Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

Is anyone watching the store in the Caribbean? The e-Store that is! Are there open sales for illegal narcotics, weapons and paraphernalia on Caribbean-area web domains? How about stolen credit cards, or movies, or music?

Just because these commercial transactions are on the internet, and may be electronically advanced, these facts do not make them benevolent. Rather, there is a lot of malevolence on the world-wide-web (WWW). Sometimes the moniker WWW is derisively dubbed the Wild-Wild-West; thusly referring to the olden days of the American West – in the 19^th century – when law-and-order was many times absent from society; outlaws, duels and revenge-seeking were prevalent. The theme of the marketplace then was: “Let the buyer beware”.

The thinking is that we have now advanced a long way from those bad old days.

But yet, have you ever gotten an email from some Nigerian Tribal Chief … or Nigerian widow (or a Nigerian job; see Appendix VIDEO), who needs you to facilitate some financial transaction, using your money in the process but boasting how you will profit big in the end? Have you gotten one of these…lately? No; just check your Spam e-Mail folder; there are probably a few there now.

There is a Murphy’s Law on Technology that is apropos to this discussion:

A computer can make as many mistakes in 2 seconds as 20 men in 20 years.

A need therefore exists to regulate man and machine when it comes to technology-driven commerce:

o  There is the need for someone to watch the e-Store.

o  There is also the other extreme: freedom of speech …
… it should not be curtailed by web censors.

But can the freedoms go too far; and conversely, can censorship go too far?

Can companies protect their reputation online from defamation? Or how about cyber-bullying by irate customers or some competitive agent? These are all real concerns and real threats. This following news article conveys that China recognizes the need for some policing in the internet marketplace:

Title: China’s ‘Internet police’ open a window on Web censorship

BEIJING (Reuters) – The branch of China’s police in charge of censoring “illegal and harmful” online information will make its efforts more visible to the public from Monday with the launch of their own social media accounts, the Ministry of Public Security said.

The Chinese government aggressively censors the Internet, blocking many sites it deems could challenge the rule of the Communist Party or threaten stability, including popular Western sites like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, as well as Google Inc.’s main search engine and Gmail service.

Police in some 50 areas, from metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai to more obscure cities like Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, will open accounts on sites including Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, the ministry said late on Sunday.

The move is a response to public concern about problems like online gambling and pornography and is aimed at increasing the visibility of the police presence online to “create a harmonious, cultured, clear and bright Internet”, it said.

“The Internet police are coming out to the front stage from behind the curtains, beginning regular open inspection and law enforcement efforts, raising the visibility of the police online, working hard to increase a joint feeling of public safety for the online community and satisfy the public,” the ministry said.

The cyber police are working to root out “illegal and harmful information on the Internet, deter and prevent cyber-crimes and improper words and deeds online, publish case reports and handle public tip-offs”, it said.

Problems such as fraud, defamation, gambling, the sale of drugs and guns, and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a charge often used to lock up dissidents – have angered people and created a serious challenge to an orderly Internet, it said.

The police would issue warnings to those involved in minor offences and go after more serious cases.

“Just like in the real world, law violations in cyberspace will not go unaccounted for,” it said.

The government has already deleted some 758,000 pieces of “illegal and criminal information” from the Internet and investigated more than 70,000 cyber-crime cases since the start of this year, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)
Reuters News Wire – Published May 31, 2015; retrieved June 2, 2015 from:
http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-internet-police-open-window-censorship-023422128–finance.html

Where do we stand in the Caribbean?

For starters, there is no call for censorship. But there is a need for responsible internet messaging.

Electronic Commerce is now all the rage in North America, Europe and certain key Asian markets (i.e. China, Japan, Indonesia, etc.). While the Caribbean has not fully embraced the world of e-Commerce, the internet via broadband, Wi-Fi and mobile has been fully assimilated – most adults have a mobile phone. So planners for Caribbean economic empowerments have contemplated the infrastructural deficiencies and proposed the remediation to better govern e-Commerce in this region. This is the assertion in the book Go Lean…Caribbean; it is the contemplation, proposal and remediation plan to reboot Caribbean economics, security and governance. This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to facilitate the growth, promotion and regulatory oversight of electronic commerce in a regional Single Market.

The book posits that some issues are too big for any one Caribbean member-state to manage alone, that there are times when there must be a cross-border, multilateral coordination. The strategy is to confederate all 30 Caribbean member-states and appoint the CU as a deputized agency to oversee this important activity. In addition, attendant functions are included in the roadmap to facilitate e-Commerce: Central Bank adoption of Electronic Payment schemes and Postal Integration/Optimization. Without these functionalities, internet commerce would remain stagnant!

On the other hand, with the expected surge in this sphere of activity, many other challenges will come. In previous blogs, the following issues were detailed:

These commentaries demonstrate that there is the need for a governing body to better oversee and police Caribbean society to mitigate cyber-crimes and illicit activities initiated and/or continued in the online world. Policing the internet is too big for any one Caribbean member-state to manage alone. Too much is at stake.

Providing regional oversight for the Caribbean Single Market – a lean technocracy – for cross-border electronic media, governance of the Information Technology Arts and Sciences and Grievance Officiating are among the missions of Go Lean roadmap. The CU’s prime directives are 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 people and processes (economic engines) of the region from threats and attacks (physical and electronic) that may originate from foreign or domestic sources.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

These prime directives will elevate Caribbean society. With this success comes the emergence of bad actors – foreign and domestic. The goal of preparing the appropriate security apparatus was envision in the Go Lean roadmap from the beginning; this was defined early in the book (Page 12 & 14) in the following pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence:

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.

xv. Whereas the business of the Federation and the commercial interest in the region cannot prosper without an efficient facilitation of postal services, the Caribbean Union must allow for the integration of the existing mail operations of the governments of the member-states into a consolidated Caribbean Postal Union, allowing for the adoption of best practices and technical advances to deliver foreign/domestic mail in the region.

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.

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.

The subjects of cyber-crimes and electronic commerce integrity feature economic, security and governing concerns. These fields will escalate in importance with the Go Lean roadmap as there is the call for deployment of a Social Media / Electronic Commerce offering for all Caribbean member-states, branded www.myCaribbean.gov. This Caribbean Cloud initiative is projected in the Go Lean book as a subset of the integrated postal operations, the Caribbean Postal Union.

China is an emerging economy. Their economic growth has been impressive in the last 30 years. Despite their official Communism adherence, they model technocratic governmental administrations. There is much for the Caribbean region to learn from their model.

Of course the Caribbean will not boast the 1.3 Billion-population that China holds, but the same as we’re able to model the American example, there is much to consider from our Asian (Chinese) trading partners. The wisdom the Go Lean book gleans from these models is presented as a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies; as highlighted in the following sample:

This commentary is not intended to make disparaging remarks about Nigeria. Also, this commentary is not intended to make disparaging remarks about Communist China. Rather, the Go Lean book asserts (Page 23) that there is good and bad in every country; no matter the time or place, bad actors will always emerge to exploit economic successes.

That place is now extended to cyber-space.

We, the Caribbean collectively and individually, must police cyber-space as well.

To keep pace with the latest and greatest cyber-criminals will require an advanced level of interdiction and technical competence. It is the assertion here that this is heavy-lifting and too much for any one Caribbean member-state alone. No, the Caribbean needs the effectiveness and efficiencies proposed in Go Lean…Caribbean. The Caribbean needs this technocracy!

This is a lesson we can learn … and apply from China, in our application and pursuit of the Greater Good.

🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix – VIDEO: Nigerian Scammers Impersonate FBI Agent in Work-from-Home Scam – https://youtu.be/D82MzqwyK8A

Published on Mar 13, 2012 – The FBI’s Special Agent Tom Simon is warning about a new scam targeting Hawaii residents, which offers them a work-from-home position, but the company they reportedly will work for, and the financial transactions they are asked to perform, are fake.