Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

Survivor: Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. 

This expression is more than just the tagline advertising for the television show ‘Survivor’; it is also the historic summary of Caribbean people in the metropolitan areas of Miami, Florida.

Over the years, decades and centuries, this city has been the home to a lot of different groups of people – think Miccosukee & Seminole Indians, Spanish Explorers, Slave Traders, Blockade Evaders, Railroad Barons, Rum-runners, Treasure seekers, Snowbirds, Latin American political refugees, Colombian Drug Smugglers and those seeking refuge from them. All of these people have come and gone – Miami was a temporary stop-over for them! But another group to have come over the years have been Caribbean immigrants …

… they have never left. Consider:

• Bahamian Immigrants to Coconut Grove in the “Turn of the Century”
• Cuban refugees from the Castro revolution
• Haitian refugees from the Duvalier regime
• Jamaican refugees from the post-independence flirtations with leftist-socialism
• Dominicans seeking refuge from political-military coups on their island

After 4 years of observing-and-reporting, by the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, it is time now for us to move on from our temporary stop-over in Miami, while we return to our Caribbean homeland. So we say:

Ode or “goodbye” to the City of Miami and the surrounding metropolitan areas.

While “we” leave to return to the Caribbean, we recognize that all the other Caribbean exiles living there are NOT leaving; it is not temporary for them; it is now Home. These ones are entrenched and embedded in Miami society. In fact, Miami society is now based on this demographic and Miami’s success is due to their success. See the Census figures here:

Miami-Dade Country Demographics – 2010 U.S. Census Ethnic/Race Demographics:^[34][35]

• Hispanic or Latino of any race: 65.0% ^[35][36]
• White (non-Hispanic): 15.4% (White total 73.8% when including White Hispanics)^[34]
• Black (non-Hispanic): 17.1% (6.9% (Black total 18.9% when including Black Hispanics)^[37]
• Asian: 1.5% ^[34][35]
• Two or more races: 2.4%
• American Indian and Alaska Native: 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.03%^[34][35]
• Other Races: 3.2% (0.6% Arab)^[34]

In 2010, the largest ancestry groups were:^[34]

• 34.3% Cuban
• 4.6% Colombian
• 4.5% Haitian
• 4.2% Nicaraguan
• 3.7% Puerto Rican
• 3.4% American
• 2.3% Dominican
• 2.3% German
• 2.2% Italian
• 2.2% Honduran
• 2.1% Mexican
• 1.9% Venezuelan
• 1.8% Irish
• 1.6% Peruvian
• 1.5% English
• 1.4% Jamaican
• 1.1% Argentine
• 1.0% Russian

Source: Retrieved August 21, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami-Dade_County,_Florida#Demographics

This is sad but true! The Caribbean Diaspora in Miami is NOT going anywhere. Despite the many others that have come and gone, these ones have outwitted, outplayed and outlasted everyone else. They are the winning Survivors! (See Appendix VIDEO sample below of the highlights from one Season of the TV Show Survivor).

This reality is in contrast to the goals and ideals of the Go Lean movement. Our quest is to:

• Dissuade the abandonment of Caribbean residents from the Caribbean homeland
• Encourage the repatriation of the Caribbean Diaspora back to their ancestral homelands

We accept now: Miami is NOT just a temporary stop for many Caribbean people. So we have to make the best of this reality. This is what we have done. The publishers of the Go Lean book have “observed and reported” on Miami’s eco-system and published many lessons-learned from previous blog-commentaries. Consider this sample:

So if the Caribbean Diaspora cannot be expected to leave Miami, what is our hope for this population in their future interactions with the Caribbean:

• Trade – Exchange of goods (think: comfort foods and indigenous produce) and services (think: media, music, travel, events etc.).
• Retirement – The slow-down pace of senior citizens are ideal for the Caribbean homeland
• Cautionary Warning – We must protect the prospects so that future generations do not emigrate.

While this is not the ideal, it is what it is, but we must still make the most of this situation. This assessment was begrudgingly accepted in the Go Lean book. An advocacy is presented there with the title 10 Ways to Impact the Diaspora (Page 217). These “10 Ways” include the following highlights, headlines and excerpts:

The Go Lean book doubles-down on the concept that Diaspora members are stakeholders for the Caribbean future. We may have missed out on their full contribution to our society, but we can still “exploit” them with supply-and-demands dynamics.

(Yet, there is caution not to build too much expectation that the Diaspora would be some savior for Caribbean society – they did leave after all; many not considering their former homelands at all. See this warning to Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica, Bahamas, St. Lucia and Grenada)

So, farewell Miami! You have been the epitome of an immigrant community – everyone from somewhere else, especially from the Caribbean. You have proven that while pluralistic democracies are heavy-lifting, they can have success … after some endurance, patience and adoption of universal respect.

Miami learned  this lesson the hard way! (Their immigrant communities all separately went through long trains of abuse: rejection, anger, protest, bargaining, toleration and eventual acceptance; only after the appeal to their better nature, did the experience turn to one of celebration).

In our 4 years here, we’ve seen our people outwit, outplay and outlast. We’ve learned the lessons easily, by observing and reporting on the full Miami eco-system. We have looked, listened, learned, lend-a-hand here; now we are ready to go back to the Caribbean … and lead. We can now lead the efforts to make our own homeland 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.

xix. Whereas our legacy in recent times is one of societal abandonment, it is imperative that incentives and encouragement be put in place to first dissuade the human flight, and then entice and welcome the return of our Diaspora back to our shores. This repatriation should be effected with the appropriate guards so as not to imperil the lives and securities of the repatriated citizens or the communities they inhabit. The right of repatriation is to be extended to any natural born citizens despite any previous naturalization to foreign sovereignties.

xx. Whereas the results of our decades of migration created a vibrant Diaspora in foreign lands, the Federation must organize interactions with this population into structured markets. Thus allowing foreign consumption of domestic products, services and media, which is a positive trade impact. These economic activities must not be exploited by others’ profiteering but rather harnessed by Federation resources for efficient repatriations.

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.

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Appendix VIDEO – SURVIVOR Borneo – Moments In History – https://youtu.be/55qPFFvN2dY

Outwit Outplay Outlast
Published on Jan 11, 2016

SURVIVOR Borneo, Season 1

0:03 Rudy and Rich Bond
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2:26 Nature Phone
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