Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

An 8-ounce glass with 4 ounces of water is …

… half full.
… half empty.

It all depends on the perspective.

For an ambulance-chasing lawyer, that perspective needs to be “half empty”.

The foregoing article, a blog submission by Miami-based Maritime Lawyer Jim Walker – see Appendix – is not chasing ambulances, but rather cruise ships. So any assessment from him should be taken with a “grain of salt”. He has an agenda! He attempts to drum up business from cruise ship passengers that may have been hurt or abused in their experience venturing into the cruise industry – on the ship and/or on shore in the port cities.

Yet, in the middle of his “cry wolf” scenarios, there might just be some truth in his advocacy against the cruise lines.

For the stewards of new Caribbean economic eco-systems, we need to pay more than the usual attention to this “town crier”. His claims in this article here, must be fully vetted:

Title: 8th Violent Crime Warning for the Bahamas in 16 Months
By: Jim Walker
Cruise Law News Blog-Site – Posted May 15, 2015; Retrieved from: http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2015/05/articles/crime/8th-violent-crime-warning-for-the-bahamas-in-16-months/

The U.K.’s  Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued “foreign travel advice” for travelers to the Bahamas. The U.K. crime warning says:

“There have been incidents of violent crime including robbery, which is often armed and sometimes fatal, in residential and tourist areas of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Freeport. The number of break-ins and robbery incidents reported to the High Commission has increased. There are police patrols in the main tourist areas.

Be vigilant at all times and don’t walk alone away from the main hotels, tourist areas, beaches and downtown Nassau, particularly after dark. Take care if travelling on local bus services after dusk on routes away from the main tourist areas. Do not carry large amounts of cash or jewellery. Robbers may be armed.”

I first learned of the crime warning from Travel Weekly.

Incredibly, this is the eighth crime warning for the Bahamas in the last 16 months.

In 2014, Bahamas was the subject of four critical crime warnings to U.S. citizens (one from the U.S. State Department and three from the U.S. Embassy) and one warning from Canada. There have been 2 prior crime warnings from the U.S. for the Bahamas this year. With this latest U.K. warning, that’s a total of 8 warnings.

I have never heard any country being the recipient of 8 crime warnings in such a short time period. The U.S. warnings are much more specific, mentioning that U.S. tourists have been raped and robbed at gunpoint.

We last wrote about the sorry state of affairs in the Bahamas earlier this month. We received a number of interesting comments to the article which you can read here. Many people avoid a cruise itinerary which includes the Bahamas, or they stay on the cruise ship when it reaches Nassau.

I picked Nassau as the most dangerous cruise destination in the world last year.

Have a thought? Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

According to the foregoing article, one Caribbean member-state, the Bahamas, needs to mitigate and remediate its crime activity.

From the publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean, our immediate response to Esquire Walker: Message received; warning heeded.

The Go Lean book and movement serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). With the word ‘Trade‘ in the CU‘s branding, obviously the CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment; but the truth of the matter is that the security dynamics of the region are inextricably linked to this economic endeavor. Therefore the Go Lean roadmap has 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.

The Go Lean roadmap posits that the Caribbean region must prepare its own security apparatus for its own security needs. So the request is that all Caribbean member-states form and empower a security force to execute a limited scope on their sovereign territories.  The goal is to confederate under a unified entity made up of the Caribbean to provide homeland security to the Caribbean. Homeland Security for the Caribbean has a different meaning than for our American counterparts. Though we must be on defense against military intrusions like terrorism & piracy, we mostly have to contend with threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, and crime remediation and mitigation. Yes, The CU security goal is for public safety!

So in particular cruise passengers will benefit from new layers of security measures (Page 193) that are both up-front and also behind-the scenes. These will be administered by CU security agencies, and not limited to the authority of the member-states.

The book contends that bad actors will emerge just as a result of economic successes in the region. 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 comprehensive endeavor, encapsulating the needs of all Caribbean stakeholders: residents and visitors alike.

We would like to direct Esquire Walker to a new line of work; or perhaps just a new target for his legal practice.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for a permanent professional force with naval forces, plus an Intelligence agency. The CU Trade Federation will lead, fund and facilitate the security force, encapsulating all the existing armed forces in the region plus exercising some regional oversight over law enforcement. This CU Homeland Security Force would get its legal authorization from a legal Status of Forces Agreement plus an Interstate Compact for US Territories signed at the CU treaty initiation; this means “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap.

Covering all the complaints in the foregoing article about government corruption, the Go Lean roadmap “polices the Police” to ensure the optimization of justice institutions.

We are heeding your warnings Esquire Walker!

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide increased public safety & security in the Caribbean region:

Our region must do better to serve-and-protect visitors to our shores; tourism is still reeling from the failure to prosecute the crime against Spring Break Tourist Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005. – See Appendix VIDEO below.

Other subjects related to security and governing empowerments for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean commentary, as sampled here:

Underlying to the prime directive of elevating the economics, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, is the desire to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play for visitors and residents alike. We know “bad actors” will emerge – they always do! But we do not need these “bad actors” disrupting the peace of all Caribbean residents (42 million people), or the 10 million Diaspora as they frequent their tropical homeland or especially not the 80 million tourists that visit the region annually (including the 10 million cruise passengers).

The Go Lean roadmap was composed with the community ethos of the Greater Good foremost. The related quotation applies: “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” (Page 37). All of the Caribbean are hereby urged to lean-in to this roadmap.

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix: About the Author: Jim Walker

“Everything the cruise lines don’t want you to know” is the motto of this award winning maritime law blog authored by Miami lawyer Jim Walker.

The New York Times describes Jim as “a maritime lawyer in Miami who has attended more than half a dozen Congressional hearings about cruise ship crime and passenger safety.” Jim has been involved in maritime litigation since 1983.  Based in Miami, Florida, Jim represents passengers and crew members injured or assaulted on cruise ships around the world.

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Appendix: Jim Walker Blog Site Visitor Commentaries:

Selected Comments:

Mary – May 16, 2015 4:39 PM

I love the Bahamas! Sadly to say my family rented a house Dec 2014 into the New year and were robbed New Years Eve. Thankfully we were out at Junkanoo. I was very upset and frightened but will always go back to Nassau.

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Srgt. Thomas – May 16, 2015 6:13 PM

This morning 5/16/15, a fashion designer was murdered in his home and his house set on fire. And also four gang members battled it out in the streets with the police killing one gang member, injuring two, and one still out on the loose. Tourist, expats, workers, investors should leave ASAP, this country is on the verge of a civil uprising according to U.S. intelligence. Our government wants to thank you so much Mr. Jim Walker, you are helping us get the word out. You are a true American, and hope the rest of your Nation realizes this too.

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Michelle Farrington – May 16, 2015 6:58 PM

You never cease to amaze me. While you think nothing of writing about my beautiful country.

Ok so you say we have been cited 8 times for most dangerous. Well, the last time I checked the United States the land of the so called free… yet Americans have no privacy and the IRS continues to rob the hard working class of people.

Oh and what do you, Jim Walker have to say about the police continually killing black people, calling it self defense? oh and what about all these shootings in killings in schools and universities.

Let me remind you that when a country rapes and steals another countries resources in the name of bringing PEACE BY MEANS OF WARS, there are repercussions. How many families have been destroyed or ripped a part because the U.S.A. doesn’t care how many men/soldiers lives are sacrificed. These persons are someone’s father, husband, wife, son or daughter.

While there are murders and violence in Nassau, we don’t live in fear and don’t go out at night.. if this paranoia exist, then they are a small minority. These types of crimes are basically revenge, or domestic related. So you say, the USA does not have these types of crime? Really????? I don’t think so!

You need to get a life and leave us alone!

Go write on all the crime throughout your country!

I have been rushed, knocked to the ground and robbed in the parking lot of a hotel..yes, in the U.S. of A.
To this day Car Rentals are targeted and many Bahamians have been victim to this type of crime in your country.

So what say you?

Michelle D. Farrington

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Willa Kingsley – May 16, 2015 7:11 PM

My family and I are that the Atlantis hotel right now, I’m writing this comment with my IPhone as I speak. This morning at around 3-4 I believe we were awaken to gun fire in the distance, it sounded like a war. We just found out from the hotel’s lobby desk police had a confrontation with a group of gang members in the street. It’s still unclear if anyone was killed, but you should have heard the sounds, WOW! We are seriously thinking of leaving earlier than we hoped for, my kids are scared to death in leaving our room; this is nuts!

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Jim Walker – May 16, 2015 9:09 PM

Michelle:

Thanks for your comments.

You make several good points.

Our U.S. Federal government over-reaches all of the time. The IRS, Homeland Security & FBI regularly violate the rights of U.S. citizens.

Our police (white and black) execute black men in the streets. It angers me greatly. It is a national disgrace. Travon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddy Grey are the martyrs of our going civil rights movement.

You’re wrong about the men and women in our military. They don’t “rape and steal” as you claim. The Bahamas would be under the thumb of the Nazi’s but for the U.S. military. We have protected the world for decades. I see you could care less aboout that and are filled with hate. But the Bahamas couldn’t protect itself much less other countries if a troop of girl scouts attacked.

The fact remains that Nassau is out-of-control dangerous. Your crime is widespread and increasing. Your government is corrupt. Your legal system is a joke. Your police are ineffective and corrupt. The Bahamas is dependant on tourism, primarily from the U.S., but you can’t stop from selling drugs to the cruise passengers or preying on them.

My blog is read by mostly cruise passengers and crew members. It is intended to warn them of the danger on cruises ships and ports of call that they may not be aware of. Over a million people read over 6 millions pages a year.

Most U.S. citizens think stepping off a cruise ship from Miami to the Bahamas is safe. It’s not. We report issues about the Bahamas which you and other delusioanal Bahamains try and keep secret. We have sent the messahge wide and far.

If you want to warn people about dangers in the U.S., by all means do so. We wish you the same success in warning travelers that we have achieved.

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Finely Tuned And Polished – May 16, 2015 9:41 PM

The reason quite simple: The Bahamians are deathly afraid of the Government, so they take out their frustrations of feeling like they are on a tight leash with the tourist.I have many Bahamian friends who are quite friendly and hard working Bahamians and church goers. Its a small group who honestly believe by staying together, between the drug lords and cons they will become rich in a short period of time. 50% go fishing.. and never return!!! Wake up !!!

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Appendix VIDEO: – Natalee Holloway Witness Comes Forward: ‘I Knew She Was Dead’ – http://bcove.me/ky8bglp1

Dave Holloway – the father of Natalee Holloway – is back in Aruba exclusively with INSIDE EDITION searching for answers in the disappearance of his 18-year-old daughter, Natalee. The main suspect in Natalee’s disappearance is the notorious Joran van der Sloot – now serving a life sentence for a different murder in Peru. They first met at the Holiday Inn Casino where he gambled regularly and she was staying with her high school classmates on their senior trip. A decade later the trail has gone cold, perhaps until now. A new witness emerges, Jurrien de Jong, a citizen of the Netherlands who lives in Amsterdam, says he was one of the last people to see Natalee alive. He claims to have seen the suspect, Joran, chasing Natalee, and later stash her body in the crawl space on a construction site.