Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

Peace and Prosperity …

This is what we want – it is just that simple – to live harmoniously with our neighbors while we provide for ourselves and our loved-ones. But this is not so automatic! There must be empowerments and protections in the societal engines to allow citizens to obtain these goals. Failures in the delivery of these empowerments and protections will create chaos, dysfunctions, Toxic Environments and even:

Failed-States

If we do nothing, the end result is a Failed-State.

If we do the wrong things … Failed-State. This has been the focus of this current series on remediating Toxic Environments.

So societal stakeholders must be a part of the solution; they must help … for the sake of Peace and Prosperity.

When there is a lack of Peace and Prosperity, a Toxic Environment can easily emerge. Let’s focus now on Prosperity. That means there must be a solution for jobs (full-time and gigs), entrepreneurial and investment opportunities. This is the focus on this commentary, the means for prosperity. The same effort we put on promoting  Peace must also be put on fostering Prosperity. Without the opportunity for citizens to live prosperously, the environment becomes Toxic.

We do not want Toxic Environments … anymore.

In fact, this has been the focus of this Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean – which serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This roadmap asserts that Caribbean economic, security (Public Safety) and governing stakeholders must all work hand-in-hand to remediate our Toxic Environments. Every month, the movement behind the Go Lean book presents these Teaching Series to address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture. For this month of September 2020, this is entry 5-of-6, we are looking at how to improve the homeland so that our citizens can prosper where they are planted; all citizens, not just some privileged few and definitely be On Guard for any discrimination against a persecuted minority.

As alluded here, a lack of opportunities for the masses, or limitation of opportunities to a privileged few only, or blatant discrimination to persecuted minorities trying to participate in the economic eco-system describe the Toxic Environment that we currently suffer here in the Caribbean. The end result of such Toxic Environment is inexcusable human flight due to these Push and Pull dynamics:

• “Push” refers to people who feel compelled to leave, to seek refuge in a foreign land. “Refuge” is an appropriate word; because of societal defects, many from the Caribbean must leave as refugees – think LGBT, Disability, Domestic-abuse, Medically-challenged – for their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
• “Pull”, on the other hand refers to the lure of a more prosperous life abroad; many times our people are emigrating for societies that have better expressions of the rights for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

Toxic Environments have a direct correlation to Push and Pull dynamics. We need to always monitor these factors and societal defects. This is the purpose of this month’s Teaching Series. Consider here, the full catalog of the series this month:

1. Toxic Environment: Ready for Football – Washington “Redskins”
2. Toxic Environment: Homophobia – The problem is the Hate, not the Fear
3. Toxic Environment: Opposite of Diversity & Inclusion
4. Toxic Environment: Lessons from Yugoslavia
5. Toxic Environment: Ease of Doing Business
6. Toxic Environment: Make the Caribbean Great (Anew)

The subject of prosperity versus Toxic Environment is a concern for the stewards of the new Caribbean – promoters of the CU Trade Federation, and also for the United Nations-backed financial institution, the World Bank. In fact, the World Bank produces an Annual Ranking of all participating countries for the assessment of the Ease of Doing Business. This ranking measures the success-failure of National Governments to facilitate the creation of new businesses and expansion by existing businesses.

Yes, it can be measured.

Some reporting Nation-States do it better than others.

The ones that fail, create a Toxic Environment for those trying to improve prosperity in their homeland. These failures and the Toxic Environments push good people to flee and leave for “greener pastures”.

See the summary of the 2020 Ease of Doing Business Report here; (notice, New Zealand is #1):

Title: World Bank – Ease of Doing Business Ranking
Overview
Doing Business 2020, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 17^th in a series of annual studies measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.

Doing Business covers 12 areas of business regulation. Ten of these areas—starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency—are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures regulation on employing workers and contracting with the government, which are not included in the ease of doing business score and ranking.

By documenting changes in regulation in 12 areas of business activity in 190 economies, Doing Business analyzes regulation that encourages efficiency and supports freedom to do business. The data collected by Doing Business address three questions about government. First, when do governments change regulation with a view to developing their private sector? Second, what are the characteristics of reformist governments? Third, what are the effects of regulatory change on different aspects of economic or investment activity? Answering these questions adds to our knowledge of development.

Data in Doing Business 2020 are current as of May 1, 2019.

Main findings:

• Doing Business captures 294 regulatory reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019. Worldwide, 115 economies made it easier to do business.
• The economies with the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2020 are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. In 2018/19, these countries implemented one-fifth of all the reforms recorded worldwide.
• Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean continue to lag in terms of reforms. Only two Sub-Saharan African economies rank in the top 50 on the ease of doing business; no Latin American economies rank in this group.
• Doing Business 2020 continues to show a steady convergence between developing and developed economies, especially in the area of business incorporation. Since 2003/04, 178 economies have implemented 722 reforms captured by the starting a business indicator set, either reducing or eliminating barriers to entry.
• Those economies that score well on Doing Business tend to benefit from higher levels of entrepreneurial activity and lower levels of corruption.
• While economic reasons are the main drivers of reform, the advancement of neighboring economies provides an additional impetus for regulatory change.
• Twenty-six economies became less business-friendly, introducing 31 regulatory changes that stifle efficiency and quality of regulation.

Source: See the Full 149 Page Report retrieved September 26, 2020 from: https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/global-reports/doing-business-2020

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Click on Photo to Enlarge

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VIDEO – Tracking the “Ease of Doing Business” Around the World – https://youtu.be/NvwOzxR2lf0

World Bank
Posted October 31, 2017 – To learn more: http://wrld.bg/29Na30genKg

It takes global entrepreneurs significantly less time to start businesses, obtain construction permits and transfer property, making many developing countries more competitive. The World Bank’s latest Doing Business report says worldwide unemployment could be eased if countries continue to cut red tape and promote business-friendly policies. #DoingBiz

Innovation comes from innovators. Every community have innovative people, but not all communities foster opportunities. Governments can streamline the business creation-expansion process with incubators and optimized regulations. Consider this Case Study of former US President Jimmy Carter’s policies that created the now hot micro-brewery industry in the United States:

In 1920, due to Prohibition, breweries across the United States were closed down or began making malt for other purposes. The Homebrewing of beer with an alcohol content higher than 0.5% remained illegal until 1978 when Congress passed a bill repealing Federal restrictions and excise taxes,^[8] and President Jimmy Carter signed the bill, H.R. 1337, into law.^[9] Within months of homebrewing’s full legalization, Charlie Papazian founded the Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association. – Source: Homebrewing

In 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by making it legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition in the United States.^[156] This Carter deregulation led to an increase in home brewing over the 1980s and 1990s that by the 2000s had developed into a strong craft microbrew culture in the United States, with 6,266 micro breweries, brewpubs, and regional craft breweries in the United States by the end of 2017.^[157] – Source: Jimmy Carter

“Prosper where planted” – Yes, we can …

This idea and prospect of “prospering where planted” is important to the movement behind the Go Lean book. In fact, this subject was stressed in a previous Go Lean commentary; see this summary:

So how do we prosper where we’re planted? While this is a simple question (based on the Bible principle of Psalms 1:3), the answer is more complex. …

… the Go Lean roadmap uses cutting-edge delivery of best practices to employ strategies, tactics and implementations to impact its prime directives; identified with the following 3 statements:

• 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.

The successful execution of these directives will allow Caribbean stakeholders to prosper, while remaining as residents in their homeland. The Go Lean book seeks to optimize the entire Caribbean economic/security/governance eco-system to reach this goal.

[There needs to be] a “Hustling” Attitude, [which the Go Lean book describes as an] Entrepreneurial Ethos (Page 28).

The Go Lean movement had previously presented more blog-commentaries on the subject of fostering prosperity. See a sample list here:

We have good ideas … that will create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. Imagine the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/Medical (STEM) fields and all those innovative ideas. Under this Go Lean roadmap, there will now be new stewards in Caribbean society to foster Research & Development. Economic activities will flourish … not just for the STEM participants (High Tech), but many down-line positions as well: Low Tech and No Tech.

The Go Lean roadmap introduces other strategies as well, like Infrastructure projects, Exclusive Economic Zones, Self-Governing Entities and Public-Private Partnerships. These strategies will reboot the industrial landscape in the region.

2.2 million new jobs is conceivable, believable and achievable.

This is what we must do: Mitigate Toxic Environments and foster prosperous homelands.

Let’s do this – let’s make our homelands better places 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:

• 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 – 14):

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.

xiv. 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.

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 accidence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxvi.  Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

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