Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

There is something really wrong in the Dominican Republic (DR) in particular and all of the Caribbean in general:

Citizens are beating down the doors to get out!

This failing assessment is accelerating faster and faster as every year goes by. In 2010, there were approximately 1.41 million people of Dominican descent in the US; now the absolute latest number is an estimate from 2015: 1,873,097; see the full details in Appendix A below.

According to the book Go Lean…Caribbean, the population on the island for 2010 was reported at 9,523,209. So one-fifth of the population of Dominican heritage live in the US. There appears to be no progress in any movement for repatriation to the island, rather there is progress in movement to the South, to Florida. Of the Top 7 US states that the Dominican Diaspora lives in, Florida is the only one in the Sunbelt. The tropical landscapes in Greater Miami is reminiscent of the DR for many people. Now, the Miami neighborhood of Allapattah is emerging as the new Home away from Home and thusly branded: ‘Little Santo Domingo’ – see full details in Appendix B.

In a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, it was detailed how the Greater Miami area has benefited from failures in the Caribbean region. We saw this dynamic at work this weekend with the World Baseball Classic tournament in Miami.  For this round in the tournament, these 4 teams were assigned to Miami for “Pool C” play:

• Canada
• Colombia
• Dominican Republic
• USA
  
  Source: https://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/schedule?affiliateId=DC-9422074-109104352834-9906034-1161695674

See this news article here detailing the game between the Dominican Republic and the US – this article shows that despite the address, playing in Miami was a Home Game for the Dominican National Team:

Title: Miami, WBC are big winners as Team USA, Dominicans set records for attendance … and volume
By: Greg Cote
How perfect that the World Baseball Classic’s only first-round games in the United States are happening at Marlins Park. This event is so Miami.

It beams us to the rest of the world so accurately and with splendor, and I mean beyond the tourism/postcard aspect we saw Saturday night with the ballpark roof open, fresh breeze wafting in from the ocean and the downtown skyline majestic as a Goodyear blimp and a full moon floated overhead.

This international event speaks our language(s), reflecting the multi-ethnic, multi-national flavor that defines us. While much of the rest of the country recoils from diversity and retreats to jingoism — or I should say as our new government does — Miami remains steadfastly a savory, year-round gumbo of personalities and backgrounds.

On Saturday night, Dominican fans cheered a first-inning strikeout of Team USA’s Adam Jones as if it were the final out in a World Series Game 7. The sound was sonic, numbing. U.S. (and Marlins) fans countered with a roar of their own as Christian Yelich doubled to right field. I’m not sure a I had heard (or felt) such high-pitch passion at a South Florida sports event since the last time the Heat hosted an NBA Finals game.

The ballpark concourses filled with celebrating Dominicans before the game, a carnival of whistles and horns and sporadic, erupting chats of “Ole’!”

During the game there was The Wave undulating around the park. Of course there was. All that joy gotta go someplace.

Before the game I met a “house divided” couple. Ken Oliver, a South Florida attorney, wore Team USA colors and his friend, Josie Pichardo, those of the Dominican team. By arrangement I texted them during the game to get a sense of the atmosphere in the middle of it. They sat in Section 206, among far more fans who agreed with Josie’s team preference. I asked what it was like down there.

“Banging drums!” Oliver texted back.

Edison Cruz, 28, of Miami, had arrived with a handful of buddies — all wearing Dominican shirts.

“It is because baseball is our true national pastime,” he said. “In American there are all sports to love.”

Team USA and the Dominican both are favored to be the two teams of four in this Pool C to advance to the WBC’s next round, each fielding lineups filled with major-league stars. How good were these batting orders Saturday? The Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton, a threat to lead the majors in home runs, hit seventh for the United States.

There is a reason Miami attracts global sporting events like the WBC. It isn’t just our weather. It’s our welcome. It’s all the colors in our quilt. If sport truly is an international language, we are fluent.

It is why this same ballpark was reconfigured recently into a racetrack for a major annual auto race involving stars from NASCAR, Formula One and IndyCar — an international event choosing Miami for its first-ever U.S. appearance.

This week it was announced two of the most famous, celebrated club teams in global soccer, Real Madrid and Barcelona, would bring their El Clasico rivalry to Hard Rock Stadium this July. The place will be filled in a way the Dolphins rarely manage.

So Saturday it was Team USA and the Dominican Republic filling MarlinsPark with passion and fans.

Who won? You didn’t need a scoreboard to tell you.

Miami did.

This blog-submission is not just relating a newspaper article and commenting about events from a far. This writer was at the game, Section 32 – Left Field bleachers.

The purpose of the book Go Lean…Caribbean (GLC) is NOT to celebrate Diaspora life in American cities; rather it is to champion the causes of retaining Caribbean citizens in the Caribbean, and inviting the Diaspora back to their homelands. These intentions were pronounced early in the book with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13):

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.

xx.  Whereas the results of our decades of migration created a vibrant Diaspora in foreign lands, the Federation must organize interactions with this population into structured markets. Thus allowing foreign consumption of domestic products, services and media, which is a positive trade impact. These economic activities must not be exploited by others’ profiteering but rather harnessed by Federation resources for efficient repatriations.

This quest – reversing the propensity for Dominican people to abandon their island home – is a “tall order”, heavy-lifting task. This was expressed by one fan at the WBC Baseball game on Saturday March 11. He – first name Pablo – explained the following:

Pablo: I completed high school in the DR and knew that I was to leave immediately at the end of high school. This was not just my scenario, but the majority of the students in my graduating class. I look back now and I personally know that at least 50 percent of the class is in the US, through legal or illegal means.

GLC: You are celebrating your love for the DR homeland by being here at this baseball game, so I assume your plan now is to just work in the US during your active years and then retire back in the DR. Is this correct?

Pablo: No. I would not want to retire in the DR. It is too costly a lifestyle. You spend a lot of money in the homeland but get very little to show for it. I simply wish to visit, but I would not live there again … ever.

GLC: We recognize that even with some success from our roadmap, repatriating to the DR may never appeal to Diaspora members like you; so our focus is on the next generation, we must dissuade future classes from leaving in the first place.

Pablo: Good luck…

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to bring positive change. The CU‘s prime directives are 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.

The Go Lean book posits that with the empowerments that come with this roadmap, the region will be a better place to live, work and play. But this quest is heavy-lifting. The book thusly details the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to finally re-boot Caribbean society. Consider this sample:

This commentary previously featured subjects related to the DR; consider this sample:

As related previously, Miami is a better place to live, work and play … due to the contributions of the Caribbean Diaspora, including Dominicans. The new Marlins Park had never seen such a baseball fandom before the Dominicans made their impact on Saturday. (The stadium and Marlins owner is extremely disliked in the Miami community).

Dominicans are good for Miami and Miami is good for Dominicans. See the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO –  http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/article137986623.html 

Dominican fans dance to the music before Saturday’s World Baseball Classic game between the United States and the Dominican Republic at Marlins Park on Saturday, March 11, 2017. Pedro Portal The Miami Herald

Now, the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is to foster that exact same prosperous spirit among Dominicans, but to prosper where planted in their Caribbean homeland, not in this foreign city (Miami). We urge all Dominican stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap, those residing in the region and those in the Diaspora. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

————

Appendix A – Dominican Americans

Dominican Americans are Americans who have full or partial origin from the Dominican Republic.^[5] Although their emigration began in the sixteenth century,^[6] thousands of Dominicans passed through the gates of Ellis Island in the 19th and early 20th centuries.^[7]The most recent movement of emigration to the United States began in the 1960s, after the fall of the Trujillo regime. In 2010, there were approximately 1.41 million people of Dominican descent in the US, including both native and foreign-born.^[8] Dominican Americans are the fifth-largest Hispanic group in the United States.

…

The absolute latest number in terms of size of this Diaspora is an estimate from 2015: 1,873,097^[1][2]; this is 0.6% of the U.S. population (2015).^[3]

As of the 2010 census, the top 10 US states with the largest Dominican populations are the following:^[24]

1. New York – 674,787 (3.5% of statal population)
2. New Jersey – 197,922 (2.3% of statal population)
3. Florida – 172,451 (0.9% of statal population)
4. Massachusetts – 103,292 (1.6% of statal population)
5. Pennsylvania – 62,348 (0.5% of statal population)
6. Rhode Island – 35,008 (3.3% of statal population)
7. Connecticut – 26,093 (0.7% of statal population)
8. North Carolina – 15,225 (0.2% of statal population)
9. Georgia – 14,941 (0.2% of statal population)
10. Maryland – 14,873 (0.3% of statal population)

Source: Retrieved March 12, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Americans_(Dominican_Republic)

————

Appendix B – Allapattah

Allapattah is a neighborhood mostly in the city of Miami, Florida, and partly in metropolitan Miami, United States. As of May 2011, the county-owned portion of Allapattah, from State Road 9 to LeJeune Road, is being annexed by the city proper.^[1]

The neighborhood was nicknamed Little Santo Domingo in 2003 … to honor the sizable Dominican American population in the community.^[2]

History
The name is derived from the Seminole Indian language word meaning alligator. The initial settlement of the Allapattah community began in 1856 when William P. Wagner, the earliest documented white American permanent settler, arrived from Charleston, South Carolina and established a homestead on a hammock along the Miami Rock Ridge, where Miami Jackson High School presently stands. Development ensued from 1896 and into the 20th century in the area with the completion of the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC).^[3] 

Allapattah was predominantly populated by whites from early in the 20th century until the late 1950s, when there was a large influx of black Americans displaced by the construction of I-95 (then, the North-South Expressway) in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to white flight to suburban Miami-Dade County and Broward County. Cubans migrated to Miami neighborhoods like Allapattah in large numbers following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, hosting one of Miami’s largest Cuban American populations. The 1980s brought influxes of Dominican Americans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Haitians in the aftermath of various refugee crises in those nations. Now, a melting pot of residents from all across the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America reside in the area.

Demographics
As of 2000,^[5] Allapattah had a population between 40,406 and 43,860^[6] residents, with 12,508 households, and 8,224 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $19,141.53. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 72.23% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 18.33% Black or African American, 6.89% White (non-Hispanic), and 2.55% Other races (non-Hispanic).

The zip codes for Allapattah include 33136, 33125, 33127, and 33142. The area covers 4.653 square miles (12.05 km²). As of 2000, there were 23,967 males and 19,894 females. The median age for males was 33.9 years old, while the median age for females was 36.0 years old. The average household size had 2.8 people, while the average family size had 3.4 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 36.4%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 16.6%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 14.5%. 8.0% of the population were in correctional institutions, 1.0% of the population were in nursing homes, and 1.2% of the population were in other group homes. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 24.5%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 12.4%.^[6]

As of 2000, the percentage of people that speak English not well or not at all made up 33.0% of the population. The percentage of residents born in Florida was 30.5%, the percentage of people born in another US state was 9.2%, and the percentage of native residents but born outside the US was 4.3%, while the percentage of foreign born residents was 56.1%^[6]

Source: Retrieved March 12, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allapattah