Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

More fallout from the Caribbean “Brain Drain” …

A wave of immigration from the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America is reshaping the USA’s black population, new findings show, with no sign of ending soon. About one in 11 blacks in America are foreign-born. The figure is likely to rise to one in six by 2060.

The group is still fairly small compared with the numbers of Asian and Latin American immigrants who arrive each year, but it “has been a big part of the black immigrant story at least since 2000,” said Mark Hugo Lopez of the Pew Research Center, which released the findings Thursday.

Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Pew found that a record 3.8 million black immigrants live in the USA, more than four times as many as in 1980. Overall, there are about 42 million immigrants in the USA.

Taken as a group, black immigrants — the vast majority of them from the Caribbean and Africa — comprise nearly 9% of the nation’s black population, three times their share in 1980.

The group is likely to continue growing rapidly: According to Census projections, nearly 17% of U.S. blacks will be immigrants by 2060.

“That’s a big change, particularly when you take a look at Asian and Hispanic populations in the U.S.,” Lopez said. “Their foreign-born shares are actually declining.” For Africans in particular, their share of foreign-born population is likely to rise.

In a few places, black immigrant populations equal or exceed the 2060 projection [already], including:

• 15% of the black population in the Washington metro area.
• 28% in the New York metro area.
• 34% in Miami.

As a group, the study found, about one-fourth of black immigrants 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, slightly lower than the overall U.S. population. They’re about even with the rest of the population when it comes to advanced degrees.
Source: USA Today – Online News – Posted April 9, 2015; Retrieved April 28, 2015 from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/09/pew-african-immigrants/25521471/

This must stop. Period.

From a strictly economic point-of-view, this is a ‘Clear and Present Danger’. Our Caribbean community cannot survive, nor any other community for that matter, with the constant drain against the population and human capital. Ghost towns are a reality.

This is therefore a Declaration of [Economic] War!

This is a consistent theme in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book posits that the most serious threat to Caribbean prosperity is the high abandonment rate among its citizens, especially its highly educated, skilled-labor classes.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” …

… so states the book quoting noted Economist Paul Romer. The opportunity therefore exists to forge change in the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, in response to this crisis.

The foregoing news story shows that the USA is preparing to assimilate more Caribbean and African immigrants in the next 45 years. Declaring an economic war, complete with battle strategies and tactics, allows the region to organize the resources and investments to pursue victory in this fight.  This is the advocacy of the Go Lean book, to position the region at the corner of preparation and opportunity, so as to benefit from impending change.

The issue from this article is more pressing for the Caribbean, as our economic growth has been stagnant or only “inched” along at a slow pace – our job creation engines have failed to keep pace with the population, therefore fewer and fewer jobs are at home. Thus this region has had a higher and higher emigration rate as the decades pass; and according to this foregoing news article, that rate will grow even further. This nightmare becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy! This point was crystalized in a previous blog/commentary with this quotation:

We tend to think economic growth comes from working harder and smarter. But economists attribute up to a third of it to more people joining the workforce each year than leaving it. The result is more producing, earning and spending.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic regional (super-national) entity with federal powers to forge change in the Caribbean community. One goal is incentivizing the return of the far-flung Caribbean Diaspora. Another goal is to dissuade further human flight/brain drain. The numbers don’t lie: we need population growth here at home, not population contraction.

The Go Lean roadmap provides the details of the primary mission, defined as the prime directives, to:

• Optimize the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establish a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate internal and external threats.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The primary mission to lead in the job creation and economic growth is at the root of the Go Lean effort, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):

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.

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

The following details from the book Go Lean … Caribbean are the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates prescribed to create jobs and elevate the Caribbean economy, society and life:

The social science of Anthropology teaches that communities have two choices when confronted with endangering crises: Fight or Flight. The foregoing article, this commentary and the Go Lean book had asserted that Caribbean people have only chosen the option of flight.

The caption on the foregoing article relates a young Haitian-American immigrant as he completes his naturalization to American citizenship. Congratulations.

But, perhaps there will be less of these going forward as this Go Lean effort seeks to rekindle the revolutionary fight of the Haitian people; (and by extension, the fighting resolve for all the Caribbean). This spirit was admired – from afar – by many people for a long time. The history even became legend, worthy of song …

The “Haitian Fight Song” was composed by Jazz musician Charles Mingus in the mid-1950s, during the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Just as significant social change was sweeping across the United   States,  Mingus said he wrote this song while thinking about the injustices in the world, and because of the success of the Haitian Revolution in ending slavery and French colonialism. Haiti was used as a symbol of resistance to racism, colonialism, and every kind of injustice one could think of. (Source: http://ryfigueroa.blogspot.com/2011/08/tracing-evolution-of-haitian-fight-song.html)

That is the fighting spirit …

… It is not all lost!

(The Go Lean book declares – Page 8 – that this is not a call for a revolt against the governments, agencies or institutions of the Caribbean region, but rather a petition for a peaceful transition and optimization of the economic, security and governing engines in the region).

VIDEO: The Haitian Fight Song – https://youtu.be/YSodXzfNdQA

New York Ska Jazz Ensemble – Haitian Fight Song + Volare (Live @ CSOA Gabrio)

Published on Dec 29, 2013 – New York Ska Jazz Ensemble play live a “cover” of Volare & the Haitian Fight Song live @ CSOA Gabrio – Via Revello 3 – Zona San Paolo Antirazzista – Torino Gabrio.noblogs.org
In Spanish and Italian, Volare translates to “Fly or Soar”

The Go Lean roadmap is a product of the Diaspora – residing in the USA – looking at Caribbean residents and longing to go home. These promoters realize that the grass is “not greener on the other side”. But they rightfully know that the quest for economic opportunities is the driving force for all the recent immigrants. There is no greater motivator than a crying stomach … or a crying baby. It is what it is! From this fallout, this roadmap was inspired. But subsequently the promoters have been joined with other resources and Subject Matter Experts in economics, security and governance and those experienced with forging change in other societies.

Now, to do this at home!

How to create jobs at home? The execution of this goal has been detailed in previous blog/commentaries; the following is a sample:

This book reports that this roadmap – this hope for change – is now also conceivable, believable and achievable. Yes, we can … make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. Everyone in the Caribbean is hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean … Caribbean roadmap.  🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!