Go Lean Commentary
Every Caribbean member-state has a Cabinet-level official that spearheads the tourism effort:
- Minister of Tourism
- Secretary of Tourism
- Executive Director, Tourism Agency/Company
There is no doubt that Tourism Stewards are Revenue Officers, as tourism is the primary economic activity in the Caribbean region. This is also true for other countries in other regions. Paris, France is a case in point, as that city enjoys 25 million tourists annually.
Why do people visit Paris?
Not for sun, sand or surf. No, the answer is culture. Parisian culture is responsible for Parisian economic engines.
“Economy and culture: it’s the same fight!” – Jack Lang, 2-time Minister of Culture (1988 – 1992; 1981 – 1986), Republic of France; (under President François Mitterrand)
In some Caribbean countries, “Tourism and Culture” are administered by the same agency, i.e. Ministry of Tourism Sports and Culture in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; (see photo here). Now the BIG country of China is embarking on the same model, as reported in this recent news article:
Title: China Creates Ministry of Culture and Tourism
The Chinese government has officially inaugurated the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which will help to boost the work culture in China and also helps to increase the work efficiency.Former Chinese minister of culture Luo Shugang was elected as the new Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Li Jinzao was appointed Vice Minister.
It is as part of a widespread institutional reshuffle, China forms this new department to boost the cultural part in the country.
Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the inauguration ceremony.
While addressing a symposium Sunday, Huang Kunming said that the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism would strengthen the Communist Party of China’s overall leadership over the work of culture and tourism. This is a new move by the Government of China to promote the country’s culture in international hemisphere.
Huang Kunming called on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to hold the new era, assume new missions, and have more confidence in the Chinese culture. Huang also asked the ministry to realize the policies and decisions made by the CPC Central Committee.
Source: Posted April 10, 2018; retrieved July 24, 2018 from: https://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com/en/noticia/china-creates-ministry-culture-and-tourism
There are benefits to be derived for the Caribbean member-states to prioritize their culture as a revenue product. This would mean providing a structure for the world to enjoy our culture, through the visitations and explorations of tourism and/or through media productions. So the goal here is to better explore the industrialization of culture.
This is the urging of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean; the book asserts (Page 218) that Caribbean culture must be preserved and protected. While we want to be a member of global society, we strongly want to maintain what makes our cultural influences special and unique. The book supports the notion that the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet, not just because of the terrain, fauna and flora; but also for the culture, festivals, food, music, dance, rum, cigars and our unique history. We have a fusion of African, Amer-Indian, European and Asian influences that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet; see Appendix VIDEO.
Plus, we have 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in our neighborhood. 🙂
Despite these synergies, our societal engines (economics, security and governance) are dysfunctional. The Go Lean book posits that the unique cultural dynamism of the region has not being fully explored; especially not regionally. Instead of competing in tourism and culture, this book urges that all regional member-states coordinate, collaborate, cooperate and confederate. Our whole, will be more than the sum of our parts. This is the dynamic of regional leverage.
We must reboot the industrial landscape, around our cultural dynamism, in order to create new economic opportunities, like jobs. We need such a new economic landscape because the current one is in shambles! This is due to the primary driver in the region – Tourism – being under assault. For example, more and more visitors shift from stay-overs to cruise arrivals. In addition to these visitors not having much time to embrace the local culture, the communities also suffer an economic blow to the local markets, as less spending is noticed.
So as a region, we must reboot our industrial landscape around our culture so as to add more cultural explorations, which will also mean more participation from all relevant stakeholders. The Go Lean book explains that doubling-down on the different areas of culture – events, music, arts, historic heritage sites – can result in more jobs. See here:
Direct jobs for Festivals and other event staff at Fairgrounds: 9,000
Direct jobs for managing music industry and media consumption: 2,900
Direct jobs (production, cast & crew) for film, TV and internet streaming: 2,000
Direct jobs for managing artist/exhibition & media consumption: 700
Direct jobs for managing, promoting UNESCO World Heritage Sites: 1,000
The Go Lean book prepares the business model for these expressions of culture in the Caribbean region. Yes, business model refers to jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, trade transactions, etc. In addition to these 15,600 industry jobs; there is also the reality of indirect jobs – unrelated service and attendant functions – at a 3.75 multiplier rate would add another 58,750 jobs.
This constitutes an industrial reboot! 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); this is a confederation of all 30 member-states to execute a reboot of the Caribbean economic eco-system. 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 & create 2.2 million new jobs.
- Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
- Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.
The Go Lean book stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean economic engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 13 – 14):
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.
xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.
xxxii. Whereas the cultural arts and music of the region are germane to the quality of Caribbean life, and the international appreciation of Caribbean life, the Federation must implement the support systems to teach, encourage, incentivize, monetize and promote the related industries for arts and music in domestic and foreign markets. These endeavors will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play.
This is the vision of an industrial reboot! This transformation is where and how new jobs can be created in the Caribbean. Accordingly, the CU will also facilitate an eco-system for Self-Governing Entities (SGE), an ideal concept for artist colonies, educational institutions and entertainment zones with the exclusive federal regulation/promotion activities. Imagine bordered campuses or urban districts – with theaters, film sound-stages, artists studios and exhibition halls.
The focus for the Go Lean roadmap is to recognize the economic benefits of fostering the arts. See here, how this subject is further elaborated on in the Go Lean book (Page 218) with the French example (debate) of Cultural Mandates -vs- Free Market Adherences:
| The Bottom Line on French Cultural Mandates
The French cultural endeavors are effectively managed by the government’s Ministry of Culture; which is in charge of national museums & monuments; managing the national archives and regional culture centers, and promoting & protecting the arts (visual, plastic, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual & cinematographic) in France and abroad. The Ministry is also charged with maintaining the French identity. The cabinet post was created by President Charles de Gaulle in 1959 with the goal of realizing the right to culture, incorporated in the French constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). De Gaulle’s aim was to democratize access to culture and elevate the “grandeur” of post-war France. Under President François Mitterrand the Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, showed himself to be far more open to popular cultural production, including jazz, rock and roll, rap music, graffiti art, cartoons, comic books, fashion and food. His famous phrase “economy and culture: it’s the same fight” is representative of his commitment to cultural democracy and to active national sponsorship and participation in cultural production. Under Minister Jacques Toubon (1993 – ‘95), a number of laws were enacted for the preservation of the French language, both in advertisements and on the radio (80% of songs in French), ostensibly in reaction to the presence of English. – Wikipedia |
… versus …
| Allowing the Free Market As digital multimedia evolves and emerges as both a business and creative opportunity, France’s culture of subsidy guarantees that it will always be more important for the artistes to be French first and creative second. As industrial policies go, that is hardly a recipe for success. For example, France has actually had a deputy cultural minister in charge of funding development of French rock ‘n’ roll. But American Top 40 radio stations never had to worry about a French Invasion.Also, the French had poured billions of francs into Groupe Bull – the state-supported computer company – in a desperate bid to keep France in the forefront of digital hardware and software systems. While Bull did OK in France; in the rest of the world – in the global marketplace – it failed miserably. Why do the French think the results will be any better with their cultural policy? The answer is simple: arrogance and a total misunderstanding of market forces. What really galls the French elite, of course, is that while the bourgeoisie and proletariat always choose with their ballots to preserve French culture, they always overwhelmingly vote for American pop culture with their francs. American television shows consistently kick the stuffing out of French shows in terms of popularity. Steven Spielberg does better box office than Jean-Jacques Beneix. – Wired Magazine May, 1994 |
The Go Lean movement (book and blogs) details the principles of SGE’s and job multipliers, how certain industries are better than others for generating multiple indirect jobs down the line (or off-campus) for each direct job on the SGE’s payroll. The arts hold the same promise. Plus with the beauty of the arts, it is time, talent and treasuries well-spent just in the execution of this business model.
Any time spent singing and dancing … is not a waste!
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. One advocacy in rebooting the industrial landscape is to work to preserve the cultural heritage of the regional member-states; consider the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 206 entitled:
10 Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage
| 1 | Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This regional re-boot will allow for the unification of the region into one market, thereby creating a single economy of 30 member-states, 42 million people and a GDP of over $800 Billion. The CU will assume the primary coordination for the region’s economy and image, because “economy and culture is the same fight”. Despite the legacies of 4 European cultures and the ubiquity of the American neighborhood, a CU mission is to preserve Caribbean heritage and culture. |
| 2 | Media Priorities (See Appendix W on Page 311: “Mediating as French Culture and Economics Collide“)
Like the French, this region may have to impose a system of quotas and subsidies for domestic production – in order to preserve “diversity” and an important Caribbean industry. As France is insisting on excluding such subsidies from a proposed EU-USA free-trade agreement, the CU may need to follow suit with such a policy to ensure local programs. |
| 3 | Mitigate Human Flight
As the “Dodo” bird became extinct, cultural extinction occurs too. Many aboriginal cultures have vanished from the New World, like the Aztec and Caribe tribes; (though some Taino influence remains). Human flight has the negative impact of assimilating a people in their new homelands. A CU mission is to mitigate this threat, and spur repatriation. |
| 4 | Legacies – Less Caribbean |
| 5 | Festivals |
| 6 | Music |
| 7 | Art – Public Places |
| 8 | Properties – Historical Preservation |
| 9 | Turn-around Strategies |
| 10 | Natural Resources (Fish, Animal Species) |
Cultural preservation is not a new subject for this Go Lean roadmap; there have been a number of previous blog-commentaries by the Go Lean movement that referenced the economic opportunities embedded in the exposé of Caribbean culture. These submissions have highlighted what an industrial expression of culture can achieve:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=14211 | Enjoy Carnival and Be Safe! |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12304 | Caribbean Festival of the Arts – Past, Present and Future |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9860 | Forging Change Thru Arts & Artists |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9712 | Forging Change Thru Panem et Circenses (Food & Festivals) |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7685 | Joy. Pain. Sunshine. Rain. – A Message of Happiness |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641 | ‘We Built This City …’ on Art, Music and Culture |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=866 | Bob Marley: A Caribbean Cultural Legend Lives On! |
In summary, our Caribbean region needs a better job-creation capability to make our homeland better. In fact, one of the reasons why so many Caribbean citizens have emigrated away from the homeland is the job-creation dysfunction. Creating a new economic landscape will require rebooting the industrial landscape.
Yes, we can … do this! We urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap for economic empowerment. We urge everyone to explore and exploit our great Caribbean culture; this could help to 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 – Here’s how the Caribbean became the most Racially Diverse Region in the World – https://youtu.be/fAZBLzWCUbU
Published on May 1, 2017 – This is how the Caribbean became the most racially diverse region on the planet, after having it’s ancestry and genetics permanently altered through European colonialism and migration.
In this video, I’m going to give the rundown for several Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, along with many others. We will look at the demographic history, and just what spawned the drastic fluctuations in the racial makeup of the region.
We’re also going to touch on many of the surrounding areas such as Central America, the Gullah coast, as well as the Guianas of South America.
Please let me know your thoughts on my analysis, especially if you live in, or have ancestry from the region. Videos over the latter regions will be released soon. Thanks for watching!
- Category: Comedy