Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

This is a deep philosophical discussion about Grace. What is it?

From a theological perspective, this can be defined as follows:

… not as a created substance of any kind, but as “the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not necessarily because of anything we have done to earn it”,^[1] “Grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.”^[2] It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people “generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved”^[3] – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God.^[4]

So a summary definition of Grace may just be: Undeserved Kindness.

Europe endured a lot of dysfunction during the 20th Century; think World War I and World War II. Let’s face it, these European countries did NOT deserve any kindness or help (such as the $13 Billion in the Marshall Plan) that were eventually given to them after WWII; it was a kindness and an investment from the US to the Europeans. It was Grace!

A lot of people in the North America felt that Europe brought this dysfunction on themselves; “they sowed the wind; they would have to reap the whirlwind”. This philosophy was referred to as Isolationism. But after the photos of poor, starving children came to light, attitudes began to change. See this manifestation as recorded by the Save the Children Fund (UK):

At the end of World War II, images of malnourished and sick children ran throughout Europe. [The Founders] worked to gain public sympathy in order to elicit support aid.^[12] Save the Children staff were among the first into the liberated areas after World War II, working with refugee children and displaced persons in former occupied Europe, including survivors of Nazi concentration camps. At the same time, work in the United Kingdom focused on improving conditions for children growing up in cities devastated by bombing and facing huge disruptions in family life.^[8]

The need for Grace eventually became evident.

During the period leading up to World War II, Americans were highly isolationist, and many called the Marshall Plan a “milestone” for American ideology. By looking at polling data over time from pre-World War II to post-World War II, one would find that there was a change in public opinion in regards to ideology. Americans swapped their isolationist ideals for a much more global internationalist ideology after World War II. – Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan#Change_in_American_ideology

All of this time, and before, the Caribbean country of Haiti languished. They were past the time that they needed Grace and help; but such deliveries were fleeting. (The same Save the Children Fund – founded in London in 1919 – is now active in Haiti; but only since 1985; see Appendix below).

What’s the difference in the response and attitudes towards these two populations?

Duh! Since Human Rights and Civil Rights only played “catch-up” in the mid 20th Century – gaining momentum in the 1960’s and beyond – the answer is self-evident:

Ethnicity and racism.
See the distribution of the Marshall Plan beneficiary countries here:

This is the assertion by the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – and the whole world knows it – that due to Haiti’s Black-and-Brown population demographic, their country was ignored or maybe even further abused. (After 1804, the former slaves were required to pay reparations to their former masters: France). This was also the experience – uninvited abusers – after this 2010 Earthquake.

Remember the Missing/Unprocessed $500 Million the American Red Cross collected for the Haiti earthquake.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that Haiti had been restrained from fully participating in the world economic systems for most of the 19th & 20th Centuries; all because of the bold stand they took to secure their own freedom: the 1804 Slave Rebellion and subsequent Independence Declaration. The realities and possibilities of Haiti’s past and future are identified early in the Go Lean book, embedded in the opening Declaration of Interdependence, pronouncing a need for reconciliation efforts (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.

Change is on the way for Haiti! The country is now a de facto Failed-State. Their Way Forward to move upwards, must start with a Marshall Plan.

While the purpose of the Go Lean roadmap is NOT just Haiti alone, we know that we cannot elevate the societal engines for all of the Caribbean while ignoring Haiti …

(It possesses 21% of the region’s population; with the same demographic mix as was the case in the last 200 years: majority Black-and-Brown people).

… there is no Caribbean without Haiti.

So to repeat, if we can fix Haiti, we can fix the entire Caribbean region. This is the “Why’; but for the “How”; we need that Marshall Plan.

The focus of the Go Lean roadmap is the recognition that our region’s status quo is bad, critical and even to be considered “in crisis”. The book declares that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, intimating that we must use crises as opportunities to forge change. This is the rationale for the Marshall Plan for Haiti. See the book’s proposal here (Page 238):

Will someone walk-up to Haiti and give them $13 Billion (or $91 Billion in today’s dollars) to reboot, recover and turn-around the prior 2 centuries of dysfunction?

Probably, not!

(What’s really sad, is people walk-up to further exploit and abuse Haiti and Haitians).

It will be up to the Caribbean to solve the Caribbean’s problems. We do have more than one Failed-State; think Cuba; and we have many other member-states, just a few notches behind Cuba & Haiti on the Failed-State indices. So we must execute strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to effect the needed reboot, recovery and turn-around.

Yes, we can succeed, the same as post-World War II Europe succeeded with the 4-year execution of their Marshall Plan. Yes, we can!

Haiti is already a member-state in the Caribbean Community (CariCom). So they have already embraced the concept of regional interdependence. What’s missing now is the leveraging of the Single Market, adding “teeth to the prospect” of  a unified neighborhood with “Trade & Security” initiatives.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This roadmap provides the “teeth”; it presents this one advocacy for Haiti, entitled: “10 Ways to Re-boot Haiti“. These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

Now is the time to prepare the Marshall Plan to execute in and for Haiti.

Haiti needs the Caribbean and the Caribbean needs Haiti; the more people we can leverage, the better. This is entry 3-of-5 in this series of commentaries on the Marshall Plan, the historic European one and Caribbean versions. Here, as follows, is the full series being presented this month of May (2019):

1. Marshall Plan: A Lesson in History
2. Marshall Plan: Cuba – An imminent need for ‘Free Market’ Emergence
3. Marshall Plan: Haiti – Past time for Mitigation
4. Marshall Plan: Funding – What Purse to Fund Our Plans?
5. Marshall Plan: Is $91 Billion a Redux for Puerto Rico?

In this entry for this series we focus on Haiti, reforming and transforming that homeland. The theme of rebooting Haiti – finally mitigating their Bad Start with a Marshall Plan – has been detailed in many previous Go Lean commentaries; consider this sample list here:

The status quo for the Caribbean is deficient and defective. The status quo for Haiti is deficient and defective. This same assessment requires some of the same solutions. If/when we fix Haiti, we fix the entire region.

Haiti needs this Marshall Plan.

The entire Caribbean needs a Way Forward.

Our Way Forward for the entire Caribbean includes the entire Caribbean, with Haiti too. So we have prepared the region for this full inclusion of Haiti in the political, social, musical, athletic, security and economic fabric of the regional society. This is the Caribbean’s future … and Haiti’s future. This is how we intend to make our homeland, Haiti included, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. 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 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.

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This 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.

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

—————-

Appendix: Save the Children … in Haiti

We’ve been working in Haiti since 1985 helping children and families, providing child protection, education, health, food and helping people to earn a living. We also help children and families when disasters strike, like the devastating earthquake in 2010.

When the devastating earthquake struck on 12 January 2010, it created one of the most all-encompassing emergencies we’ve ever responded to.

• Haiti’s earthquake killed 230,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless.
• We were one of the first agencies to respond, reaching 100,000 people within two weeks.
• By the end of 2010, we had helped a total of 870,000 people.

OUR WORK

Haiti was deep in poverty long before the disaster. That’s why we’ve been working there for more than 30 years, in urban and rural communities, making sure that children are protected, and providing education, health and food.

When disasters strike in Haiti, we’re there on the ground using our knowledge of the country and our expertise to help the most vulnerable children and their families.

Source: Save the Children Fund (UK) retrieved May 12, 2019 from: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/south-central-america/haiti

————–

See the related VIDEO here:

VIDEO – A New Morning: Building Hope for Haiti – Save the Children – https://youtu.be/luzcJdtKmYw

Save the Children USA
Published on Jul 1, 2010 – July 12, 2010 — Thank you for helping to support Save the Children’s relief efforts in Haiti!

With a 30-year history in Haiti, Save the Children was on the ground when the earthquake hit on January 12, 2010. The organization’s staff immediately responded with emergency relief, including lifesaving distributions of food, shelter and supplies. To date, the organization has been able to reach 682,000 people.

Save the Children foresees a long-term process of intense reconstruction, rehabilitation and investment ahead and is implementing a 5-year response and recovery plan. The organization is focusing its efforts on the areas that have the most impact on the lives and well-being of thousands of children: education, protection, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, livelihoods, food security and the provision of food and nonfood items.

Download Save the Children’s Haiti six month report: http://bit.ly/cuPl9Z

Learn more about Save the Children’s Haiti response: http://bit.ly/bBHMQC

Support Save the Children’s Haiti Earthquake Children in Emergency Fund: http://bit.ly/ahyLMb

• Category: Nonprofits & Activism