Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

“If it is going to be, it starts with me” – Self-Help Mantra

This has become a common rallying cry for Social Justice advocates – see Appendix A below. It is a very simple, yet powerful concept; it asserts:

Want to change the world, first change yourself, then work on changing your community and your country!

This theme is sang in songs – consider Appendix B and this song here by Michael Jackson, the Late-Great King of Pop. He said the same, but in a more melodious tune:

I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways; and no message could be any clearer: If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.

VIDEO – Michael Jackson – Man In The Mirror (Official Video) – https://youtu.be/PivWY9wn5ps

Published on Oct 2, 2009

In keeping with the lyrical message of “Man in the Mirror,” which was strongly identified with Michael Jackson and reflective of his own philosophies, the short film features powerful images of events and leaders whose work embodies the song’s message to”make that change.” Rolling Stone praised the short film in 2014 as “a powerful statement to deliver to personality-driven MTV.”

Written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard
Produced by Quincy Jones for Quincy Jones Productions
Co-Produced by Michael Jackson for MJJ Productions, Inc.
From the album Bad, released August 31, 1987
Released as a single January 16, 1988

THE SHORT FILM
Director: Don Wilson

Michael Jackson’s short film for “Man in the Mirror” was the third of nine short films produced for recordings from Bad, one of the best-selling albums of all time. The “Man in the Mirror” single hit No. 1 in four countries in 1988, topping the charts in the United States, Italy, Belgium and Poland and reaching Top 5 in Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. In the U.S., “Man in the Mirror” was the fourth of five consecutive No. 1 singles from one album on the Billboard Hot 100-making Michael the first artist to achieve this milestone.

“Man in the Mirror,” written by Siedah Garrett (Michael’s duet partner on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”) and Glen Ballard, is one of only two songs on Bad not written by Michael Jackson and, even though it wasn’t a song he wrote himself, it was a message that was strongly identified with him and reflective of his own philosophies, as demonstrated through his actions and expressed in some of his own lyrics. “‘Man in the Mirror’ has a great message,” he wrote in his 1988 memoir Moonwalk. “I love that song. ..Start with yourself. Don’t be looking at all the other things. Start with you. That’s the truth.” A review of Bad in Rolling Stone in 1987 called the song “among the half dozen best things Jackson has done.”

In contrast to Michael’s other short films of the Bad era, “Man of the Mirror” tells a story not through performance, but through powerful images of oppression, homelessness, hunger, police brutality and other ills of the world, as well as events and leaders of the 20th century whose work is reflective of the song’s message to “make that change.”

Follow the Official Michael Jackson Accounts:
Facebook – http://smarturl.it/mj_facebook?IQid=y…
Twitter – http://smarturl.it/mj_twitter?IQid=yt…
Spotify – http://smarturl.it/mj_spotify?IQid=yt…
Newsletter – http://smarturl.it/mj_newsletter?IQid…
YouTube – http://smarturl.it/mj_youtube?IQid=yt…
Website – http://smarturl.it/mj_website?IQid=yt…

• Category: Music
• License: Standard YouTube License

Changing one-self; changing the community and changing the world; these are great aspirations! This is such a familiar theme for the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. In a previous blog-commentary, the point was elaborated that if you “change the way you see the world; you change the world you see”. But that thesis was related to technology and Augmented Reality Holograms; in this commentary however, the focus is strictly on Self-Help, for oneself and the community.

There is the need to help Caribbean communities.

The 30 member-states of the Caribbean region are all in dire straits; some are even flirting with Failed-States status – think: Puerto Rico Bankruptcy, Spanish Caribbean territorial abandonment, deficient Westminster structures, unstable volcanic states, etc.. Our communities are plagued with defects and dysfunctions in the economic, security and governing engines of society. But these can be remediated; the Go Lean movement posits that the entire region can be reformed and transformed, however that effort is described as heavy-lifting.

Yes, the societal defects of the Caribbean can be fixed – remediated and mitigated – but “if it is going to be, it starts with me”; it is necessary for all stakeholders to engage in the effort to turn-around the Caribbean. To forge change, the region must consider top-down and bottoms-up approaches, so we need the multitude of Caribbean people (bottoms-up) and politicians and community leaders (top-down) to lean-in to this quest to turn-around the community. Yes, it starts with “me”, as in everyone.

The quest to turn-around the Caribbean is detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – which 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 30 member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

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

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 12 – 13):

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

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

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

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.

You must be the change you want to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi.

This quotation from Mahatma Gandhi relates to the theme of this commentary: “if it is going to be, it starts with me”.

Yes, the Revival the Caribbean needs must start with me! See song in Appendix B.

Other communities have successfully reformed and transformed; we can as well. This point has been conveyed in many previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:

This is not just idle talk. No, it is a viable plan – a roadmap – that is a conceivable, believable and achievable. The Go Lean book offers the turn-by-turn directions for strategies, tactics and implementations. So with the commitment of time, talent and treasuries of everyone in the Caribbean – or maybe just 1 person: “me” or “you” –  we can succeed in making our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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

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Appendix A – PhD Dissertation

If It’s to Be, It Starts With Me!

The Bidirectional Relation between Goals and the Self

Inaugural-Dissertation

zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der
Philosophischen Fakultät II

Der Julius-Maximilians – University of Würzburg

URL: https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/files/3501/PetraMarkelDissertation.pdf

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Appendix B VIDEO – Tim Timmons – Starts With Me – https://youtu.be/pslWA2VRmxg