To visually depict this, imagine a “well of water”. In the Caribbean we take from that well with our voluminous tourism activities – many guests partake of our hospitality with stay-overs and cruises. And then, periodically, our Caribbean stakeholders “give back” by visiting other destinations.
This is the theme of this series of commentaries. There are lessons that have been learned from visiting a tourist destination that is foreign to the Caribbean. That destination is the US State of Colorado.
We have so much in common and so much in contrast. One commonality to consider is how Colorado structures its tourism around the natural terrain of its mountains: the Rocky Mountains range; see Appendix VIDEO. This is also true in the Caribbean, where we structure our tourism around our natural terrain: sun, sand and sea.
This commentary opens a 5-part series on the subject of Lessons from Colorado. There are so many lessons that we must consider from this land-locked US State; good ones and bad ones. In fact, the full list of 5 entries are detailed as follows:
Lessons from Colorado – Common Sense of Eco-Tourism
The book Go Lean…Caribbean calls for the elevation of Caribbean society, to re-focus, re-boot, and optimize all the engines of commerce so as to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The category of “play” covers the full scope of tourism, which is the primary economic driver for our Caribbean region – and a lot of American communities; see Appendix below – the book estimates 80 million visitors among the Caribbean member-states. (Since that number includes cruise passengers that may visit multiple Caribbean islands on one itinerary, each port is counted separately; without cruise passengers, a figure of 68 – 69 million is perhaps more accurate).
There are a number of specific categories of tourism. In the course of time, this commentary have considered these globally –accepted definitions:
Resort Tourism – Hospitality tied to destinations and attractions; think Disney World, Beaches.
Cruise Tourism – The destination is the ship (luxuries & amenities) and the ports-of-call.
Event Tourism – The focus is to attend cultural events; the capacity for accommodation can determine success.
Sports Tourism – Participants and spectators for sports tournaments.
Medical Tourism – Patients traveling for standard, alternative and experimental treatments.
Eco-Tourism – Structured around natural terrain and/or monuments, with minimal infrastructural enhancements (i.e. roads, docks, lifts, zip lines, etc.).
Our focus here is on eco-tourism.
ec·o·tour·ism noun 1. tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife. – Oxford.
2. a form of tourism involving visiting fragile, pristine, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low-impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial mass tourism. – Wikipedia
In terms of give-and-take, this category is all “take”. Visitors consume the territory and take nothing away but memories. This business model is masterfully administered in the State of Colorado; they feature two “crown jewels”: Rocky Mountain National Park and the Garden of the Gods:
Rocky Mountain National Park is a United States national park located approximately 76 mi (122 km) northwest of Denver International Airport[4] in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The eastern and westerns slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the park’s northwestern region.[5] The main features of the park include mountains, alpine lakes and a wide variety of wildlife within various climates and environments, from wooded forests to mountain tundra.
The Rocky Mountain National Park Act was signed by then–President Woodrow Wilson on January 26, 1915, establishing the park boundaries and protecting the area for future generations.[2] The Civilian Conservation Corps built the main automobile route, named Trail Ridge Road, in the 1930s.[2] In 1976, UNESCO designated the park as one of the first World Biosphere Reserves.[6] In 2016, more than four and a half million recreational visitors entered the park, which is an increase of about nine percent from the prior year.[7] [The actual number is 4,517,585 (in 2016)[3]]
The park has a total of five visitor centers[8] with park headquarters… – Source: Wikipedia
To allow for the full consumption of this Rocky Mountain National Park, the authorities only had to invest in infrastructure for these visitor centers and roads. Ditto for the “Garden of the Gods” attraction; see details of this example here:
The Garden of the Gods Park is popular for hiking, technical rock climbing, road and mountain biking and horseback riding. It attracts more than two million visitors a year, making it the city’s most visited park. There are more than 15 miles of trails with a 1.5-mile trail running through the heart of the park that is paved and wheelchair accessible. Annual events including two summer running races, recreational bike rides and Pro Cycling Challenge Prologue also take place in this park.[9]
The main trail in the park, Perkins Central Garden Trail, is a paved, wheelchair-accessible 1.1-mile trail, “through the heart of the park’s largest and most scenic red rocks”. The trail begins at the North Parking lot, the main parking lot off of Juniper Way Loop.[10]
Because of the unusual and steep rock formations in the park, it is an attractive destination for rock climbers. Rock climbing is permitted, with annual permits obtained at the City of Colorado Springs’ website.
The Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center is located at 1805 N. 30th Street and offers a view of the park. The center’s information center and 30 educational exhibits are staffed by Parks, Recreation and Culture employees of the City of Colorado Springs. – Source: Wikipedia
The common sense of it all!
The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap 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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.
The book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):
iii. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass for our society is that of an archipelago of islands, inherent to this nature is the limitation of terrain and the natural resources there in. We must therefore provide “new guards” and protections to ensure the efficient and effective management of these resources.
iv. Whereas the natural formation of the landmass is in a tropical region, the flora and fauna allows for an inherent beauty that is enviable to peoples near and far. The structures must be strenuously guarded to protect and promote sustainable systems of commerce paramount to this reality.
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.
Eco-tourism is just common sense. We should not miss out on these benefits.
Yes, there is the need for some investment (roads, trails, lifts and visitor centers), but the returns are quantifiable, undeniable and irresistible. This is how Caribbean communities can grow their economic engines. This is the quest of the Go Lean movement. This was anticipated from the beginning of the Go Lean movement with the focus on UNESCO World Heritage Sites for the Caribbean region. See this Page (248) from the book:
Click on Photo to Enlarge
The Go Lean details that 1,000 additional jobs can be created by fostering the promotion and development of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the region. This is just common sense.
Thank you Colorado, for your fine role model.
We can do the same; we can make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is one of the most popular and scenic National Parks in the United States, famous for its high mountain peaks, alpine lakes, abundant wildlife. The main sightseeing road in the park, and some of the hiking trails cross over the 12,000 feet/3,600 m altitude line;
Locations in the video:
Sprague Lake (0:01), Nymph Lake (0:17), Dream Lake (0:38), Emerald Lake (0:59), Lake Haiyaha (1:12), The Loch (1:26), Timberline Falls (1:51), Sky Pond (2:24), Mills Lake (2:57), Alberta Falls (3:05), Multiple viewpoints along the Trail Ridge Road (3:10, 8:12), Chasm Lake Trail (4:03), Chasm Lake (4:54), Mt Ida Hike (6:39), Horseshoe Falls (8:58), Chasm Falls (9:26), Old Fall River Road (9:31).
Recorded August 2016 in 4K (Ultra HD) with Sony AX100.
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Visit my channel for more Amazing Places on Our Planet: https://www.youtube.com/milosh9k
The human psyche is consistent; when we have been victimized, we want everyone to remember. But, when we have been the perpetrator – the bully – then we want everyone to forget. This applies to individuals and nations alike.
This experience relates to the history of the New World. Upon the discovery of the Americas by the European powers – Christopher Columbus et al – the focus had always been on pursuing economic interests, many times at the expense of innocent victims. (This is why the celebration of Columbus Day is now out of favor). First, there was the pursuit of gold, other precious metals (silver, copper, etc.) and precious stones (emeralds, turquoise, etc.). Later came the exploitation of profitable agricultural opportunities (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, etc.), though these business models required extensive labor. So the experience in the New World (the Caribbean and North, South & Central America) saw the exploitation of the native indigenous people, and then as many of them died off, their replacements came from the African Slave Trade.
This summarizes the history of the economic motivation of slavery. The champions of that era may want to be considered as heroes, but with the long train of victims in their wake, are rightly labeled villainous by some. Thusly any population in this drama – consider the United States of America – may not want to be remembered in a negative light. This is why the new museum opening in Washington, DC, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is such a milestone. It chronicles, commemorates and spotlights this dark episode of American history. (Some consider this history to be not so distant, that vestiges still permeate the nation’s social fabric, especially considering the Criminal Justice system today).
Title:How the New Smithsonian African American Museum Works Sub-Title: A floor-by-floor preview of the most anticipated—and last—museum to come to the National Mall. By: Kriston Capps
One of the most difficult lessons to learn about racism today is one of the first to be gleaned at the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opens to the world on September 24. On the lowest concourse, deep in the museum’s basement levels, exhibits about slavery explain that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was not motivated by racism.
Racism came after. This is not new information, but it is not conventional wisdom in America today. “Enslaved Africans, European indentured servants, and Native Americans worked alongside one another as they cultivated tobacco,” reads an exhibit on life in the Chesapeake region. Planters grew fearful of the interracial friendships, marriages, and alliances—and rebellions—that characterized life in the colonies. “Africans were ultimately defined as ‘enslaved for life,’ and the concept of whiteness began to develop.”
The design of the museum, from the bottom up, which is the direction in which it is intended to be seen by visitors, reflects that history. The lowest-level galleries on the slave trade and the Middle Passage are tight and narrow. They eventually open up to an expansive concourse that sets the stage for the fight for freedom that extends even to today. Exhibits in this majestic hall range from a statue of Thomas Jefferson framed by bricks bearing the names of slaves who built Monticello to a house built in a freedmen’s settlement in Montgomery County, Maryland.
The Smithsonian’s new museum—the last to be built on the National Mall—follows the African-American experience through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. The museum proceeds chronologically, escalating from African and pre-colonial history (in the third and lowest basement level) to contemporary art (on the fourth floor). It is a massive undertaking, sometimes breathtaking. And the architecture of the museum both builds and hinders its narrative.
Some 60 percent of the building is below grade; the historical galleries all fall along three underground mezzanine levels. To create exhibition space so far below ground, Davis Brody Bond—the same architecture firm responsible for the largely subterranean National September 11 Memorial and Museum—had to build a concrete container in which the museum sits, a bucket with walls rising 75 feet high that frame the entire historical experience.
“The largest challenge was water,” Anderson says. “Everything west and south of the Washington Monument was infill. It was all swampland. When you dig down 12 feet, you hit the water table. We had to build essentially an inside-out bathtub in order to keep the water out of the building.”
Visitors pass from the narrow hall on slavery into this major space, following a ramp that shepherds them by several iconic exhibits: the pointed Monticello statues, a slave cabin, the Jones-Hall-Sims House, a segregation-era railcar, and a prison tower from the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary (nicknamed Angola) among them. This fairly linear course then deposits viewers at a Reconstruction gallery, on the second mezzanine level, with information-heavy exhibits that characterize most of the rest of the museum.
“We thought the added volume made sense,” says Phil Freelon, one of the principal architects responsible for the building’s design, discussing how the area of the history galleries doubled during the museum buildout. “As you move through history, you’re able to see different aspects of the exhibits from varying perspectives. Which adds another layer of understanding to the overall sweep of history.”
One of the great strengths of the National Museum of African American History and Culture is its heavy emphasis on place. There are rich maps scattered throughout the museum that showcase the many migrations that have defined black history: from the domestic slave trade (after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in 1807) to the Great Migration during the early- and mid-20th century to subsequent returns to the South. These maps explain how the African-American experience shifted within the states, and how states and the nation changed inalterably as a result.
Where the museum may lose viewers, however, is in its sweeping chronology, which is lost over too many side-by-side displays. Many of the exhibits (designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates) serve as portals, with a chunk of text paired with images, or often a video screen, alongside some essential artifacts. Unfortunately, atomic exhibits about the constituent people, places, and moments from Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era do not add up to clear and comprehensive categories.
Problems are few in number, but the museum’s biggest ones start with the entry procession. It isn’t immediately clear that viewers ought to take one of two elevators down to the lowest concourse to begin. And it isn’t exactly clear how the escalators connect from one level to the next—though these passages offer some of the best vistas within the building and through its exterior filigree, which looks as delicate as lace when seen from the inside.
From design to execution, the largest changes to the museum happened inside the museum’s central hall. The dipping, timber-lined ceiling initially envisioned for the atrium fell off along the way. (The architects say that the space is now more suitable for performance and static art.) Still, one of the museum’s most important metaphors was maintained in the form of its grand vistas: Floor-to-ceiling windows comprise the four walls of the building’s entrance level, opening the museum to the world outside. Portals throughout the the upper floors emphasize the effect.
“What you’re getting is the journey from the very soil—the very depths, the crypts, the chamber—right through to getting a panoptic lens, a panoptic reading of this important juncture of the National Mall and the Washington Monument,” says David Adjaye, the primary architect of the museum. “When you’re going into the upper galleries, you’re getting these windows that are framing the context and bringing [the Mall] into the content of the story.”
The community and culture galleries make up the third and fourth floors of the museum. (The Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts, on the museum’s second level, was not yet finished at the time of the preview.) The exhibits in the community section range widely. There is a display on the legacy of Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress and the first black woman to run for president (her awesome call reading, “unbought and unbossed”). There is an exhibit on Mae Reeves, a legendary Philadelphia milliner. And there is an exhibit on Ben Carson—that guy. This corner of the museum gives an impressionistic overview of community (a rather broad theme to begin with). While these exhibits are, again, very atomic—only loosely interconnected—they offer by and large the most satisfying insights into the lives and achievements of everyday black Americans.
There is no directionality to these floors, no wrong way to do them. Doing them right will take hours, maybe even days. The culture galleries include snippets of film, television, spoken word, and theater that may add up to hours of programming time. (This, in addition to reams of wall text.) With so much media on display—the number of screens seems to rise as a factor of the floor level—the fine art galleries on the fourth floor offer a welcome reprieve to information overload. (The art galleries are stacked, too, with a smart selection of paintings from across American history. In fact, this corner of the museum arrives as one of the finest art collections in the District.)
The museum’s most impressive visual remains its iconic “corona,” which the architects say they drew from a West African caryatid design of Yoruban origin—a column with a base, a figure, and a capital or crown.
“Our general approach to the design of cultural facilities is to try to imbue the architecture with meaning,” Freelon says. “So that it’s contributing to the stories and the vision and mission of the institution. We did that sort of research to say, ‘What would be an appropriate expression, formally, for the building?’ We looked at a lot of different ideas and settled on the corona notion as a strong and powerful idea.”
There are many smaller moments of design excellence, however, that give the museum its grounding. One thoughtful gallery on the lowest level is a simple sidebar, a triangular cutaway space off the main corridor, that surveys the São José Paquete de Africa. The vessel was a slave ship bound from Mozambique to Brazil that wrecked, killing most of the 500 slaves it held as human cargo. Several ballast bars, which balanced the light weight of their bodies, are on display in this dark and intentionally haunting space. That the shape of this gallery reflects the trapezoidal edges of the museum’s exterior is no accident.
There are enough moments like these throughout the National Museum of African American History and Culture to make it a building that demands criss-crossing, back-and-forth viewing. It is not simple to say what the museum offers in the form of answers about progress or freedom or justice. It may be fair to say that it has none. Or that the museum is “making a way out of no way,” to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr. (as this museum does).
According to Adjaye, the windows and cut-outs are key to ensuring that building is not static, but dynamic and responsive to the history around it.
“The idea is to laminate the experience of the outside world with the inside world, so you’re not disconnected from it,” Adjaye says. “It is not a narrative or a fantasy that is hermetically sealed. It’s a real history, that is relating to things that are around you and in you. And that is a very new idea.”
There are many lessons for the Caribbean to glean from this consideration of the ‘National Museum of African American History and Culture’ in Washington, DC: good, bad and ugly lessons. This will hopefully elevate a national discussion to the fore on the full measure of American history with African-Americans. The hope is for more reconciliation.
Here in the Caribbean, we have the same needs. As history relates, the people of our region were also victimized in the Slave Trade; but we were villains too, considering the lessons from the 1804 Massacre in Haiti, as related in a previous blog-commentary:
It was an illogical solution that killing Whites (of 3000 to 5000 White men, women and children) would prevent future enslavement.
The Natural Law instinct was to avenge for past atrocities – “an eye for an eye”.
It was used in a good way to escalate the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807. It was also used in a bad way to justify further oppression of the African Diaspora in the New World.
This discussion of museums and reconciliations align with the objections of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, in that it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The purpose of this roadmap is to elevate the economy in our Caribbean region, while harnessing the individual genius abilities – as in the arts. This Go Lean/CU roadmap employs strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:
Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
While the Go Lean book is primarily an economic elevation roadmap for the Caribbean, it also details the eco-systems surrounding the business of the arts; there is consideration for jobs and entrepreneurship. The book declares (Page 230) that “art can be a business enabler, [while also serving as an] expression for civic pride and national identity”.
There is even a plan to foster museums that commemorate Caribbean history and culture in a new Caribbean Capital District. (The roadmap calls for a neutral location, among the 30 member-states, to host leaders of the Federation’s Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government). See the quotation here from the book (Page 230):
CU Administered Museums Modeled after the Smithsonian, the CU “mother” (first-tier) museums will be placed in the Capital District. There will also be “child” museums scattered through out the regions with touring exhibitions.
The Go Lean book identified this vision of reconciliations-museums-art early in the book (Page 10 – 14), as implied in the following pronouncements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:
Preamble: As the history of our region and the oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous people is duly documented, there is no one alive who can be held accountable for the prior actions, and so we must put aside the shackles of systems of repression to instead formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny.
As the colonial history of our region was initiated to create economic expansion opportunities for our previous imperial masters, the structures of government instituted in their wake have not fostered the best systems for prosperity of the indigenous people.
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.
xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.
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.
xxxiii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
The commentaries in the Go Lean blogs have previously addressed the wisdom of museums and monuments showcasing the historic sacrifices of the African sons and daughters that have contributed to the great societies of the Western world (Western Europe and the Americas). The people of the Caribbean are all part of this African heritage. We have been affected by events that took place in Africa, the Atlantic Slave Trade and subsequent national histories in the New World. So much of that history is soaked in the blood, sweat and tears of African people, the ancestors and the children. Any symbolism or artistic expression of any country commemorating this history should be acknowledged, promoted and celebrated.
This subject also aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean and its plans to better promote World Heritage Sites (Page 248) in the Caribbean region. This goal is for the very same purpose of acknowledging, promoting and celebrating the special history of Caribbean people to the world’s cultural landscape. The Go Lean book asserts many benefits from these types of initiatives, including economic, cultural and ambassadorial.
Imagine the flow of tourism that can result from our own museums and monuments.
Imagine the commissions to regional artists.
Imagine the positive image the world over of our region reconciling our pasts and forging a bright future despite the historic experiences.
The foregoing news story on the Smithsonian effort to curate the history of the African-American experience and culture presents this project as transformative. Many people in America did NOT want a federal-government backed effort to create a monument of this “dark topic” in America. (The Smithsonian eco-system is funded under the National Parks Service of the US Department of the Interior).
Despite the Emancipation of Slavery in 1863 and the Civil Right Act in 1964, only now in 2016 is America coming to grips with the need to commemorate the history of its African-American people in a formal museum. There have been many museums in the past, but all through private efforts or that of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). The first African-American museum was the College Museum in Hampton, Virginia, established in 1868.[2] Prior to 1950, there were about 30 museums devoted primarily to African-American culture and history in the US. These were located primarily at historically black colleges and universities or at libraries that had significant African-American culture and history collections.[5]
The subject of fostering the economic opportunities of artistic endeavors in the Caribbean region have been discussed in other Go Lean blog/commentaries; consider this sample as follows:
Caribbean Music Man: Bob Marley – The legend lives on!
This subject of the Slave Trade, Slavery and Civil Rights – how it related to economic, security and governing functioning in a society – have also been addressed by previous Go Lean blog-commentaries. See a sample list here:
CariCom position on Slavery/Colonization Reparations
This subject of Slavery and the Slave Trade is a “dark topic” to curate in a museum. But this is necessary. Around the word, the Holocaust memorials – remembering the Nazi’s Jewish annihilation in World War II – help to keep the lessons fresh in the minds of the world’s populations that the horrors were real and should never be allowed again. A similar museum on the African-American experience in the Americas should have a related effect: tell the world the truth, and then try to reconcile between the villains and the victims. Many positive lessons can be gleaned from these dark topics.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean provided thorough lessons from this history, in its compilation of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies. See a sample list here:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification – African Diaspora Experience
Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways
Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – High Art Intelligence
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations
Page 34
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Integrating Caribbean 30 member-state in to a Single Market
Page 45
Strategic – Mission – Celebrate art, people and culture of the Caribbean
Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration
Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – CaribbeanParks and Fairgrounds Administration
Page 83
Implementation – Design Requirements for the Capital District – Museum Model
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources – World Heritage Sites
Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora – Foreign consumption of Arts and Culture
Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts
Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Access to the Arts and Culture
Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living – Access to the Arts and Culture
Page 235
Advocacy – Ways to Promote World-Heritage-Sites
Page 248
There are lessons to learn from the past; see VIDEO in the Appendix B below. There are benefits – for the future – to many stakeholders for any attempt to reconcile the past with the present.
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This is a big deal for our region. It allows us to organize into a Single Market and leverage the industrial output for regional artists and art institutions, like museums. This book provides the turn-by-turn directions for how to create this Single Market, forge the Capital District, establish the federal museum and monetize the entire artists eco-system.
The Caribbean needs these empowerments; we need to remember the great sacrifices of our African ancestors and the blood, sweat and tears they spilled in forging the New World. Though these ones never got to see the fruit of their labors, we can, in a testament to their sacrifice, fulfill the promise of these Caribbean lands being a better place to live, work and play.
This is my island in the sun
Where my people have toiled since time begun
I may sail on many a sea
Her shores will always be home to me
Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father’s hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters,
Your shining sand …
CityLab – previously known as The Atlantic Cities – is dedicated to the people who are creating the cities of the future — and those who want to live there. Through sharp analysis, original reporting, and visual storytelling, our coverage focuses on the biggest ideas and most pressing issues facing the world’s metro areas and neighborhoods.
September 18, 2016 – Saturday marks the official opening of the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. CBS’ “Face the Nation” visited the museum with a man who spent 15 years working on its establishment, Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. (VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).
————————
Appendix C – List of museums focused on African Americans
The commentaries of the Go Lean…Caribbean blogs have often addressed the Caribbean Diaspora. But for many people of Caribbean heritage, they are a member of a larger Diaspora, the African Diaspora. Every Caribbean member-state – except for the French Territory Saint Barthélemy and the new Indo-Guyanese immigrant reality – has a majority population of Black or African ethnicity. So most people of the region have been affected by events that took place in Western Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Any symbolism or artistic expression commemorating this historic sacrifice of Africa to the Caribbean genome should be acknowledged, promoted and celebrated.
This prominent statue in Dakar, Senegal, the African Renaissance Monument, is the epitome of such a symbolism.
This monument should be a World Heritage Site.
This subject aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which details a plan to promote World Heritage Sites (Page 248) in the Caribbean region. The book also asserts that there are good economic returns to be harnessed by communities investing in regional artists and the eco-systems surrounding the business of the arts.
This commentary continues that pattern, established in the book. The following encyclopedic details provides a role model for how the Caribbean can further develop this industry space:
The African Renaissance Monument is a 49m tall bronze statue located on top of one of the twin hills known as Collines des Mamelles, outside of Dakar, Senegal. Built overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the Ouakam suburb, the statue was designed by the Senegalese architect Pierre Goudiaby after an idea presented by president Abdoulaye Wade (in office from year 2000 to 2012) and built by Mansudae Overseas Projects, a company from North Korea.[1] Site preparation on top of the 100-meter high hill began in 2006, and construction of the bronze statue began 3 April 2008.[2] Originally scheduled for completion in December 2009, delays stretched into early 2010, and the formal dedication occurred on 4 April 2010, Senegal’s “National Day”, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence from France.[3] It is the tallest statue in Africa.
Construction
The monument is made of 3-centimetre thick metal sheets and depicts a family group emerging from a mountaintop: a full-length statue of a young woman, a man, and held aloft on the man’s raised left arm, a child resolutely pointing west towards the sea. Construction of the bronze statue group was carried out by the North Korean firm Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies.[4]
The project was launched by then Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade who considered it part of Senegal’s prestige projects, aimed at providing monuments to herald a new era of African Renaissance.
Unveiling
On 3 April 2010, the African Renaissance Monument was unveiled in Dakar in front of 19 African heads of state, including President of Malawi and the African Union Bingu wa Mutharika, Jean Ping of the African Union Commission and the Presidents of Benin, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Zimbabwe, as well as representatives from North Korea, and Jesse Jackson and musician Akon, both from the United States.[3][5] Everyone was given a tour.[3][5]
President Wade said “It brings to life our common destiny. Africa has arrived in the 21st century standing tall and more ready than ever to take its destiny into its hands”.[6] President Bingu said “This monument does not belong to Senegal. It belongs to the African people wherever we are”.[7]
Criticism
Expense Thousands of people protested against “all the failures of [President] Wade’s regime, the least of which is this horrible statue” on the city’s streets beforehand, with riot police deployed to maintain control.[3] Deputy leader of the opposition Ndeye Fatou Toure described the monument as an “economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current [economic] crisis”.
The colossal statue has been criticized for its cost at US$ 27 million (£16.6m).[1] The payment was made in kind, with 30 to 40 hectares of land that will be sponsored by a Senegalese businessman.[8]
Style Senegalese opposition leaders have also questioned the style of the project, labelling it “Stalinist“, while art critics have pointed out that the body shapes are cartoon-like, with only vaguely African facial features.[1] It has also been suggested that the monument is a stark representation of the macho sexism of African authoritarian rulers.[9] The statue’s design has been derided internationally because of false claims of its Senegalese origin, actually having been designed by a Romanian architect and built by a North Korean sculpting company famous for various projects and large statues throughout Africa since the 1970s.[10] It was a poorly received piece by art critics around the world after its much-delayed unveiling in 2010, and has been compared by some to the infamous (and now-abandoned) Christopher Columbus statue project that was underway in Cataño, Puerto Rico in the late 1990s and early 2000s.[11] Local Imams (Islamic Spiritual Leaders) argue that a statue depicting a human figure is idolatrous, and object to the perceived immodesty of the semi-nude male and female figures.[12]
In December 2009, president Abdoulaye Wade apologised to Senegal’s Christian minority for comparing the statue to Jesus Christ.[1]
Revenue The project has also attracted controversy due to Wade’s claim to the intellectual property rights of the statue, and insisting that he is entitled to 35 percent of the profits raised.[12] Opposition figures have sharply criticized Wade’s plan to claim intellectual property rights, insisting that the president cannot claim copyright over ideas conceived as a function of his public office.[13][1]
Local artists Ousmane Sow, a world-renowned Senegalese sculptor, also objected to the use of North Korean builders, saying it was anything but a symbol of African Renaissance and nothing to do with art.[14]
The book Go Lean…Caribbean is a economic elevation roadmap for the Caribbean, not Africa. But there are many lessons for the Caribbean to glean from this African Renaissance Monument project: good, bad and ugly. Whereas, this monument project does not have the economic impact of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, it has potential.
This discussion of “art in the public domain” is not just academic. Community pride, jobs, and the growth of the regional economy is involved. This point aligns with the objectives of the Go Lean book, in that it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This effort will harness the individual genius abilities (micro) of artists so as to elevate the arts and the economic impact on their related communities (macros). To glean these economic benefits, the charter for the regional “art world” must be bigger than just sculpture; it must also include paintings, fashion, music, film and performing arts (dance & theater). The CU will employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives, defined 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.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean book identified this vision early in the book (Page 13 & 14) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:
Preamble: As the history of our region and the oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous people is duly documented, there is no one alive who can be held accountable for the prior actions, and so we must put aside the shackles of systems of repression to instead formulate efficient and effective systems to steer our own destiny.
As the colonial history of our region was initiated to create economic expansion opportunities for our previous imperial masters, the structures of government instituted in their wake have not fostered the best systems for prosperity of the indigenous people.
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.
xxxiii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
The foregoing African Renaissance Monument is on the Eastern side of the Atlantic; there is also a monument effort on the Western side of the Atlantic: the “Vicissitudes” and other features in the Moilinere Bay Underwater Sculpture Park in the waters off the Caribbean island of Grenada. The voyage across the Atlantic was referred to as the Middle Passage, a segment in the Slave Trade Triangle. Many victims, African captives designated to be sold in slavery, did not survive the Middle Passage. The Vicissitudes are in honor of the African Ancestors who were thrown overboard during the voyage; (retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molinere_Underwater_Sculpture_Park).
1. “Vicissitudes” – According to the primary professional Artist, British Sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor:
“Vicissitudes depicts a circle of figures, all linked through holding hands. These are life-size casts taken from a group of children of diverse ethnic background. Circular in structure … the work both withstands strong currents and replicates one of the primary geometric shapes, evoking ideas of unity and continuum. … The sculpture proposes growth, chance, and natural transformation. It shows how time and environment impact on and shape the physical body. Children by nature are adaptive to their surroundings. Their use within the work highlights the importance of creating a sustainable and well-managed environment, a space for future generations.”
2. Amateur Projects – Cast student faces in the side of a large underwater stone: Theophilus Albert Marryshow Community College
In March 2007, a project was initiated with Helen Hayward of T.A. Marryshow Community College (Grenada) to produce a series of works for the Molinere sculpture park. Workshops were planned with A-level Art and Design students; (senior exams – General Certificate of Education or GCE – from the University of London). Each student was required to produce a life cast of their face, to form an installation two meters deep around the shoreline of Molinere Bay.
The project aimed to encourage local artists to contribute further works to the site and provide a arena for communities to appreciate and highlight the marine processes evident in their local environment.
The students were taught a range of skills including life-casting, cement casting and sculpting. The final pieces were installed by Jason [de Caires Taylor] on 25th April 2007.
The following news article relates the coverage received at the project’s implementation:
December 1, 2008 – Instead of bleak urban backdrops for his creations, [artist Jason de Caires Taylor] has crafted a stunning and unique underwater sculpture park in the shallow waters off the West Indies island of Grenada.
His desire to create striking and meaningful art forms and his love of the underwater world led him to explore the intricate relationships between art and the environment.
For Grenada, this has resulted in a series of beautiful marine seascapes that have formed a series of artificial reefs, drawing new life into areas which have been damaged by nature’s raw power and mans intervention.
Jason discusses his work in a video interview with Miranda Krestovnikoff, one of the UK faces of a new global web TV channel, The Underwater Channel.
Miranda, also a BBC One Show / Coast presenter, explores Jason’s motivations and shows footage of his installations demonstrating the beauty of the structures and the way they interact with their environment. In some zones, the shifting sands of the ocean floor can change the whole viewing experience from moment to moment.
The sculptures are sited in clear, shallow waters to allow easy access by divers, snorkellers and those in glass-bottomed boats. Jason is keen to engage local people, particularly children, in his work to build a direct relationship with and understanding of their own precious natural resource.
The physical nature of the underwater world is vastly different from that of dry land. Objects appear 25 per cent larger underwater, and as a consequence they also appear closer. Colours alter as light is absorbed and reflected at different rates, with the depth of the water affecting this further.
The large number of angles and perspectives from which the sculptures can be viewed increase the unique experience of encountering the works.
His first work, Grace Reef, was built in a bay where the coral growth and natural habitat had been decimated by Hurricane Ivan. It comprises 16 statues, each cast from a local Grenadian woman.
Located across an expansive underwater area the work draws marine life to a zone that has suffered substantial and sustained storm damage. The direction and strengths of currents mean that entire sections of the work become covered, hidden and lost. At other times figures emerge and are fully visible.
Another major work is Vicissitudes comprising the extraordinary visual impact of a circle of 26 life-size children of diverse ethnic background, all holding hands and facing outwards.
The cement finish and chemical composition of Vicissitudes actively promotes the colonisation of coral and marine life. This natural process echoes the changes experienced through growing up and shows how time and environment impact on and shape the physical body.
Children by nature are adaptive to their surroundings and their use within the work highlights the importance of creating a sustainable and well-managed environment, a space for future generations.
“This piece took six months to create and weighs about 15 tons” Jason tells Miranda. “Consequently I had to install it in sections and it attracted quite a lot of local attention as parts of it sat outside the front of my house!”.
Un-Still life is a beautiful depiction of the essence of growth and change in the marine environment which mirrors the composition of still life tableaux.
On a table is an arrangement of cement objects; a vase, bowl and fruit. In contrast to established ideas of stasis the work is constantly changing, remaining a work in progress as living coral builds layers onto its surface and marine creatures take up residence in its tiny nooks and crannies.
This colonization becomes a physical equivalent to the conventional development of drawing and painting.
Jason currently has 65 stunning installations in place. The majority of his work is in Grenada, but he also has additional projects in the UK and Europe. Contracts have been agreed for the first phase of a new underwater project in Mexico, placed within the National Marine Park of Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Nisuc. Jason works out of his studio in London.
VIDEO: Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park, Molinere Bay, Marine Protected Area, Grenada, West Indies – http://youtu.be/Zmy0o7Zk4wg
Published by Louis Kahn (c) on Apr 1, 2012 – Video shot while scuba diving in Grenada at the Underwater Sculpture
Park.
The African Renaissance Monument in Senegal should be a World Heritage Site.
The stunning and unique Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada should be a World Heritage Site; and similar expressions should be duplicated throughout the Caribbean region.
Imagine eco-tourism tours, SCUBA divers, glass-bottom boats and sub-marines, to this site and other monuments erected in kind.
Previous Go Lean blog/commentaries related artistic endeavors in the region and how they have impacted the communities; consider this sample as follows:
Caribbean Music Man: Bob Marley – The legend lives on!
The Slave Trade and Middle Passage victimized millions of innocent people. The world must never forget the travesty and sacrifice of the African people. The Bible makes a related statement at Isaiah 56:5 (NET Bible): “I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument that will be better than sons and daughters. I will set up a permanent monument for them that will remain”.
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies detailed in the book Go Lean … Caribbean to foster remembrances and memorials in the region:
Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification – African Diaspora Experience
Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways
Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future
Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments
Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius – High Art Intelligence
Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness
Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good
Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Integrating Region in to a Single Market
Page 45
Strategic – Mission – Preserve Caribbean Ecology
Page 46
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy
Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Culture Administration
Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration
Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities (SGE’s)
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds – Art Colonies as SGE’s
Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Public Works – Aesthetic & Practical
Page 175
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage Natural Resources – World Heritage Sites
Page 183
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Diaspora
Page 217
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
Page 218
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts
Page 230
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Access to the Arts and Culture
Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Promote World-Heritage-Sites – Petition UNESCO for more…
Page 248
Appendix – Taos (New Mexico) Artist Colony
Page 291
Appendix – List of 21 World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean region
Page 330
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This is a big deal for regional artists and art institutions. This book provides the turn-by-turn directions for how to monetize the arts and foster genius potential. By pursuing the strategies, tactics, and implementations of this roadmap, we do not only impact the artists; we also impact the whole world.
“Artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes” – President Obama urging to the Grammy’s audience (musical artists) on February 8, 2015.
The Caribbean needs change…and empowerments (jobs, economic growth and brand/image enhancement); plus we need to always remember the great sacrifices of the others that came before us, and those that did not survive.
