Go Lean Commentary
The countries in the western hemisphere are considered the New World. Why “new”? Because none of the independent nations in this hemisphere are older than 250 years. Despite previous civilizations in the lands; the hemisphere’s modernity started as colonies of their European forebears: England, France, Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands. The European lands are thusly referred to as the Old Country.
Well now, the Old Country has a new lesson for the New World: economic, security and governing integration of the European Union (EU). This structure is such an advancement in democracy, that it is now presented as a model for the Caribbean region to explore.
This is the quest of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, to get the Caribbean region to model their society to incorporate the best practices of the EU. The book urges the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The book therefore serves as a roadmap for this goal, with turn-by-turn directions to integrate the 30 member-states of the region, forge an $800 Billion economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
While this is a big idea for the nascent Caribbean, this is just a microcosm of the EU’s width and breadth – Europe is all grown-up. The EU has the economies-of-scale of 508 million people and a GDP of $15 Trillion (2012) in 28 member-states; (the EuroZone Currency Union is a subset of 18 states, 333 million people and $13.1 Trillion GDP). The EU is even larger than the Caribbean’s neighbor, the US, with its 50 states, 320 million people, and $14 Trillion integrated economy.
There is an even more important number in the discussion of EU dynamics: 100 million. That’s how many lives were lost prematurely due to the wars of the 20th Century, all spurred from European conflicts, think World War I and World War II. Since the European integration began, after WW II and completing with the EU charter in 1992, there has been no full continental or global wars. This absence is a testament of European economic-security-governing integration.
The continent of Europe has now “grown up”, organizationally. In fact, because of the success of this integration, the EU was awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for 2012. This fact was detailed in the Go Lean book (Page 130).
Considering the EU example, the economic benefits are undeniable; shocks and dips in economic performance can be more easily absorbed and leveraged across the entire region. (The US provides a similar lesson). Despite recent crises in the US (2008) and in Europe (Sovereign Debt of 2009 – 2011), the US is still the #2 economy, while the EU is the world’s #1 economy.
At the outset, the Go Lean roadmap identified an urgent need to collaborate and consolidate for economic resilience. This is pronounced in this clause in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13):
xxv. Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.
The biggest lesson for the Caribbean to glean from a consideration of the EU is the need for compromise in consensus-building. This is why there are asterisks on so many confederation clauses. See the details in this VIDEO here:
Direct Link: http://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg
The CU is modeled from the EU – see Page 130 in the Go Lean…Caribbean book, so as to provide good stewardship and shepherding of the Caribbean economic, security and governing engines.
The theme of applying models and best-practices from other countries/regions has been elaborated on in these previous blog commentaries:
The CU roadmap drives change among the economic, security and governing engines of the Caribbean region. The book presents the solutions to elevate Caribbean society as new community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocates; as follows:
| Community Ethos – Forging Change | Page 20 |
| Community Ethos – Economic Principles | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Security Principles | Page 22 |
| Community Ethos – Governing Principles | Page 24 |
| Community Ethos – Impact the Future | Page 26 |
| Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
| Strategy – CU Vision – Integrate Caribbean member-states modeling the European Union | Page 45 |
| Strategy – Facilitate a Currency Union, the Caribbean Dollar (C$), and the Caribbean Central Bank, modeled after the Euro and European Central Bank | Page 48 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – $800 Billion Economy – How and When | Page 67 |
| Tactical – Separation-of-Powers – Central Bank | Page 73 |
| Implementation – Assemble Caribbean Central Bank | Page 96 |
| Implementation – Ways to Better Manage Debt | Page 114 |
| Planning – Ways to Model the EU | Page 119 |
| Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 | Page 136 |
| Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies | Page 149 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy | Page 151 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs | Page 152 |
| Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations | Page 199 |
The Go Lean roadmap posits that modeling the EU is easier said than done. On the one hand, the economic optimizations are easy, just show up with investments (money) and jobs and any Caribbean community will acquiesce. On the other hand, the attempts to introduce empowerments for security and/or governing engines are doomed to be more complicated, requiring a political process, with a lot of compromise and consensus-building.
See a dissenting view of the EU structure, expressed here:
Dissenting View: Some people object to the structure of the EU. Notice this comment added to the same foregoing YouTube VIDEO above:
By: aalexmary – 1 month ago (October 2014):
So, explained. The European Union is US’s pathetic slave. The European Union is an unsuccessful organisation who took the sovereignty of the nations away. the European union is a monster (I mean its leaders) who carries out coups and bloody wars. The EU, NATO, US destroyed and blooded Ukraine and Novorrosia with the purpose of starting WWIII and to destroy Russia. The European Union hurts its own nations (eg: the illegal insane sanctions against Russia, and this is not the only example). Obama, Merkel and all the leaders of the EU are just pathetic war criminals. Not to mention Pigosenko and his clique. The “democrat” EU brought back the cruel Nazism. EU is ugly. It is not the European “dream” anymore. It is about EU’s leaders greed for power. In EU the individuals do not count. I will be so happy when EU and NATO will disappear. Useless organisations. It is time for the countries to regain their sovereignty.
YouTube Video Sharing Online Site – Posted July 2, 2013; retrieved November 26, 2014
http://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg
This heavy-lifting, navigating the dissent and overcoming opposition, is worth the effort. This is the mission of the CU: built for the heavy-lifting of integration and collaboration. With the successful execution of the deliveries in the Go Lean roadmap, the effect will be undeniable: a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂
Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!