Go Lean Commentary
Cuba is the largest population base in the Caribbean, with 11,236,444 people as of 2010. So any empowerment effort for the region cannot ignore this big landmass in the middle of the Caribbean and not this many people; (more than 26% of the region’s 42 million).
The book Go Lean…Caribbean does not ignore the island, but rather declares an interdependence with Cuba.
The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/ governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states – including Cuba. The premise for this inclusion is the pronouncement as reported here, in the foregoing article, of Cuba’s desire to be included in the international community:
Castro and other officials say they are not embracing capitalism but rather updating Cuba’s socialist model to survive in the 21st century global economy.
The entire article is listed as follows:
Cuba’s President Raul Castro greets members of Parliament at the opening of the third regular session of the eighth legislature, at the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, July 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate)
HAVANA (AP)annual sessions, with the country’s limping economy and the 2014 budget foremost on the agenda.Government-run website Cubadebate published pictures of President Raul Castro presiding over the assembly with Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel at his side.
Foreign journalists were not allowed access to the gathering at a convention center in western Havana.
Cuba recently downgraded its 2014 economic growth forecast to 1.4 percent, nearly a point lower than previous projections of 2.2 percent.
The government reported 2.7 GDP expansion the previous year.
Castro’s government is in the middle of a package of reforms that officials hope will improve economic performance.
Cuba has decentralized state-owned enterprises, legalized home and used car sales, and let hundreds of thousands of people open or work for small businesses in the private sector.
Castro and other officials say they are not embracing capitalism but rather updating Cuba’s socialist model to survive in the 21st century global economy.
Parliament was also expected to consider a report from the comptroller’s office on its attempts to root out corruption.
Lawmakers met earlier this week in committee to discuss matters including the biotechnology and agriculture.
Official media reported that Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez said Cuba’s food imports have reached $2 billion a year, but the country believes it could produce 60 percent of that domestically.
Associated Press Online News Source (Posted 07-05.2014) – http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-mulls-economy-graft-parliament-session-150935232.html
Go Lean…Caribbean is not a dream; it clearly recognizes the historicity of Cuba in the North American lexicon. There is a current trade embargo with the US and there are US$ 6 Billion of unsettled civil judgments against the Cuban government. The book posits that confederating with Cuba is a “Big Idea” for the Caribbean. This roadmap therefore, is a detailed, turn-by-turn plan for reconciling the 55 year-old rift in US-Cuban relations.
Cuban President Raul Castro has announced that he will retire in 2017 and now there is this declared intent above for Cuba to compete in the global economy, so now is the time to execute this Go Lean plan.
This commentary previously featured articles on the subjects of Cuba’s eventual integration into the Caribbean brotherhood, as sampled here:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789 | America’s War on the Caribbean |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=554 | Cuban cancer medication registered in 28 countries |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=436 | Cuba Approves New “Law on Foreign Investment” |
At the outset, the Go Lean roadmap recognizes the value of significance of Cuban reconciliation into any Caribbean integration with this statement in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12):
xiii. Whereas the legacy of dissensions in many member-states (for example: Haiti and Cuba) will require a concerted effort to integrate the exile community’s repatriation, the Federation must arrange for Reconciliation Commissions to satiate a demand for justice.
The Go Lean roadmap is not all “give” with no “take” for Cuba. There is heavy-lifting on their part in submitting to regional authority in matters of the CU scope: economic engines, security apparatus and governing support. This intent was also pronounced early in the same Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12):
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.
It is commonly accepted that just the presence of anyone named “Castro” in administering Cuba would be a guaranteed deterrent for success in confederating Cuba with the rest of the Caribbean. But 2017 is not far away. So the planning must start now. The Caribbean is hereby urged to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to re-boot Cuba; as detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean sampled here:
| Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices & Incentives | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Lean Operations | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Return on Investments | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations | Page 34 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
| Strategic – Vision – Integrating Region in to a Single Market | Page 45 |
| Strategic – Core Competence – Specialty Agriculture | Page 58 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Office of Trade Negotiations | Page 80 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Federal Courts – Truth & Reconciliation Commissions | Page 90 |
| Implementation – Assemble & Create Super-Regional Organs to represent all Caribbean | Page 96 |
| Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change | Page 101 |
| Implementation – Foreign Policy Initiatives at Start-up | Page 102 |
| Implementation – Ways to Deliver | Page 109 |
| Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization | Page 119 |
| Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – Cuba | Page 127 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy | Page 151 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Re-boot Cuba | Page 236 |
The foregoing article addresses the issue of economic expansion strategies, tactics and implementations, but the book focuses on much more than just money issues; it features the more important issue of societal elevation. The Go Lean roadmap addresses cultural issues such as music, sports, art, education, repatriation and heritage. The book declares how unfortunate that most of Cuba’s history has been neutralized due to the 1959 revolution, expansion of communism, trade embargo and 50 years of isolation.
But this is a new day! It’s time now for change; not just change for change sake, but the elevations that were identified, qualified and proposed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean.
Cuba será libre!
Cuba can … and must become a better place to live, work and play.
Download the free e-Book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!