Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way …” – Song Lyrics – The Greatest Love  Of All

The need to secure the community against threats and ‘bad actors’ must start with young people, school age children: High School, Middle School and Elementary.

Why so early? Because the tendency for strong individuals in a group to abuse the weak individuals starts early. Its an animalistic instinct to emerge as an Alpha Male or Alpha Female.

But we are not animals, despite any natural instincts. Societies come together to form a civilization with civil treatment of neighbors and fellow citizens. In the previous blog-commentary on the Model of Hammurabi it was detailed how that ancient King established laws to ensure that the “strong in society would not abuse the weak”. That blog concluded that the governmental authorities (the State) should provide the stewardship as specified in a Social Contract – where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights – with all citizens in society, the strong ones and the weak ones. This commentary is the 3^rd of 4 in a series on “Managing the Strong versus the Weak”. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

1. Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Model of Hammurabi
2. Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Mental Disabilities
3. Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Bullying in Schools: “Teach them well and let them lead the way”
4. Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Book Review: Sold-Out!
   

All of these commentaries relate to nation-building, stressing the community ethos necessary to forge a society where all the people are protected all the time. Since “children are the future”, it is important to mitigate and remediate bad behavior of the strong children that may trample on the “weak” children – bullying; if we teach them well when they are young and impressionable, that will allow them to lead the way for future societal cohesion. (See the personification of these words – song lyrics – in the Music VIDEO in the Appendix below).

The United States, as a model of an advanced democracy in our region, provides us lessons in how effective programs can be that are designed to mitigate bullying. We get to see the progress and regression. See this report-news article here:

Title: School Bullying, Cyberbullying Continue to Drop

Sub-Title: School bullying is at its lowest rate since 2005, but girls are still bullied at higher rates.
By: Allie Bidwell

The percentage of students who reported being bullied or cyberbullied reached a record low in 2013, but female students are still victimized at higher rates, according to new data from the Department of Education.

The department on Friday released the results of the latest School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which showed that in 2013, the percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied dropped to 21.5 percent. That’s down from 27.8 percent in 2011, and a high of 31.7 percent in 2007. The percentage of students who reported being cyberbullied also fell to 6.9 percent in 2013, down from 9 percent in 2011.

The department’s National Center on Education Statistics began surveying students on bullying in 2005.

“As schools become safer, students are better able to thrive academically and socially,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “Even though we’ve come a long way over the past few years in educating the public about the health and educational impacts that bullying can have on students, we still have more work to do to ensure the safety of our nation’s children.”

Despite the overall drop in bullying and cyberbullying, reporting rates remain low – just more than one-third of students who were victims of traditional bullying and fewer than one-quarter of cyberbullying victims reported the incident to an adult, the data show.

Female students also still consistently experience higher-than-average rates of victimization – 23.7 percent of female students said they had been bullied in 2013, and 8.6 percent said they had been cyberbullied. By comparison, 19.5 percent and 5.2 percent of male students in 2013 said they had been bullied and cyberbullied, respectively.

While there aren’t noticeable gender gaps in the location of bullying, female students were significantly more likely than male students to be made fun of, called names or insulted (14.7 percent compared with 12.6 percent), to be the subject of rumors (17 percent compared with 9.6 percent) and to be excluded from activities on purpose (5.5 percent compared with 3.5 percent). Male students who were bullied were more likely than female students to be pushed, shoved, tripped or spit on (7.4 percent compared with 4.6 percent).

Overall, bullied students were most likely to be made fun of, called names or insulted (13.6 percent) or to be the subject of rumors (13.2 percent). The most common forms of cyberbullying were unwanted contact via text messaging and posting hurtful information on the Internet.

Among students who were cyberbullied, female students were more likely to have hurtful information about them posted on the Internet (4.5 percent compared with 1.2 percent), to receive unwanted contact via instant messaging (3.4 percent compared with 1 percent) and unwanted contact via text messaging (4.9 percent compared with 1.6 percent).

Traditional bullying and cyberbullying also impact the behaviors of the affected students.
Among students who were victims of traditional bullying, more than 1 in 10 said they feared being attacked or harmed at school. That fear was slightly more frequent among victims of cyberbullying: about 1 in 8 students who had been cyberbullied said they feared attack or harm at school.

Generally, being the victim of cyberbullying appeared to affect students’ behavior more than traditional bullying – students who were cyberbullied were more likely to skip school, to avoid school activities, to avoid specific places at school and to carry a weapon to school.

Allie Bidwell is an education reporter for U.S. News & World Report.

[MORE: Social Combat: Bullying Risk Increases With Popularity]

[ALSO: Cyberbullied Teens Can Connect Online, In Person to Get Help]

Source: US News & World Report – Posted May 15, 2015; retrieved 04/01/2017 from: https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/05/15/school-bullying-cyber-bullying-continue-to-drop

The book Go Lean…Caribbean describes empowerments to target the economic, security and governing engines of society to ensure an adherence to the principle of the Greater Good. The book defines this principle as follows (Page 37):

“The greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”. –  Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); it posits (Page 23) that whatever the circumstances, “bad actors” will always emerge to exploit opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent….

The CU‘s security apparatus must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The community must accept that young ones will go astray, so Juvenile Justice programs should be centered on the goal to rehabilitate them into good citizens, before it’s too late. Community messaging (life-coaching and school-mentoring programs) must be part of the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.

The Go Lean book continues (Page 181) on the subject of “Junior Terrorism” with the quotation here:

The CU wants to “leave no child behind”. So bullying will be managed under a domestic terrorism and Juvenile Justice jurisdiction. The CU will conduct media campaigns for anti-bullying, life-coaching, and school-mentoring programs. The problem with teen distress is that violence can ensue from bullying perpetrators or in response to bullying.

We were all children at one point, and may have experienced the dynamics of bullying, either as a victor or a victim, but trust the facts here, the subject of bullying today is different; there is the New Media element; there is cyber-bullying.

Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic forms of contact. Cyberbullying has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers.^[1] Awareness in the United States has risen in the 2010s, due in part to high-profile cases.^[2][3] Bullying or harassment can be identified by repeated behavior and an intent to harm.^[4] Harmful bullying behavior can include posting rumors about a person, threats, sexual remarks, disclose victims’ personal information, or pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech).^[5]

Several US states and other countries have laws specific to regulating cyberbullying.^[6] These laws are designed to specifically target teen cyberbullying, while others use laws extending from the scope of physical harassment.^[7] In cases of adult cyberharassment, these reports are usually filed beginning with local police.^[8] Research has demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying victimization.^[9] Victims may have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal ideation, and a variety of emotional responses, retaliating, being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed.^[10] Individuals have reported that cyberbullying can be more harmful than traditional bullying.^[11]

Internet trolling is a common form of bullying over the Internet in an online community (such as social media) in order to elicit a reaction, disruption, or for their own personal amusement.^[12][13] Cyberstalking is another form of bullying or harassment that uses electronic communications to stalk a victim may pose a credible threat to the safety of the victim.^[14]
Source: Retrieved April 2, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying

The Go Lean book describes the eco-system of Internet & Communications Technology (ICT) and strategizes to use ICT as a great equalizer in the world markets. Big countries and small countries can equally and evenly compete. So ICT can be beneficial, if …

… the downsides – like cyber-bullying – can be assuaged or mitigated.

The point of fostering and policing ICT has been previously elaborated on in prior blog-commentaries; see sample list here:

According to the foregoing article, bullying is on the decline. This is a direct product of the effective messaging and school-based coaching. We need to model this in the Caribbean.

But also according to the foregoing article, the subject matters in the bullying eco-system that need the most attention are the girl-bullies, as opposed to boy-bullies. The messaging for girls – think: Mean Girls – must be customized as opposed to the messaging for boys. The art and science of this advocacy is just plain technocratic! This is a mission of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The Go Lean book actually conveys that there are many empowerments for Caribbean stewards to implement to help the youth (boys and girls) of the region. This sends the right message that we will not allow the weak in society to be trampled on by the strong. Consider this advocacy here:

10 Ways to Impact Youth – Page 227

The book Go Lean, serving as a roadmap, describes formal institutions to improve security like a regional Police and Military forces (including “Intelligence Gathering and Analysis”). There is the need to be on guard so that …

“… the strong should not harm the weak.”

This is the Code of Hammurabi, and despite having originated thousands of years ago, there is urgency to apply the principle today to counteract “bad actors”. The Go Lean book makes this revelation (Page 23):

… with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent.

This roadmap for Caribbean integration declares that peace, security and public safety is tantamount to economic prosperity. This is why an advocacy for the Greater Good must be championed as a community ethos. A prime precept is that it is “better to know than to not know” – this implies that privacy is secondary to security. A secondary precept is that bad things will happen to good people and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland.

The Go Lean roadmap details strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact this region in the cause against bullying. Consider this sample:

The CU‘s efforts relate to our Prime Directives; as exemplified by these 3 statements:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate internal and external threats.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The purpose of these prime directives is to elevate all of Caribbean society, all 30 member-states. This is a Big Deal – too big for any one member-state alone. We must confederate, collaborate and convene together. We can succeed with an interdependence within the region. See these statements from the formal Declaration of Interdependence, at the start of the book (Page 12):

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.

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, including … forms of terrorism [like bullying], 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.

The points of security mitigation have been previously elaborated on in these prior blog-commentaries; see sample list here:

We must learn from the American lessons on mitigating bullying. Our society, every society has “weak (physical and mental) members” that must be protected from the “strong” members, even in the schools. We can assuage any abuse; we can teach the children … well … and let them lead the way.

We would hate to think that bullying may “push” citizens away from their Caribbean homelands. So we must reform and transform our societal engines. If we do this, we will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work, learn and play for all citizens “strong or weak”. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

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Appendix VIDEO – Whitney Houston – Greatest Love Of All – https://youtu.be/IYzlVDlE72w

Uploaded on Sep 27, 2010 – Whitney Houston’s official music video for ‘Greatest Love Of All’. Click to listen to Whitney Houston on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WhitneyHSpotify?IQ…

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