Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

This is a continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean on the Long Train of Abuses that have molded our people and our society. We have a lot of defects that is obvious for all to see, within the region or from an external global view. After 525 years, our societal character is cemented; we have the greatest address on the planet and an abundance of hospitality, but we have many societal flaws that dominate.

People can see it and/or feel it without actually being here.

Did you know?

“Customers can hear a smile through the phone.” – Contact Center Experts

This is true because it is hard to fake sincerity; despite the senses, proof of a good/bad heart comes through. The actuality of a good/bad heart has been evident through out Caribbean history. The moral sense of right-wrong, good-bad and right-wrong for the Caribbean has been based on the Judeo-Christian standard. As related in the last blog-commentary in this series, the premise was established that Caribbean society was molded with a Christian expansion motivation; make that Christendom.

How do we know it is Christendom, instead of Christianity?

By the character fruitage of our society. That same Judeo-Christian standard, the Bible, clearly defines how to assess:

… love one another; just as I have loved you. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”​— John 13:34, 35 NWT

We have failed, far too often, to show love to our neighbors.

Many times, we have even fostered a Climate of Hate, especially for people different from the majority of the population in power. Thusly, many people in our society have had to endure a Long Train of Abuses. This is what was related in a previous blog-commentary from June 14, 2016:

Climate of Hate
Our Caribbean society, far too often, promotes a “climate of hate”. Consider these three examples:

• Haitian Immigrants– Many Caribbean countries express vitriol towards Haitian migrants.
• LGBT– Still clinging to the archaic “Buggery” laws, many countries persecute gays in their society as degenerates.
• Equality-seeking Women– Just last week, a referendum failed in the Bahamas 3 to 1.

The Caribbean member-states, collectively and individually, need to curb its “climate of hate” and to pay more than the usual attention to the lessons from …

This discussion is important because our failures to exhibit a Christian character – or any religious influence – has led to a lot of societal defects – Human Rights abuses – and eventual societal abandonment. See here, as related in a different previous commentary from July 2, 2015 entitled “Buggery in Jamaica – ‘Say It Ain’t So’!”:

… this defect – LGBT Intolerance – was listed among the blatant Human Rights abuses in the region.

This is an important consideration for the planners of Caribbean empowerment. The Caribbean, a region where unfortunately, we have NOT … tried to be as tolerant as may be required, expected and just plain moral.

We must do better!

The book Go Lean … Caribbean asserts that Caribbean society’s prosperity has been hindered with a high abandonment rate – reported at 70% for educated classes region-wide, but an even higher 85% in Jamaica [some countries]. The primary mission of the Go Lean book is to “battle” against the “push-and-pull” factors that draw so many of our Caribbean citizens away from their homelands to go to more progressive countries.

The Go Lean book campaigns to lower the “push” factors!

The purpose of the Go Lean book is to fix the Caribbean; to be better. The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to pursue the quest to elevate the Caribbean region through empowerments in economics, security and governance. It is the assertion that Caribbean citizens can stay home and effect change in their homelands more effectively than going to some foreign countries to find opportunities for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The book therefore asserts that the region can turn-around from failing assessments by applying best-practices, and forging new societal institutions to impact the Greater Good for all the Caribbean.

Rather than promote “peace and love” or even Human Rights, the Christian communities have exacerbated a Climate of Hate.

A Long Train of Abuses, ouch!

Research shows that the men most likely to abuse their wives are evangelical Christians who attend church sporadically. Church leaders in Australia say they abhor abuse of any kind. But advocates say the church is not just failing to sufficiently address domestic violence, it is both enabling and concealing it.

Remember the bad religious orthodoxy that was discussed in the last entry in this blog series; how these ‘hatreds’ were embedded in national edicts (Law-and-Order) over the centuries, decades and years: Slavery, Colonialism , Patriarchy / Gender Rights, White Supremacy, Buggery / LGBT Rights, Child Abuse.

This monthly Go Lean Teaching Series always presents issues that are germane to Caribbean life and culture and how to address them. For this month of December 2020, we are looking at the Long Train of Abuses that have pushed our people away from the homeland. This is entry 4-of-6; this one asserts that the embedded religiosity in Caribbean society has real world consequences, bad consequences. The toxicity and dysfunction in our society is among the Long Train of Abuses that we have had to endure. The full catalog of the series this month is as follows:

1. Long Train of Abuses: Enough Already – Colonialism Be Gone!
2. Long Train of Abuses: Overseas Masters – Cannot See Overseas
3. Long Train of Abuses: Religious Leadership in Government – Reconciling Trump
4. Long Train of Abuses: Religious Character in Society – Human Rights
5. Long Train of Abuses: Dutch Hypocrisy – Liberal Amsterdam vs Conservative Antilles
6. Long Train of Abuses: Puerto Rico – “Take the Heat” or “Get out of the Kitchen”

All the defects identified and qualified here are reflective of Human Rights abuses.

Human Rights deficiencies despite the Christian premise. Wow! This is because it is not Christianity at work in the Caribbean; it is Christendom. So we need greater protections than just a copy of the Bible in everyone’s “night stand”. We need to reboot and end this Long Train of Abuses, now!

How?

The Go Lean book, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), an apolitical, religiously-neutral, economic-focused technocracy. The Go Lean book presents an action plan to better foster the Greater Good – “the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong” (Page 37). In addition, the book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics and implementations to execute so as to transform the Caribbean’s stance on Human Rights. In one specific advocacy (Page 220), there are action items for the heavy-lifting work that needs to be done. See here for summaries, excerpts and highlights from this Chapter entitled “10 Ways to Protect Human Rights“:

Human Rights versus Christian Character?

It seems like such a “joke” that this advocacy is even necessary – but the need is great. Where is the Christian love? What a reproach to God that such behavior have brought a Climate of Hate in the name of God. Actually, this apostasy is exactly what the Bible prophesied for these times – the Last Days. See here:

You will be chased out of the synagogues. And the time will come when people will kill you and think they are doing God a favor. – John 16:2 Contemporary English Version

The Long Train of Abuses is predictable, but not good.

Other societies have done better; they have done the heavy-lifting for everyone – majority and minority – to prosper where planted in their homeland. We can, and must do it too; or watch our citizens – and those that love them – flee to those better lands.  These better lands has formulated Human Rights standards and conventions and expect all “Men/Women of Goodwill” to comply.

One such convention is CEDAW or the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”. See the full details in Appendix A below. (Also see Appendix B VIDEO as it relates the subject of gender-based violence being endured in the Caribbean region and around the world during this COVID-19 pandemic). Notice that one of the few countries that have not ratified CEDAW is the “Holy See” or the Vatican.

Holy See
The jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, known as the pope, which includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome with universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the worldwide Catholic Church, as well as a sovereign entity of international law, governing the Vatican City. – Wikipedia

The Holy See being tolerant of a Long Train of Abuses is indicative of Christendom and not Christianity.

The Caribbean member-states must foster a better homeland that protects all of its residents and promotes prosperity, despite whatever the Churches are doing or not doing. What’s more, we must hold religious organizations accountable for their actions and violations of Human Rights standards and modern justice requirements.

This Go Lean movement has previously detailed many related issues and advocacies for Human Rights mandates in our region; consider this sample of previous blog-commentaries:

Human Rights, the concept and the practice has been fleeting here in the Caribbean, not just among the governmental leaders but the citizenry as well. Leaders have not protected Human Rights for all and the citizenry have not demanded it … among the majorities – vocal outcries may be limited to minority groups only.

Enough already! It is time to think of the Greater Good for all people not just the most populous; from one aspect or another, anyone and everyone may be considered a minority.

There needs to be a force for moral good for all, but that has not come from the religious influences in the region, so it must come from the State (or Federal Government) instead, despite a formal Separation of Church and State.

This is not just a Christian indictment. We saw the same issue in India with the Hindu population (also a Caribbean minority):

Transforming Hindus versus Women – What it means for us?
“Women of menstruating age were forbidden to pray at the temple until the [Indian] Supreme Court lifted the ban in September [2018]. The ban was informal for many years but became law in 1972.

Some devotees have filed a petition saying the court decision revoking the ban was an affront to the celibate deity Ayyappa. …”

The concept is simple for “States“, while they must allow for Freedom of Religion, they cannot allow religious intimidation of their citizens. No More!

This is an issue of Orthodoxy and it is not only a concern in India. Even here in the Caribbean we have to make progress. Clearly we understand the oppression, suppression and repression experienced in India prohibiting women to pray in the Temple, and so there is the acceptance that it is right for that State to act against continued abuse. There has always been a need for States to legislate morality in society over the years.

Based on the foregoing, Hindus suffer the same abuse record as Christianity and Islam towards women. Bad religious orthodoxies seem to always exist when matters of faith are involved, so the State must regulate the behavior of Churches to ensure no violation of basic Human Rights.

We must do better; we must pursue the Greater Good … always.

We hereby urge all stakeholders – the faithful and the faithless – to lean-in to this Way Forward – a formal separation of Church and State – for societal progress; this is the quest of the Go Lean roadmap. This is our plan to make our regional 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):

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.

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.

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 A – Title: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states.^[1] Over fifty countries that have ratified the Convention have done so subject to certain declarations, reservations, and objections, including 38 countries who rejected the enforcement article 29, which addresses means of settlement for disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention.^[2] Australia’s declaration noted the limitations on central government power resulting from its federal constitutional system. The United States and Palau have signed, but not ratified the treaty. The Holy See, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga are not signatories to CEDAW. …

See the full details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Elimination_of_All_Forms_of_Discrimination_Against_Women ; retrieved December 9, 2020.

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Appendix B VIDEO – St. Lucia: #CaribbeanYouthAgainstCovid19​ and #YouthAgainstCovid19​ – Jasmyn Joseph – https://youtu.be/FsDU7P1o_RM

UNFPA Caribbean
Due to #COVID19​, the health and safety of women and girls has been compromised. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by this pandemic. In this last episode of the #youthagainstcovid19​ campaign Jasmyn Joseph talks about the ways this pandemic has been affecting women and girls around the world and the actions we as a community can take to promote #genderequality​ during covid-19.

Share this video, so other youth can get informed and take action against gender inequality during covid19!