspora issue associated with Caribbean-China relations: Indentured Servitude. At the end of the era of Caribbean slavery (1830’s to 1840’s), the plantation system required a replacement labor source; many Chinese nationals were thusly “recruited” as Indentured Servants to the region – British, French and Spanish lands – see here:

There were two main waves of Chinese migration to the Caribbean region. The first wave of Chinese consisted of indentured labourers who were brought to the Caribbean predominantly Trinidad, British Guiana and Cuba, to work on sugar plantations during the post-Emancipation period. The second wave was comprised of free voluntary migrants, consisting of either small groups (usually relatives) to British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad from the 1890’s to the 1940’s. In fact the most modern Caribbean Chinese are descended from this second group. – Caribbean-Atlas.com

Derivatives of the 18,000-plus Chinese immigrants are still here in the Caribbean today. These descendants have grown in numbers and power (economic and political) in the region. They are part of the fabric of our society. They are home in the Caribbean; and we are at home with them

So we need to embrace the Sinophone world, here and abroad – we must “curry their favor”. The liberal view is to value what they value and honor what they honor, while the conservative view is to NOT disrespect this people-culture and allow them to co-exist, survive and thrive. Doing so extends hospitality to these people and incentivizes them to trade with us – come visit as tourists – and impact our economic prospects.

This is the same thing we said about India and the Indophone Diaspora, in a previous blog-commentary from October 2017:

Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Respecting Diwali
A “Pluralistic Democracy” … means a society where the many different ethnic groups (and religions) have respect, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority. The expectation is for anyone person to be treated like everyone else. …

We fail so miserably in respecting non-standard traditions. The truth of the matter is that while religious toleration appears to be high in the Caribbean, this is really only true of European-styled Christian faiths. Other non-White religious traditions (let’s consider Hindu) are often ignored or even ridiculed in open Caribbean society, despite the large number of adherents. Of the 30 member-states to comprise the Caribbean Single Market, 3 of them have a large Indian-Hindu ethnicity. As a result, in these communities, though lowly promoted, one of the biggest annual celebrations for those communities is Diwali or Divali

… While Diwali is a religious celebration, many aspects of this culture spills-over to general society; see the detailed plans of a previous year (2009) in Appendix A below. This celebration, in many ways, is similar to Christmas spilling-over to non-Christian people in Christian countries. So the festivities carry a heavy civic-cultural “feel” as opposed to religious Hindu adherence. Plus, these values here are positive community ethos that any stewards in any society would want to promote: “the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair”.

What about the argument that this Chinese (and Indian) toleration – like celebrating the Chinese New Year – is not Christian?

Don’t get it twisted!

Christmas – the western equivalent to the Chinese New Year tradition – is not Christian either, consider – Four reasons Christmas is not Christian:

1. Dec. 25 is the wrong day, and it’s celebrated for the wrong god. Dec. 25 is associated with many pagan birth myths—not Christ’s birth.
2. Most Christmas traditions come from pagan religions, not the Bible.
3. There is no Santa Claus. Parents shouldn’t lie to their children.
4. Christians should keep the holy days that Jesus kept, not holidays that originated in paganism.

. Source: January 25, 2020 from: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/blog/four-reasons-christmas-is-not-christian/

The movement behind the Go Lean book have always advocated this community ethos:

Live and let live.

Plus, we need to embrace China right now. They are one of the few groups of Direct Foreign Investors that have been showing interest in the Caribbean communities. We need all the help we can get to reform and transform our society. The heavy-lifting gets a little easier with a little help from our friends. Consider these previous blog-commentaries related to China’s investments in our region:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18301	After Hurricane Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=16192	In Defense of Trade – China Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8799	History of China Trade: Too Big to Ignore
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8813	Why China will soon be Hollywood’s largest market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8815	China’s Organ Transplantation: Facts and Fiction
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8817	Chinese Mobile Games Apps: The new Playground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8819	South China Seas: Exclusive Economic Zones??
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	China’s WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6231	China’s Caribbean Playbook: America’s Script

What about the argument that China is a Communist state and advocates for communism?

We have addressed this issue before – June 20, 2019:

‘Free Market’ Versus … China – Two Systems at Play
China is on the verge of overtaking the US as the Number 1 Single Market economy in the world…

Wait, isn’t China a communist state?

Hasn’t communism failed to deliver on its promises to elevate societies that abide by its principles?

Yes, and yes …

But China demonstrates that there is a difference between principles and practices. China abides by communist principles, but their practice is more aligned with Free Market concepts, especially with their doubling-down in trade, World Trade.

Do we truly consider Hong Kong as a communist state? Far from it; yet it is China; it is part of the “One country, two systems” practice.

All in all, we have nothing to fear from China – not their culture, religion, politics nor their military power. We should simply embrace them for trade in a give-and-take relationship. We must export to China as well; we need Chinese tourism.

We have to make changes, on our end, to make this Chinese tourism viable. We have to work harder to “live and let live”:

“Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come”.

This is the charter of the Go Lean roadmap; we urge all stakeholders to lean-in to the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate our society. This is worth all the effort for us to do. This is how we make our 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 & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

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

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

—————

Appendix – Reference: Sinophone

Chinese-speaking world or Sinophone or sinophone is a neologism that fundamentally means “Chinese-speaking”, typically referring to a person who speaks at least one variety of Chinese. Academic writers use Sinophone “Chinese-speaking regions” in two ambiguous meanings: either specifically “Chinese-speaking areas where it is a minority language, excluding China and Taiwan” or generally “Chinese-speaking areas, including where it is an official language”. Many authors use the collocation Sinophone world to mean the regions of Chinese diaspora outside of Greater China, and some for the entire Chinese-speaking world. Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken language today, with over one billion people, approximately 20% of the world population, speaking it. …

Statistics (for populations outside of China and Taiwan)

Region	Speakers	Percentage	Year	Reference
Anguilla	7	0.06%	2001	^[1]
Australia	877,654	3.8%	2016	^{[1][note 1]}
Austria	9,960	0.1%	2001	^[1]
Belize	2,600	0.8%	2010	^[1]
Cambodia	6,530	0.05%	2008	^[1]
Canada	1,290,095	3.7%	2016	^[1]
Cyprus	1,218	0.1%	2011	^[1]
Falkland Islands	1	0.03%	2006	^[1]
Finland	12,407	0.23%	2018	^[1]
Hong Kong	6,264,700	88.9%	2016	^{[1][note 2]}
Lithuania	64	0.002%	2011	^[1]
Macao	411,482	97.0%	2001	^[1]
Marshall Islands	79	0.2%	1999	^[1]
Mauritius	2,258	0.2%	2011	^[1]
Nepal	242	0.0009%	2011	^[1]
Northern Mariana Islands	14,862	23.4%	2000	^[1]
Palau	331	1.8%	2005	^[1]
Philippines	6,032	0.4%	2000	^[1]
Romania	2,039	0.01%	2011	^[1]
Russia	70,722	0.05%	2010	^[1]
Singapore	1,791,216	57.7%	2010	^{[1][note 3]}
South Africa	8,533	0.02%	1996	^[1]
Thailand	111,866	0.2%	2010	^[1]
Timor Leste	511	0.07%	2004	^[1]
United Kingdom	162,698	0.3%	2011	^[1]
United States	3,268,546	1.0%	2017	^[2]

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinophone

———————

In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living, and was estimated to have reached 7.7 billion people as of April 2019.^[2]

Source: Retrieved January 25, 2020 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

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Food Security – Opportunity: “1 Iowa County Supplies all the Beef for a Cruise Line”

Posted on December 28, 2019 in Economics, Implementation, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

Supply and Demand …

These are the bedrock principles of economic decision-making. Or should be …

… but when it comes to Caribbean economics, the rules seem to be different … 🙁

There is demand for food supplies for Caribbean foreign visitors
The supply to feed foreign visitors are also sourced from foreign originators.

In fact, as reported in this one article in November 2010, there is a sophisticated supply chain eco-system for just Carnival Cruise Lines – responsible for 8 to 9 million annual unique Caribbean visitors, per 2012. See the details of that article here:

Title: Amazing Cruise Food Facts
Ever wondered just how much food and drink is consumed on an average cruise? … Here are some amazing cruise food facts, according to the UK-based industry trade journal Cruise International.

Every day 2,550 fresh eggs are consumed by Holland America’s Eurodam, 2,100 guests and 900 crew.

A whole county in Iowa raises all its cattle for sale to Carnival Cruise Lines.

On board Carnival Dream, passengers eat of 28,730 shrimp every week.

6,200 cocktails and 15,000 coffees are drunk on Costa ships every week.

On board MSC Fantasia class ships, 2,000 different recipes are used on a seven-day cruise.

280 bottles of free champagne, 10lbs of caviar and 120lbs of lobster are devoured on Seabourn ships (Legend/Pride/Spirit) over seven nights.

On an average P&O Ventura 14-day cruise, 3,096 passengers and 1,200 crew will eat some 171,840 main meals.

During an eight-night cruise on board Fred. Olsen’s Boudicca, 630 litres of ice cream will be eaten.

On a typical 10-day cruise, the shopping list for Crystal Symphony includes over 60 tonnes of food-stuffs to be purchased and delivered to dock in the few hours on turnaround day.

It is not known exactly how much Spam was consumed by passengers on the stranded Carnival Splendor in November 2010; [it had to be towed to its San Diego-California home base after engines caught fire off the Mexican Rivera coast].

A whole county in Iowa? (This was reported back in 2010 reflecting activity for the years leading up to 2010, but it does give some insights as to scope of the operation). Iowa is part of the American Midwest region – the bread basket of America:

Iowa 101

There are 99 counties in the U.S. state of Iowa.

Iowa Population: 3,156,145 (2,018)

Iowa’s main conventional agricultural commodities are hogs, corn, soybeans, oats, cattle, eggs, and dairy products. Iowa is the nation’s largest producer of ethanol and corn and some years is the largest grower of soybeans. In 2008, the 92,600 farms in Iowa produced 19% of the nation’s corn, 17% of the soybeans, 30% of the hogs, and 14% of the eggs.^[131]

Midwest 101
Sometimes called “the breadbasket of America” the [American] Midwest serves as a center for grain production, particularly wheat, corn and soybeans.^[3] …

In 1839 the Northeastern state of New York became the country’s leading dairy producer, a position it held until overtaken by Iowa in 1890. It wasn’t long after that Wisconsin emerged as the leading dairy producer.^[5]

Beef and pork processing have long been important Midwestern industries. Chicago and Kansas City served as stockyards and processing centers of the beef trade and Cincinnati, nicknamed ‘Porkopolis’, was once the largest pork-producing city in the world.^[6] Iowa is the center of pork production in the U.S.^{[citation needed]} Meats were preserved by curing as in corned beef, sugar-cured ham and bacon, or smoked. – Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_the_Midwestern_United_States#Background retrieved December 28, 2019.

That was 2010; what is the status quo now? How does Carnival provision their beef needs today, as we approach 2020?

Posted September 18, 2010
… I understand that Carnival has cut a deal with an new meat supplier. I read that last April [2010], Carnival began using J&B Foods of Albertville, Minnesota as their meat supplier.

I didn’t know this until a couple of weeks ago A friend told me he is a Senior Butcher for the company and was he said that Carnival contract had increased their production over 30%. It’s a good company and they do a good job with meat. – Source: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1218077-what-was-your-experience-with-carnival-meat-in-the-mdr/

J&B Group
Even though sourcing all the beef from an entire county was impressive, enacting a supply contract with J&B Foods is even more so. See the corporate profile in the Appendix below and the VIDEO here:

VIDEO – J&B Group – Discover our capabilities – https://youtu.be/6Xkng_4MTQI

J&B Foods
From food service and retail to wholesale and third party logistics, discover what J&B Group can do for you!

Category: People & Blogs

Do you see the opportunity here, in supplying the demand for beef for the cruise ships traversing the Caribbean?

If one cruise line is willing to enact supply agreements that engage a whole region (Iowa), surely Caribbean stakeholders can deploy the necessary cattle operations (ranching, slaughter, butchering, warehousing and distribution) to satisfy the existing demand for a Caribbean cruise eco-system. We have one primary advantage that cannot be ignored:

Location, location and location.

Raising cattle is not “Rocket Science” – we can do it here! With the ability to transform one or more BIG member-states – Belize, Cuba, Guyana, and/or Suriname – into the region’s bread baskets, we can scale-up beef productions with minimal time, talent and treasures to supply the cruise industry’s demand; (and our own demand-supply needs).

If we cannot “have all of the pie, then maybe just some slices”.

This is how Industrial Reboots work!

This is the continuation of this teaching series for December 2019 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. As we present a series every month, this entry is commentary 3 of 5 considering Food Security for the Caribbean. The goal is first to Feed Ourselves after which we should foster Trade to an export market. Servicing the cruise industry is within this Trade strategy. Other Food Supply considerations are presented in this series; see the full series catalog here:

Food Security – Bread Baskets on Land and Sea
Food Security – Temperate Foods in the Tropics
Food Security – Opportunity: 1 American County in Iowa raises all Beef for a Cruise Line
Food Security – FTAA: A Lesson in History
Food Security – Big Chicken

The 2013 Go Lean book presents a roadmap – an economic plan – to introduce and implement a regional solution – the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) – to ensure Food Security. The book posits that we can satisfy the “supply and demand” dynamics. On the Supply-side, we can put the implementations in place to have our own bread baskets … finally. Among the 30 participating member-states there are some that are more suited – lower opportunity costs – to ramp-up an agri-business eco-system. The strategy is to make the regional investments there, in one or several of those states.

On the Demand-side, there is the tactic of collective bargaining. This activity is already planned in the quest to reform and transform the cruise tourism industry. This was related in a previous Go Lean blog-commentary; see an excerpt here:

Some of the most popular cruise destinations include the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Saint Martin. Alone, these port cities/member states cannot effect change on this cruise line industry. But together, as one unified front, the chances for success improves exponentially. The unified front is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The term Union is more than a coincidence; it was branded as such by design. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU.

The vision of this integration movement is for the region to function as a Single Market. The quotation from the Go Lean book continues in advocating that the Caribbean member-states (independent & dependent) lean-in to this plan for confederacy, convention and collaboration. This is Collective Bargaining 101.

This is a wise yet simple plan: Make the Caribbean Cruise industry an offer they cannot refuse …

… the same or better quality for beef at a lower price (with minimal transport or logistical expenses).

As related in the first commentary in this series, the following organizational deployments make this business plan possible:

Organizational deployments are among the 370 pages of the roadmap, the turn-by-turn directions in the Go Lean book, 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 that must be adopted; plus the executions of new strategies, tactics, and implementations to deliver on this quest to reboot our industrial landscape and Feed Ourselves. 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 193, entitled:

10 Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism

1	Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty The unification of the region into one market will allow for collective bargaining with the cruise industry. No one single island nation-state would have the clout of a unified market – the industry needs the Caribbean more than the Caribbean needs the industry. The ports-of-calls need to be able to generate more revenue from the visiting passengers, but the cruise line have embedded rules/regulations designed to maximize their revenues at the expense of the port-side establishments, like on-board duty free shops, prohibitions against buying island alcohol and tobacco products. Such actions would often violate anti-trust rules/laws in most modern democracies.
2	Quality Assurance Programs The CU will regulate and enforce high standards among the port-side establishments, therefore eliminating the need for cruise lines to “curry favor” with merchants. A Charge-back eco-system and quality assurance programs like surveys for passenger feedback will be used and the results published extensively.
3	e-Purse Settlement with Central Bank in Caribbean Dollars
4	Port-side Risk Mitigations
5	Disabled Passengers Accommodations
6	Emergency Management Proactive and Reactive Services
7	Medical Escalated Response
8	Co-Marketing with National Tourism Departments, Excess Inventory and One-Way Travel
9	Domestic Market The CU market of 42 million people also has vacation needs. Cruises should be able to start/end locally in the region, for example a passenger should be able to join a cruise in the Bahamas and complete the circuit back in the Bahamas. The Caribbean represents different cultures, languages, urban and rural destinations, therefore many taste can be accommodated. An alignment with tender boats can also accommodate eco-tourism hand-off to/from cruise ships. These are among the service offerings for collective bargaining negotiations.
10	Shipbuilding Support Services

Raising cattle is not “Rocket Science” – we can do it here! What an opportunity? We can reform and transform our agricultural deliveries so as to better Feed Ourselves with lower costs and greater variety in our Food Supply. Then, we get to also improve our pocketbooks by trading foodstuffs with our Cruise Line business partners.

The issues in reforming and transforming our interactions with our Cruise Line business partners have been addressed in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this list of sample entries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17072	One Case Study: Caribbean Cruise Port ‘Held Hostage’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15380	Industrial Reboot – Cruise Tourism 2.0
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12126	America’s Maritime Laws – Stupidity of the ‘Jones Act’ on Tourism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11544	Forging Change: Collective Bargaining
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5210	Cruise Ship Commerce – Getting Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3889	Merchant Banks e-Payments – Ready for Cruise Industry Changes

Our intent – as communicated in the outset of the Go Lean book – is simple yet providential (Page 4):

The CU should better provide for the region’s basic needs (food, clothing, energy and shelter), and then be in position to help supply the rest of the world.

Tourism is a great business model; we get to generate a lot of foreign currency. But then, we “stupidly” turn around to give it away for products and commodities that we can/should really fulfill ourselves.

Not wise!

Let’s wisen up. Let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap … and Feed Ourselves and our guest. This is how we make our 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 & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————-

Appendix – J&B Group: Foodservice Offerings

Quality starts at the center of your plate and J&B Group is the premier cold chain provider that can bring you the quality protein solutions you need, along with unparalleled customer service.

Serving up the best in protein solutions
In today’s hyper-complex foodservice world, you need a protein partner that can maximize your competitive advantages – from your kitchen to your menu to your bottom line. Turn to J&B Foodservice and our “5S Guarantee” to help solve your critical business challenges.

Buying Power
Our expert protein industry purchasing team understands the markets and successfully navigates fluctuations to bring you the highest value at the most competitive cost possible. They leverage over one hundred years of J&B buying experience to ensure a supply chain that brings excellent value and service to every one of our valued customers. Collaborating with our customers to understand their needs, our team provides recommendations and solutions to an ever changing global protein supply chain.

Manufacturing
J&B has a mission to be an innovative leader in protein produced goods, providing exceptional value in quality, cost, and service.

Cold Storage
J&B’s warehouse capabilities include blast freezing, order picking, speed tempering and re-stacking/re-palletizing. We guarantee temperature consistency, proper product handling with detailed documentation and reporting with superior cleanliness and secure facility.

Our Products
J&B Foodservice sells an extensive portfolio of foodservice proteins throughout the United States to both large restaurant chains as well as independent operators. We produce a wide variety of proteins, such as portion cut steaks, fresh and frozen portioned and bulk ground beef, injected sub-primals, and Thin Sliced Meats. We also offer a wide variety of raw material grades and brands to meet our customer’s quality and pricing needs.

Our Facilities

Source: Retrieved December 28, 2019 from: https://www.jbgroup.com/business-unit/foodservice/

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