Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

“Here I am, send me”!

There are some leaders in Caribbean governance that “see the light”. They know that the member-states in the region have suffered from acute societal abandonment and there is the need to reverse the trend and urge people to return, to repatriate.

This one Caribbean government official – see Appendix – even pleas for “someone” to develop a repatriation strategy.

To this leader, and all others, the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean is standing up, stepping up and speaking up:

“… Here I am, send me” – The Bible; Isaiah 6:8
(New International Version: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”)

The basic premise of the economic analysis in the Go Lean book is that we need our population to stay, remain and return to the Caribbean; the more people we have in the market the better. Despite all the complexities in the field of Economics, societal growth comes down to this truism, as reported in a prior blog-commentary:

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

Yes, the Caribbean needs to retain its people, and recruit its Diaspora to return, but in a previous blog-commentary, it was related that the prospect for return of the younger people – who have left – is not very pragmatic … until their retirement. Maybe though, a strategy can be designed, developed and deployed to recruit Diaspora members in earlier phases of their lives; as the St. Lucian Senator requests in the Appendix news story: “young people, mid-career and senior career” people.

The Go Lean book presented such a strategy …

… along with the tactics, implementations and advocacies to make such a repatriation plan work.

The Go Lean book asserts that the Caribbean region must reform and transform its societal engines, so as to:

1. Dissuade people from leaving, in the first place.
2. Invite people who have emigrated to consider a return.

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic  Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) so that all 30 regional member-states can work together – in a formal regional integration – to leverage to economies-of-scale to optimize the organizational dynamics in the region. To accomplish this objective, this CU/Go Lean roadmap presents 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. There are limited economic (job creation and entrepreneurial) opportunities today, but a regional reboot can create a new industrial landscape with long-sought opportunities.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines. This includes the proactive and reactive empowerments to better prepare and respond to natural and man-made threats.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including regional integration with a separation-of-powers between each state and CU There is also a plan to provide stewardship that will help repatriates fully consume their entitlement benefits from foreign countries.

We – the movement behind the Go Lean book – are hereby presenting ourselves to do the heavy-lifting of preparing our society to better accommodate these repatriates, in all phases of life, young, mature adults and senior citizens. “Here I am, send me”! The book previews the required effort; it provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reboot the region’s societal engines.

In addition to the book, there have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean promoters that have detailed the prospects and requisites for Caribbean repatriation. See a sample list of such blogs here:

The St. Lucia Senator – Honorable Dr. Adrian Augier, an Economist – is pushing further and farther than most politicians seeking outreach to the Diaspora. These ones have adopted the lazy approach of just asking for the Diaspora’s money (investments); Dr. Augier on the other hand, is asking for their outright return. This is a big departure from the “lazy approach”, where many Caribbean member-states do not allow their Diaspora to vote in national elections. So in this case, the “lazy” politicians want the money with “no strings attached”; they do not want to be accountable or answerable to these far-flung former residents. See the consistent pattern of these Caribbean member-states advocating for Diaspora investments in these previous blog-commentaries:

• Grenada: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13438
• Dominica: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13288
• Jamaica: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13040
• Haiti: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13105
• Bahamas: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12911
• St. Lucia: http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10657

When people repatriate, they normally bring their new preferences and standards with them. They will no longer accept a Less Than standard for Social Contract obligations, like public safety and security provisions. For example, imagine hospitals (i.e. Trauma Centers) and first responder (i.e. police) quality levels.

Wanting the Diaspora to return without doing any of the heavy-lifting – to reform and transform – is just plain lazy. The Go Lean planners for a new Caribbean now want the full benefits of a full return. More and more, people are learning that foreign countries are not designed for the Caribbean’s Black and Brown. It is better for the people and the homeland if our citizens can prosper where planted here in the Caribbean.

Rather than being lazy, the Go Lean movement is volunteering – Here I am, Send Me – to do the heavy-lifting to optimize our regional society.  We will do the work necessary to reboot the homelands so that our repatriates-prospects can finally have a opportunity to prosper where planted here in the region.

Yes, this is a regional effort. The Go Lean roadmap asserts this requirement; first calling for an interdependence among the 30 member-states in the region. This was the motivation for the CU/Go Lean roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13) of the book:

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, domestic and foreign. …

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.

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.

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.

How is this for a repatriation strategy?!

This delivery should answer the urging of the Caribbean politician- Economist, as he urges more Diaspora members to come back to  the islands. In fact, Going Back to the Islands is a familiar plea in the region; see this song-VIDEO here:

VIDEO – Baha Men – Going Back to the Islands – https://youtu.be/Zs2-p2MAq5k

Khodi Mack

Published on Feb 10, 2012 –

http://bit.ly/bahamentoday

The group was first called High Voltage for a number of years. In 1991, they changed their name to Baha Men and recorded “Back To The Island” which was their first single recorded as a group signed to “Big Beat” an international record label. Several years later, Baha Men recorded “Who Let The Dogs Out”, their biggest hit ever…..and the rest as they say…….is history. Get this song Directly @ http://bit.ly/back-to-the-island

• Category: People & Blogs
• License: Standard YouTube License
• Music: “Back To The Island” by Baha Men Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

Yes, come back to the islands …

… all you who have fled. We need you here, not remaining in the Diaspora. Any policy that double-downs on the Diaspora is actually doubling-down on failure. We strongly urge Caribbean stakeholders – politicians and citizens alike – to lean-in to this roadmap to invite the Diaspora back home and make our homeland, all 30 member-states, better places 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 – Adrian Augier calls for repatriation strategy

Press Release:-  [St. Lucian] Independent Senator Hon. Dr. Adrian Augier has called on the government to consider an aggressive repatriation strategy, in order to address the country’s brain drain.

Dr. Augier lamented the fact that too many Saint Lucians are finding their future outside their homeland.

In his presentation to the Senate during the debate on the 2018 Appropriations Bill, Dr. Augier called on the government to compile a database of Saint Lucian expertise residing overseas. He said an aggressive repatriation strategy may help to curb Saint Lucia’s constant reliance on borrowing institutions.

“I would like to see the creation of an environment that attracts not only our brightest and best young people back home, but an aggressive program developed by the government which encourages just that. One that seeks to find out where are human resources are located around the world, young people, mid-career and senior career Saint Lucians who are capable of assisting with the development of this country. I think we are losing out very rapidly, and what we are going to have left in this country is going to be less than optimal in terms of our young nation.”

Meantime, the independent senator has suggested that the mandate of the Saint Lucia National Lotteries Authority be expanded to include support not just to sports but to the creative industries.

“There is absolutely no reason why there should be a dearth of direct support to the arts and creative industries sector,” he said. “Right now there is absolutely nowhere to go for the proponents of our creative genius to be able to get support to express themselves and to express the values of their nation and their community in art and creativity. So I am making a specific recommendation to this honourable House. I am considering a private bill, but I am hoping that wouldn’t be necessary, so that we could have the mandate of the NLA expanded to include not just support for sports, but for arts as culture as well.”

Independent Senator Adrian Augier’s contribution to the debate focused primarily on the importance of maintaining balance and sustainability.

Source: Posted April 19, 2018; retrieved April 20, 2010 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2018/04/19/adrian-augier-calls-for-repatriation-strategy/