Go Lean Commentary
What kind of society do you want to live in?
This is important to consider. As a democracy – of the people, by the people, for the people – what is done by the government is done on the people’s behalf, in our name.
“This is on us”.
Frankly, I would not want to live in a society where the strong abuses the weak.
To the contrast, I would want to live in a society, where we protect the vulnerable ones among us. This is also a Biblical concept …
The form of worship* that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans+ and widows+ in their tribulation,+ and to keep oneself without spot from the world.+ – James 1:27 NWT
This is a discussion about the modern plague of Human Trafficking.
Modern? Yes, there is “nothing new under the sun”. Human trafficking has always been a plight in the Caribbean; (see Appendix VIDEO below). Surely you recognize the parallels of this old practice of another name:
Slave Trade
Yes, Human Trafficking is the new brand for the old abominable practice of the slave trade. The Caribbean has a sad history with this practice – ancient and modern. Stories continue to emerge of contemporary occurrences. See this one here:
Title: Suspected Human Trafficking Victim Rescued In Castries
Crying young woman
A sixteen year old female, suspected to be a victim of human trafficking, was rescued Sunday in Castries and handed over to Saint Lucia Police, a senior law enforcement source has confirmed.
The teenager, originally from Venezuela but living in neighbouring Martinique for some time, ran to a complete stranger and begged for help, saying that she had been kidnapped and sexually abused, the source said.
According to the source, the young woman was partially naked and was complaining of intense pain.
“She said she was sedated by her captors and brought to Saint Lucia,” the source told St Lucia Times.
The stranger, a woman, to whom the teenager ran for help, took the girl to her home where she was given a meal and some clothing and later handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF), it was reported.
The law enforcement source told St Lucia Times that it appears that the teenager had been reported missing by officials in Martinique.
Investigations into the matter are continuing.
Source: Posted October 23, 2018; retrieved October 26, 2018 from https://stluciatimes.com/2018/10/23/suspected-human-trafficking-victim-rescued-in-castries/
As related here, this victim originated in Spanish-speaking Venezuela and has since been trafficked in the French Caribbean territory of Martinique and now the Anglophone country of St. Lucia.
This is more than just an academic discussion; this is a defining issue for the Caribbean and all of the New World territories in the Americas: What kind of society do we want to be?
My answer: one with Good Governance; one where we ensure that the strong do not abuse the weak and the vulnerable.
Human trafficking is a clear obvious violation of human rights of a weak subject; see the definition in the Appendix below.
In a previous Go Lean blog-commentary, the reference was made to a higher standard for governments and shepherds of society – the Code of Hammurabi – enacted within the ancient Babylonian Empire Super Power; it featured this statement:
“So that the strong should not harm the weak”
…There is an obvious “ignorance or negligence of this [Old World] concept” in the New World. …
So the abuse of the “strong against the weak” is clearly an unabashed societal defect in the New World. History teaches that with the emergence of any new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities – the weak – with good, bad and evil intent.
The New World needs to apply this lesson-learned from the “Old World of 1754 BC” to protect the “poor, sick and huddled masses yearning to be free”.
This lesson from history aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which seeks to reform and transform the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region; the book describes empowerments to target the economic, security and governing engines of society to ensure an adherence to the principle of the Greater Good. While we can observe-and-report on the other countries, we can only effect change here in our Caribbean homeland.
For the strong to protect the weak, the minimum expectation is an assumption of Good Governance. It is expected that someone-somewhere will step-in and step-up to police against human trafficking …
… failing this, we would have a Failed-State.
Unfortunately, according to the foregoing news article, this is the reality and actuality in the Caribbean. A Failed-State emerges when the governmental entities are not able to deliver on the Social Contract as defined here in a previous blog-commentary:
“Citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights”.
When a State fails on the delivery of the Social Contract; the most common consequence in society is human flight in search of refuge. This aligns with the societal abandonment reasons of “Push and Pull“:
- Push – refers to the reasons people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects – like the “strong abusing the weak” – many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged and LGBT – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
- Pull – refers to the lure of a more safer life abroad; many times our people are emigrating to communities where there are protections for the “weak against the abusive strong”.
The kind of society we want is one where Human Traffickers do not find safe haven in our communities. We want Good Governance not Failed-States.
This commentary is the third of a 5-part series (3 of 5) from the movement behind the Go Lean book in consideration of the Good Governance needs for a new Caribbean regime. The other commentaries in the series are cataloged as follows:
- Good Governance: … Versus Partisan Politics
- Good Governance: Stepping Up in an Emergency
- Good Governance: The Kind of Society We Want
- Good Governance: Getting ‘Out of the Way’ of Local Economic Empowerment
- Good Governance: Good Corporate Compliance
This need for Good Governance and a Caribbean Regional Police – CariPol – is embedded in this plan to elevate Caribbean life, the Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The purpose of this roadmap is to transform the region’s societal engines, which includes economics, security and governance. This is stated as the prime directive of the CU/Go Lean roadmap, see here:
- Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
- Establishment of a regional 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.
Good Governance, CariPol and Homeland Security are all part of the Go Lean book’s emphasis on New Guards. Notice these references in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 11 – 13):
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. …
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.
xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.
xviii. Whereas all citizens in the Federation member-states may not have the same physical abilities, reasonable accommodations must be made so that individuals with physical and mental disabilities can still access public and governmental services so as to foster a satisfactory pursuit of life’s liberties and opportunities for happiness.
These references to New Guards is a glimpse of a new Caribbean as envisioned in the Go Lean book. 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. We need to avoid Failed-State statuses. In addition, there is one advocacy in the book for mitigating the downward trend to Failed-State status. This includes considerations for the delivery of the Social Contract. Notice the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from the book on Page 134 entitled:
10 Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices
| 1 | Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market This will allow for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people across 30 member-states, thereby creating an economic zone to protect the interest of the participant trading partner-member-states. The GDP of the region will amount to $800 Billion (circa 2010). In addition, the treaty calls for a collective security agreement of the member states so as to ensure homeland security and assuage against systemic threats. The CU will ensure that law-and-order persist during times of distress. When a member state declares a State of Emergency, due to natural disaster or civil unrest, this triggers an automatic CU response – this is equivalent to the governmental dialing 911. |
| 2 | Image and Defamation |
| 3 | Local Government and the Social Contract
The Social Contract is the concept that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of their remaining rights (natural and legal). People therefore expect their government (national or municipal) to provide public safety, health, education and other services. The CU will facilitate overhead services for local governments and access to financial markets to fund capital infrastructure investments. The member-states will therefore have more accountability and reporting to CU institutions. |
| 4 | Law Enforcement Oversight
The CU will maintain jurisdiction for economic crimes and regional threats. Plus, the CU will collaborate and facilitate local law enforcement with grants of equipment and training to better fulfill their roles. Lastly, the regional security treaty will grant the CU the audit and compliance responsibility for “use of force” investigations and internal affairs. |
| 5 | Military and Political Monitoring
The CU will carefully monitor the activities of the military units (Army, Navy and Coast Guard) – this accountability will be the by-product of increased CU funding. The CU will assume the Judge Advocate General role for military justice affairs. For cross border engagements, the National armed forces will be marshaled by the CU’s Commander-in-Chief. |
| 6 | Crime/Homeland Intelligence The CU will install advanced systems, processes, and personnel for intelligence gathering and analysis to assist public safety institutions. This includes terrestrial and satellite surveillance systems, phone eavesdropping, data mining and predictive modeling. The findings will be used to mitigate risks and threats (gangs, anarchy, and organized crime). |
| 7 | Minority and Human Rights
The CU will protect the minority and human rights for the region’s population; this includes ethnic mixes of African, European, Amerindian, and Asian heritage; 4 languages, various religions, and 5 colonial legacies. The CU strategizes this diversity as an asset, rather than a source of contention, to be exploited as cultural exchanges in music, festivals, events, and food services. This will have a positive effect on tourism (foreign & domestic) and media initiatives. |
| 8 | Election Outsourcing |
| 9 | War Against Poverty |
| 10 | Big Data |
This Go Lean book presents that the function and responsibility of assuaging Failed-State indices will be a priority on Day One / Step One of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The point of Failed-State downward spirals has been elaborated on in previous blog-commentaries; consider this sample:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13391 | After Maria, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction and Defection for PR |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12996 | After Irma, Failed-State Indicators: Destruction and Defection |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12098 | Inaction: A Recipe for ‘Failed-State’ Status in Venezuela |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2547 | Miami’s Success versus Caribbean Failure |
We want the kind of society that looks after – protects – the vulnerable people in our community. This is what Good Governance should mean to us. So we must reform and transform our Caribbean governing engines to reach this goal. Let’s lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to accomplish this.
A commitment for Good Governance is a commitment to fully deliver on the Social Contract. Succeeding, or trying to succeed is how to can make the Caribbean a better homeland 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 – Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.[1][2] This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage,[3][4][5] or the extraction of organs or tissues,[6][7] including for surrogacy and ova removal.[8] Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim’s rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation.[9] Human trafficking is the trade in people, especially women and children, and does not necessarily involve the movement of the person from one place to another.[citation needed]
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), forced labor alone (one component of human trafficking) generates an estimated $150 billion in profits per annum as of 2014.[10] In 2012, the ILO estimated that 21 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery. Of these, 14.2 million (68%) were exploited for labor, 4.5 million (22%) were sexually exploited, and 2.2 million (10%) were exploited in state-imposed forced labor.[11]
Human trafficking is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organizations.[12]
Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions. In addition, human trafficking is subject to a directive in the European Union.[13] According to a report by the U.S. State Department, Belarus, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan remain among the worst countries when it comes to providing protection against human trafficking and forced labor. [14]
…
Revenues
In 2014, the International Labour Organization estimated $150 billion in annual profit is generated from forced labor alone.[10]
The average cost of a human trafficking victim today is USD $90 whereas the average slave in 1800 America cost the equivalent of USD $40,000.[18]
(Human trafficking differs from people smuggling, which involves a person voluntarily requesting or hiring another individual to covertly transport them across an international border, usually because the smuggled person would be denied entry into a country by legal channels. )
Source: Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking
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Appendix VIDEO – Human Trafficking – Short Documentary in the Caribbean – https://youtu.be/Hy0uA-srXig
UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Published on Sep 24, 2013 – A short film to inform the public about human trafficking in the Caribbean and to raise awareness of this modern form of slavery.
- Category: Education