Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

Children almost always rebel against their parental norms!

This is just a fact of life. Many times this actuality is a source of friction and frustration in families … and society in general. But many times, the rebellion can result in subsequent benefits to people and institutions in society; though this judgment may not be realized until a later time.

So a younger generation’s rebellion may be how whole communities are disciplined. This thought even aligns with the Bible’s counsel on discipline:

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening – it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. – Hebrews 12:11 New Living Translation

Just consider these quick examples of protest movements: slavery abolition, women’s suffrage, labor rights and civil rights. These changes upended – sometimes violently – societal norms. But now, our communities are better for having endured it.

With this premise, we are now able to better embrace the historicity of the “counter-culture” of the 1960’s. This is our most recent example of a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differed substantially from those of mainstream society. And this is not just an academic discussion, for this timeframe corresponds with the time of upheaval for Caribbean society; yet we have not fully applied the lessons-learned and benefits from the resultant societal discipline; see Appendix VIDEO.

A counter-culture typically involves criticism or rejection of the status quo powerful institutions, with accompanying hope for a better life or a new society.

This is the focus of this series of commentaries on the counter-culture of the 1960’s. This first one – entry 1 of 4 in this series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – is in consideration of remaining societal defects in the Caribbean region. We did not reform or transform like other communities contending with the counter-culture. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:

1. Counter-culture: Embracing the Change – Battling against Orthodoxy
2. Counter-culture: Manifesting Change – Environmentalism & ‘Climate Change’
3. Counter-culture: Monetizing the Change – Education, Workplace, Healthcare & Retirement
4. Counter-culture: Pushing for Change – Is Ganja here to stay?

All of these commentaries relate to “how” the stewards for a new Caribbean can shepherd societal change in this region. We accept that with the counter-culture, young people can reject conventional social norms. This can be good when the “mainstream” culture reflects cultural standards that are defective. The counter-culturists of the 1960’s – think hippies – rejected the norms of their parents – from the 1950’s and before – especially with respect to:

• Racial segregation – The US had a long, bad track record of enforcing a “separate but equal” standard. This was a sham! For the minority populations, they were separated but far from equal; they were oppressed, suppressed and repressed to ensure an inferior status. It took a counter-culture to press until change manifested; i.e. Linda Brown
• Support for wars – The counter-culturists opposed military conscriptions with vocal protests, publications, demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. In fact, not until the Military Draft ended in the US, did Caribbean people start to consider the prospect of emigrating to the US.
• Women’s rights – These rights, like many other societal reforms, only come about as a result of advocates and activists fighting for change. But these battles were too important not to fight. Starting in the mid-19^th Century, the 1960’s Civil and Gender Rights succeeded with the landmark 1972 Title IX US federal legislation.
• Sexual mores – Many countries criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The counter-culturists did not stand still; they persisted and got the US to continue the national trend of more tolerance with every generation.
• Traditional modes of authority – The counter-culturists conveyed to the world that Police authorities were far from perfect, and many times, not even in the right. Standards for mitigating and managing Police Abuse of Power emerged from this hard-fought counter-culture revolution.
• A materialist interpretation of Middle Class values – While capitalism has won all debate for governing policy, the harsh profit-first priority of Crony-Capitalism has been debunked by counter-culturists. Now environmentalism, arts, humanitarianism has emerged as great candidates for a purpose-driven life.
• Drug usage – The counter-culture normalized marijuana use and now … State authorities are enacting legislation to legitimize or decriminalize recreational marijuana use. This implementation will be heavy-lifting as there are many security and governing dynamics to manage.

Lessons abound … all of this above drama from the counter-culture is not just American drama. No, the 1960’s counter-culture movement was truly global. It also impacted our Caribbean homeland as well; see Appendix VIDEO.

All of the above issues had a Caribbean parallel.

Yes, the 1960’s counter-culturists triggered dramatic changes; but they were not the first in history, nor were they the last. See here:

Prominent examples of countercultures in Europe and North America include Romanticism (1790–1840), Bohemianism (1850–1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944–1964), followed by the globalized counter-culture of the 1960s (1964–1974), usually associated with the hippie subculture^[3] and the diversified punk subculture of the 1970s and 1980s. – Wikipedia 

The book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to reform and transform all of Caribbean society – all 30 member-states. This is counter to the existing culture. There is the need to shepherd our communities through major changes; we need to reboot our societal engines. 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 Caribbean needs a counter-culture revolution! We have defects we need to abandon and gaps that need to be filled.

We need our young people to reject conventional social norms. We need them to rebel and revile their parents … and other members of society that are backwards – trying to preserve defective “mainstream” cultural standards – then move forward.

The Go Lean book identifies and defines “mainstream” cultural standards as community ethos; with this direct quotation (Page 20 – 25):

The people of the Caribbean must change their feelings about elements of their society – elements that are in place and elements missing. This is referred to as “Community Ethos”, defined as:

noun – (www.Dictionary.com)

1. the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period.

2. the character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.

As such, some [missing] community ethos … have been identified as relevant for the Caribbean. They are as follows:

• Deferred Gratification
• Economic Principles
  • Money Multiplier
  • Job Multiplier
• Security Principles
  • Privacy versus Public Protection
  • Whistleblower Protection
  • Witness Security & Protection
  • Anti-Bullying and Mitigation
  • Intelligence Gathering
  • Light Up the Dark Places
  • “Crap” Happens
• Governing Principles
  • Minority Equalization
  • Lean Operations
  • Return on Investments
  • Cooperatives
  • Non-Government Organizations
• Advocacies
  • Ways to Impact the Future
  • Ways to Foster Genius
  • Ways to Help Entrepreneurship
  • Ways to Promote Intellectual Property
  • Ways to Impact Research & Development
  • Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide
  • Ways to Improve Negotiations
  • Ways to Impact Turn-Arounds
  • Ways to Manage Reconciliations
  • Ways to Improve Sharing
  • Ways to Promote Happiness
  • Ways to Impact the Greater Good

The movement behind the Go Lean book have previously identified many defective “mainstream” cultural values in the Caribbean; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

There is so much to learn from the counter-culture movement of the 1960’s!

The ‘Hippies’ stood in the track of an oncoming locomotive … and stopped the train!

The counter-culture brought change, some good (ie: desegregation & anti-war protest) and some bad (ie: un-kept grooming & liberal drug use)! So the ‘Hippies’ are only to be emulated as a model for forging change, not necessarily what they change.

The Go Lean book and roadmap stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean’s societal engines is possible, but must be preceded with reforming and transforming Caribbean attitudes or community ethos. Despite the individual member-states, counter-cultural changes can be pushed regionally. This – regional push – 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 forge a counter-cultural revolution transition in the Caribbean; it details the new community ethos that needs to be adopted, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.

We are not asking the Caribbean to be “hippies”, just learn from the “hippies” and reject the status quo and orthodoxy of the broken Caribbean eco-system.

Yes, we can foster change, a counter-culture even; we can make 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 VIDEO-AUDIO – Eddie Minnis: “Ting an’ Ting Y2K” – https://youtu.be/oDF2cQsEURU

This is a Bahamian folk song by legend Eddie Minnis describing societal change in the capital city. ‘Ting and Ting’, the counter-culture had taken hold and everything changed … for good and bad:

• “Nassau’s become such a funky town since “ting an’ ting” been going ’round.

EDDIE MINNIS – Topic

Published on Jul 20, 2015 – Provided to YouTube by CDBaby “Ting An’ Ting Y2k” (Granny and Fleabs Mix) · Eddie Minnis Tropical Waves ℗ 2012 Edward Minnis Released on: 2012-08-01 Auto-generated by YouTube.

• Category: Music
• License: Standard YouTube License
• Music: “Ting An’ Ting Y2k (Granny and Fleabs Mix)” by EDDIE MINNIS Listen ad-free with YouTube Red