Go Lean Commentary
There are times when your leaders need to go BIG, projecting hope, assurance and confidence. History is littered with such examples, think of these prominent ones (in chronological order):
- Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address
1863: One of the greatest and most influential statements on American national purpose; despite the Civil War, there is “hope that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
- Winston Churchill – Identifying the Nazi’s ‘Dark Cloud over the Continent’
1940: In preparation, Churchill marshalled the nation (United Kingdom) for war: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour‘”.[422] - Franklin D Roosevelt – Pearl Harbor Attack Response
1941: A positive statement – of ‘A Day that will live in infamy’ – on behalf of the entire American people in the face of a great collective trauma. “In proclaiming the indelibility of the attack, and expressing outrage at its “dastardly” nature, the speech worked to crystallize and channel the response of the nation into a collective response and resolve”.[9] - John F Kennedy – Announcing the Moonshot
1961: President Kennedy announced his support for the American Space program’s “Apollo” missions and redefined the ultimate goal of the Space Race in an address to a special joint session of Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”. His justification for the Moonshot was both that it was vital to national security and that it would focus the nation’s energies in other scientific and social fields. - Ronald Reagan – Soviet’s Evil Empire
1983: Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and as “the focus of evil in the modern world”. He explicitly rejected the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the ongoing nuclear arms race between the two nations; rather, he asserted that the conflict was a battle between good and evil.
- George H Bush – Declaring a New World Order
1990: President Bush’s speech presented the notion of world governance in a sense of new collective efforts to address worldwide problems that go beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve. After the end of the Cold War, he assured the nation (and the world) of the new unipolar status of the US; his vision was realistic in saying that “there is no substitute for American leadership”.[1] The Gulf War of 1991 was regarded as the first test of the new world order: “Now, we can see a new world coming into view. A world in which there is the very real prospect of a new world order”.[2][3] - George W Bush – Post 9-11 Response
2001: President G.W. Bush prepared the nation for a different kind of war, one with sustained battle against terrorist groups responsible for the 9/11 attacks on America. The President cast the terrorists as “evil” and awakened the country to their danger and the need to defend freedom. “Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. - Barack Obama – Election Day Victory Speech – Yes, We Can
2008: “Because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. … The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year, or even in one term—but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.”[1] … “To all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope”.
Yes, the need to project hope is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG); a leader has to transform despair to promise, darkness to light and pessimism to optimism.
This need is heighten right now today! Last night, the current President of the US (POTUS), Donald J. Trump, gave an Oval Office speech on the catastrophic imminence of the Coronavirus – COVID-I9. The consequence of the speech: “Rather than hope today, the people feel despair”. See this summary, from The Atlantic Magazine here:
There was one something in the speech: a ban on travel from Europe, but not the United Kingdom. It’s a classic Trump formulation. It seeks to protect America by erecting a wall against the world, without thinking very hard how or whether the wall can work. The disease is already here. … The travel ban is an act of panic. Financial futures began crashing even as Trump was talking, perhaps shocked by his lack of an economic plan, perhaps aghast at his latest attack on world trade.
The next day, today (March 12, 2020), the Stock Market or the New York Stock Exchange, had to be halted within minutes after the start of the trading day, a “pressure-release” valve to prevent drastic selling, had been triggered. – Consider this New York Post source:
The S&P 500 plunged 7 percent within minutes of the opening bell, triggering a New York Stock Exchange circuit-breaker that was last tripped on Monday. The drop put the index into bear market territory: It stopped trading at 2,549.05 points, down 24.8 percent from the 52-week high reached last month.
After trading was lifted 15 minutes later, the S&P 500 plunged even further — as much as 8.4 percent to an new intraday low of 2,508.93. … (See this actuality in the Appendix VIDEO).
This transcript on POTUS Donald Trump’s impact is in direct contrast to the transcript of POTUS Barack Obama. Plus, one president presented policies more conducive to the Caribbean compared to the other one. Which one?
Obama.
Why the parallel? Considering that 29 of the 30 Caribbean member-states possess a majority Black population, Obama is a Black Man who won the presidency of the US, despite the deficient racial history and actuality of that country.
In fact, the historicity of Obama, when he was only a US Senator, was started as a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” – he published a pre-campaign book, a best-seller, with a similar title; (“audacity” is the noun for the adjective “audacious”):
Title: The Audacity of Hope : Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006)
Amazon Review: The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a new kind of politics—a politics that builds upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans. Lucid in his vision of America’s place in the world, refreshingly candid about his family life and his time in the Senate, Obama here sets out his political convictions and inspires us to trust in the dogged optimism that has long defined us and that is our best hope going forward. Source: Retrieved March 12, 2020 from: https://www.amazon.com/Audacity-Hope-Thoughts-Reclaiming-American/dp/0307455874
Reader Review By: Thriftbooks.com User:
I read this book out of pure curiosity. It was written in 2006. I am an octogenarian and a registered Independent. What impressed me was that it was written by the author and not a “ghost.” He expresses himself very well. The portions dealing with his background while growing up were fascinating. His grasp of what the general public can do to unite this country is quite provocative. I have listened to many politicians who impressed me negatively with subjects of hate and one liners. It is my concept that this man is a healer and a deep thinker. What’s more he is able to think on his feet. Most of the politicians I have heard all my life were so dependent upon a tele-prompter that I found them, to say the least, boring. This man excites this old man as never before. I applaud his writings. I recommend this book to any thinking person who wants to know this man a little more personally. Source: Posted October 20, 2008; retrieved March 12, 2020 from: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-audacity-of-hope-thoughts-on-reclaiming-the-american-dream_barack-obama/246072/item/545627/#isbn=0307237702&idiq=6376425
The foregoing refer to historic and current characters of the United States and the United Kingdom; though we have a lot of Caribbean Diaspora in those countries, the drama of their BHAG is all their drama. We can look, listen and learn from their experiences but it is not our actuality to embrace.
But can’t we have goals right here – in the Caribbean and for the Caribbean? Do we have our own aspirational goals?
Big Goals?
Big Hairy, Audacious Goals?
Yes, we can. Yes, we do!
Every month, the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean present a Teaching Series on a subject germane to Caribbean life. For this March 2020, our focus is on the Big Hairy Audacious Goals for the Caribbean. This is entry 1-of-6 for this series, which details that there are BHAG’s for the Caribbean, as a whole region, and the individual member-states. The world BHAG was not used in the 2013 book, rather there was a Chapter with a similar theme: “Big Ideas”. There is an actual advocacy for this purpose in the Go Lean book; see here some of the specific plans, excerpts and headlines from Page 127, entitled:
10 Big Ideas … in the Caribbean Region
| 1 | Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market Confederation Treaty: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) The CU is a big idea for the Caribbean, our parallel of the American “moon quest”, allowing for the unification of the region into one market of 42 million people. This creates the world’s 29th largest economy, based on 2010 figures. The pre-ascension GDP figures are actually less than $800 Billion, but the aggregation into a single market will manifest the economic “catch-up” principle [180], in 5 years. Further, after 10 years the CU’s GDP should double and rank among the Top 20 or G20 nations. |
| 2 | Currency Union / Single Currency |
| 3 | Defense / Homeland Security Pact The political reality is that the economics of the region is tied to the security of the region, This treaty teams-up to implement anti-crime, anti-terrorism measures, both proactive and reactionary, to insure the economic engines. This will be in supplement with the US Defense initiatives but our role will increase while the US role decreases, we must assume the security needs for our own commerce. |
| 4 | Confederation Without Sovereignty |
| 5 | Four Languages in Unison |
| 6 | Self-Governing Entities (SGE) |
| 7 | Virtual “Turnpike” Operations Ferries, Causeways/Bridges, Pipelines, Tunnels, Railways and limited access highways will function as “blood vessels to connect all the organs” within the region, thus allowing easier transport of goods and people among the islands and the mainland states (Belize, Guyana or Suriname) – See Appendix IC (Page 280) Alaska Marine Highway. |
| 8 | Cyber Caribbean |
| 9 | e-Learning – Versus – Studying Abroad The Caribbean has tried the Study Abroad model, the result: a “brain drain” where our best students leave and may never return for residence, employment or investments, (only family visits). The new approach is to keep the talent here in the Caribbean, educate them here and notice the positive efforts on societal institutions. |
| 10 | Cuba & Haiti Cuba has suffered under the US Trade Embargo for 50-plus years. Now the paradigm shift is that the CU will trade with the rest of the world on behalf of Cuba. The CU will be a reboot for Cuba. Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere. But what they have is impassioned human capital as opposed to financial capital or valuable minerals. The CU is an economic reboot for this country, one that involves developing internally and not thru emigration. The economic principle is “every year of education raises a country’s GDP”. Haiti will exploit the opportunities of the rest of the Caribbean by employing “leap-frog” methodologies; there is no need for gradual advances, rather just jump to where technological infrastructure is moving to, not coming from. |
These 10 Big Ideas is just the introduction on our discussion on BHAG’s. The other entries in this month’s series are cataloged as follows:
- BHAG – The Audacity of Hope – Yes, we can!
- BHAG – Regional Currency – In God We Trust
- BHAG – Infrastructure Spending … finally funding Toll Roads
- BHAG – One Voice – Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Stance
- BHAG – Outreach to the World – Why Not a Profit Center
- BHAG – Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Peacock ==> Caribbean Media
The points of BIG Hairy Audacious technocratic projects and initiatives have been further elaborated upon in these previous blog-commentaries:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19347 | Missing Solar (Panel) Systems – One Caribbean Country Goes Green … finally |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=19097 | Forging Big Changes – Public-Private Partnerships |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18831 | Food Security – Opportunity: Supplies Beef for Cruise Lines |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=18301 | After Hurricane Dorian, Rebuilding Partners: China Versus America |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17358 | Marshall Plans: Past and Future Strategy for Big Change |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=17337 | Industrial Reboot – Big Amusement Parks |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15346 | Industrial Reboot – Shipbuilding … for Big Cruise Ships |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15331 | Industrial Reboot – Introducing Auto-making to the Region |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=15075 | e-Government 3.0 – This is how to do ‘More’ with ‘Less’ |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8590 | Build It and They Will Come – Politics of Infrastructure |
This is how change is forged; first it starts as a vision, a goal. We must plan the plan; then work the plan; then … after a lot of heavy-lifting, the vision is materialized. This is how we make our 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 & 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.
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Appendix VIDEO – Stock trading halted as markets plunge after Trump’s coronavirus travel ban – https://nypost.com/2020/03/12/stock-trading-halted-as-markets-plunge-after-trumps-coronavirus-travel-ban/
Big Think
Posted March 12, 2020 – US stocks fell fast enough Thursday to halt trading for the second time in a week after President Trump’s efforts to address the coronavirus outbreak further panicked global markets instead of relieving them.