Go Lean Caribbean
See, we told you … repeatedly … that this would happen.
But this is not about being right; this is about being prepared.
The movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – and accompanying blogs – wants to reform and transform the societal engines of the Caribbean. This refers to economics, security and governing aspects in the homeland of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean region: all the Caribbean islands, plus the 2 member-states on the South American mainland (Guyana and Suriname) and 1 member-state on the Central American isthmus (Belize). Despite our difference, the Go Lean book posits that “we are all in the same boat” and need to “have each others’ back”.
The book further relates that once we remediate and mitigate our broken economic engines, we most assuredly will have security challenges to contend with. It turns out, according to the below news article, that we have those security concerns .. anyway; fix or no fix; prosperous or struggling. See the article here:
Title: ISIS reaches the Caribbean Region
Posted by caribemedia on November 11, 2015; retrieved January 31, 2015.
ISTANBUL – Since its emergence in Syria and Iraq, the extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS) has been expanding to reach several countries including Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, some of the former Soviet republics and recently the Caribbean Islands.
Pro-ISIS activists have recently circulated a video under the banner “Those who Believe and Made the Hijra”, showing a man beside his three children calling on Muslims in the idyllic islands of Trinidad and Tobago to rebel.
“I fled my homeland because Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago were restricted and oppressed,” Abu Zayd al-Muhajir said in the video clip.
“People were free to wear the hijab or other Islamic clothing, but Muslims could only practice what they were told,” he added.
“You cannot practice your true Islamic religion outright,” al-Muhajir said. “I insisted on leaving that land, because my children will grow up without knowing true Islam.”
He said that his three children are now learning English, Math, and Sharia at an ISIS-run school.
Another ISIS militant speaking in the video, identified as Abu Khalid, said he had converted to Islam because “Muslims’ family structure is much stronger”.
“The holy Quran taught me how to be determined to make jihad,” he added.
Abu Mansour al-Muhajir, another ISIS member from the twin island Caribbean country who appeared in the video, said he had travelled to Syria to fight allies of the devil (in reference to Syrian president’s allies, mainly Russia and Iran).
Al-Muhajir pointed out that Islam’s Prophet mentioned that there will come an era when all the nations of the world will gather around to wipe you out; “we the Muslims,” he said.
The man thanked God, saying “we will make jihad for this cause and to gain the reward of Allah.”
Last year, 30 citizens of Trinidad travelled to Syria to fight alongside the terror group, according to the republic’s former national security minister, Gary Griffith.
The United Nations has also warned the country is being a fertile environment for recruiting and training militants to carry out suicide operations.
Earlier this year, an American senior official revealed that dozens of militants have already left Caribbean countries to fight for ISIS in Syria.
“Extremists could potentially get across the U.S. border when they return back home from the war-torn countries,” Marine Gen. John F Kelly, chief of the US Southern Command, has said.
Noteworthy, seventeen EU members including France, Germany, Britain and Belgium inked an international agreement Thursday designed lately to thwart the recruitment of “foreign terrorist fighters” who travel from Europe to conflict zones abroad.
Source: ARA News quoted here: http://www.caribemedianetwork.com/isis-reaches-the-caribbean-region/
This foregoing article speaks of “Jihad”; this has become a scary term in modern society – see Appendices. Since the publishers of this commentary seek a religiously neutral stance, there is not attempt to stereotype all terrorist activities as belonging to Islamic Extremists; (there are White Supremacists and many nationalistic groups that have practiced terrorism). But, the currency of suicide bombers loyal to Muslim groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and al-Qaeda is a real cause for concern around the planet and this reality cannot be ignored.
In a previous blog-commentary, the question was posed as to whether World War III had commenced, with the reality of terrorism campaigns being waged everywhere, around the globe. That assertion was determined to be a bit exaggerated, but still appropriately alarming. These campaigns are being waged in almost every geographical theater except a few. The Caribbean was previously spared.
Now? According to the foregoing article, “not so much”.
Even if this position here is perceived as another exaggeration, it should be easily accepted that we, the Caribbean, have a lot at stake; we do have terrorist risks and threats; we have to be “on guard” for “bad actors” to emerge, maybe even from within our communities. (In addition to Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana has a large Muslim population). It is truly time now for our region to “get real” in our preparation: both overtly and covertly!
Overt! And covert!
The book Go Lean … Caribbean addresses the overt and covert security needs for the region. It describes the security pact – Status of Forces Agreement – that must be instituted with the treaty for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU would be established by the sovereign powers of the 30 Caribbean member-states to empower the region with this Security / Defense Pact (Armed Forces) with a fully-empowered Naval Force and adequately manned Expeditionary Marine Forces to facilitate the region’s security interest. For covert empowerments, the book details the width-and-breadth of an Intelligence Gathering & Analysis Apparatus to fully round-out the security efforts. The Go Lean book therefore serves as a roadmap for full Caribbean integration. This roadmap describes (Page 23) that peace, security and public safety must be tantamount to economic prosperity; that bad things will happen to good people and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland. This mandate is embedded in an advocacy for the Greater Good. In all, the Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:
- Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create new jobs.
- Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and to protect the resultant economic engines of the Caribbean homeland.
- Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The priority on homeland security was pronounced early in the Go Lean book with the opening 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.
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.
xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.
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 these “new guards” will include many strategies, tactics and implementations considered “best-practices” around the world to ward off “bad actors”. This does not only address the military dimensions, but also other exigent circumstances; the roadmap therefore features a Emergency Management functionality with the Unified Command and Control for Disaster Response, Industrial incidences, epidemiological episodes and anti-crime initiatives.
The Go Lean book details the series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to provide the proactive and reactive public safety/security in the Caribbean region:
| Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Whistleblower Protection | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Cooperatives | Page 25 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Manage Reconciliations | Page 34 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing | Page 35 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness | Page 36 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
| Strategy – Vision – Confederating a non-sovereign permanent union | Page 45 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Coast Guard & Naval Authorities | Page 75 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Ground Militia Forces | Page 75 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management Agency | Page 76 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – CariPol: Marshals & Investigations | Page 75 |
| Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change | Page 101 |
| Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives | Page 102 |
| Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives | Page 103 |
| Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid | Page 115 |
| Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #3: Consolidated Homeland Security Pact | Page 130 |
| Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better | Page 131 |
| Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Escalation Role | Page 134 |
| Planning – Lessons from the American West – Needed Law & Order | Page 142 |
| Planning – Lessons from Egypt – Law & Order for Tourism | Page 143 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy – Quick Disaster Recovery | Page 151 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance | Page 168 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract | Page 170 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice – Policing the Police | Page 177 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime – Regional Security Intelligence | Page 178 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security | Page 180 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism | Page 181 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis | Page 182 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Emergency Management | Page 196 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights – Watchful World | Page 220 |
Other subjects related to security and governing empowerments for the region’s defense have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7119 | Security Role Model for the Caribbean: African Standby Force |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6720 | A Lesson in History – During the Civil War: Principle over Principal |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6103 | Sum of All Fears – ‘On Guard’ Against Deadly Threats |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5183 | A Lesson in History – Cinco De Mayo and Mexico’s Security Lapses |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5002 | Managing a ‘Clear and Present Danger’ |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4809 | Americans arrest 2 would-be terrorists – a Clear and Present Danger |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4360 | Dreading the ‘Caribbean Basin Security Initiative’ |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3881 | Intelligence Agencies to Up Cyber Security Cooperation |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965 | America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554 | Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531 | A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago – Root Causes of World War I |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076 | Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for Jihadist training |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809 | Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535 | Remembering and learning from Boston |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273 | 10 Things We Want from the US – #4: Pax Americana |
An effort to provide a better security solutions in the Caribbean should be welcomed here. But some might argue: “We want to build up for peace not build up for war; the Caribbean should be all about ‘making love not making war'”. This is a valid argument, except that the appearance of peace is very tenuous. Just one incident of a terrorist attack and any pristine peaceful brand would be ruined … for a long time. This has been the case many times over; think Bali in Indonesia after their terrorist bombings in 2002 and again in 2005.
Let those with eyes … see.
Let those with ears … hear.
Our focus is only, to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. But this quest must not be “empty words alone”, there must be strong actions behind the words.
Everyone in the Caribbean – citizens, institutions and governments – are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap to make the region a better, stronger and safer homeland.
🙂
Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
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Appendix – Jihad
Jihad is an Islamic term referring to the religious duty of Muslims to maintain the religion. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning the act of “striving, applying oneself, struggling, persevering”.[1] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural of which is mujahideen (مجاهدين). The word jihad appears frequently in the Quran,[2] often in the idiomatic expression “striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)“, to refer to the act of striving to serve the purposes of God on this earth.[1][3][4][5]
Muslims[6] and scholars do not all agree on its definition. Many observers—both Muslim[7] and non-Muslim[8]—as well as the Dictionary of Islam,[3] talk of jihad having two meanings: an inner spiritual struggle (the “greater jihad”), and an outer physical struggle against the enemies of Islam (the “lesser jihad”)[3][9] which may take a violent or non-violent form.[1][10] Jihad is often translated as “Holy War”,[11][12][13] although this term is controversial.[14][15] According to orientalist Bernard Lewis, “the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists”, and specialists in the hadith “understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense.”[16] Javed Ahmad Ghamidi states that there is consensus among Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against wrong doers.[17]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad retrieved January 31, 2016.
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Appendix VIDEO – https://youtu.be/cD1HQFcav1M – Bill Maher Vs Brian Levin on “Real Time” – Islamophobia
