Go Lean Commentary
“Can’t we all just get along”. – Rodney King 1993
If only life could be that simple. Unfortunately, we do not “just all get along”. There is often conflict in the world and if we do not do something positive to aid in this process, then chaos results.
This subsequent VIDEO harmonizes with the book Go Lean…Caribbean which posits that “bad actors” will always emerge in times of economic prosperity to exploit opportunities, with bad or evil intent (Page 23).
It is what it is!
VIDEO – Always defending, always on watch, protecting our freedoms whenever and wherever they are needed. America’s Navy – A Global Force For Good – https://youtu.be/TiQODFm3IFg
This commercial/VIDEO speaks of the “call to serve”; this is extremely important that someone “answers that call”; and be On Guard to protect the homeland and home seas. In an alternate commercial/VIDEO, it magnified how the US Navy also boasted these 4 percentage numbers:
70% – of the Earth covered by water
80% – of all people that live near the water
90% – of trade that travels by water
100% – percentage of time to be On The Watch and On Guard
(For the Caribbean, all of these above metrics are near 100%).
The US Navy does ensure the Greater Good in a lot of situations. For example, the Navy ensures secure passage of oil tankers through such threatening places as the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. The threat? For one, Iran has mined the Strait of Hormus (through which a majority of the world’s oil passes) and has threatened to blockade it, but its the US Navy preventing such action.
This US Navy consideration is relevant for the Caribbean to consider; not only for the fact that two Caribbean member-states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, commits human capital to the American Armed Forces, but also because there is a parallel need for a powerful naval “force for good” in the region. The overriding theme of the foregoing VIDEO is that “freedom is not free” and that security forces must be put in place to ensure security. The security forces for the Caribbean must therefore be from … the Caribbean. We do not want to be parasites, but rather protégés of the US Navy, and those of other territorial powers: British, Dutch, France.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that the region must prepare its own security apparatus for its own security needs. So the request is that all Caribbean member-states authorize a regional naval force to execute the security scope on the sovereign waters and territories in the region and for the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Caribbean Sea. This would be part and parcel of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed with the 30 Caribbean member-states. The security goal is for public safety! This goal is detailed in the Go Lean book as it serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). So the CU would be set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, and the aligning security dynamics. In fact, the 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 protect the resultant economic engines.
- Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
Security/Defense policy for the Caribbean must be vastly different than that of the US Navy. There is no quest for world peace, or domination. Though we must be on guard against military intrusions like terrorism and piracy, we mostly have to contend with threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, like tourism and fisheries. This includes man-made and natural concerns like narco-terrorism, enterprise corruption (human trafficking), oil/chemical spills, hurricanes, and earthquakes/tsunamis. For this purpose, the Go Lean roadmap calls for the establishment of the Caribbean Navy. While the US Coast Guard has a scope and agenda for all the US waterscapes/waterways, the CU Navy focus will only be the Caribbean, so the US Coast Guard will be able to shift its attention and resources else where.
So if there is the US Navy and the US Coast Guard already, why is their also a need for the Caribbean Navy? Simple! The US Navy and US Coast Guard report to American authorities. The CU Navy, on the other hand, will report to a Caribbean Commander-in-Chief and be held accountable to the Caribbean people. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:
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. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.
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, including piracy and other forms of terrorism, 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.
The Caribbean appointing “new guards”, or a security pact to ensure public safety is not so new an endeavor, as there are prior instances of this type of engagement in the region. There is an existing security pact, Regional Security System (RSS), for 5 Eastern Caribbean countries; but they have no ships – or any other naval/aviation resources for that matter. In effect, this RSS security pact would “bring a knife to a gun figh'”. The Go Lean roadmap however calls for a permanent professional Navy with the necessary Air Force, ground/Marine troops, intelligence gathering & analysis agency, and unified command-and-control for efficient coordination – even for all visiting allies. This CU Homeland Security Force would get its legal authorization from the Status of Forces Agreement instituted within the CU treaty enhancements.
This Status of Forces Agreement would be “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The Go Lean book also details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide increased public safety & security in the Caribbean region:
Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future | Page 21 |
Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection | Page 23 |
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering | Page 23 |
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens | Page 23 |
Community Ethos – Minority Equalization | Page 24 |
Community Ethos – Cooperatives | Page 25 |
Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations | Page 34 |
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing | Page 35 |
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
Tactical – Confederating a non-sovereign union | Page 63 |
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security | Page 75 |
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change | Page 101 |
Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives | Page 102 |
Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives | Page 103 |
Implementation – Start-up Benefits from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) | Page 104 |
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid | Page 115 |
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better | Page 131 |
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices | Page 134 |
Planning – Lessons Learned from the West Indies (WI) Federation – WI Regiment | Page 135 |
Planning – Lessons from East Germany | Page 139 |
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy | Page 151 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance | Page 168 |
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract | Page 170 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership | Page 171 |
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice | Page 177 |
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime | Page 178 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Gun Control | Page 179 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security | Page 180 |
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism | Page 181 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis | Page 182 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters | Page 184 |
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Extractions | Page 196 |
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Fisheries | Page 210 |
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights | Page 220 |
Appendix – Analysis/Chapters of the Book The Art of War | Page 327 |
Other subjects related to security empowerments for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentary, as sampled here:
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554 | Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531 | A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago – World War I |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487 | Here come the Drones … and the Concerns |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076 | Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for jihadist training |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=960 | NSA records all phone calls in Bahamas, according to Snowden |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809 | Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789 | America’s War on the Caribbean |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392 | Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=341 | US slams Caribbean human rights practices |
http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 | 10 Things We Want from the US and 10 Things We Don’t Want … |
Bad actors will always emerge…
Accepting this premise means preparing the necessary counter-measures. The model of the American Navy gives the Caribbean a template of how, what, when and why. We must stand-up and be counted in the defense and security of our own homeland.
Protégés, not parasites!
This security is necessary to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. The stakeholders of the region need these assurances. The stakeholders? 42 million residents, 10 million itinerant Diaspora, and 80 million tourists, (with 10 million on cruise ships). All of these stakeholders deserve someone, some force, watching and dedicated to the Caribbean … 100 percent.