Go Lean Commentary
Sex, …
Drugs …
… and Rock-n-Roll.
America has taken the lead in the fostering of these vices for the rest of the world. 🙁
For the Caribbean looking to American leadership, the stern advice here is to not follow these American vices:
Sex
While natural and normal, there is a distortion in America with the promotion of pornography. Comedian Bill Maher joked “that America invented the internet, then filled it with porn”; see Pornhub profile here and “List of Websites By Traffic” in the Appendix below:
Pornhub, part of the Pornhub NETWORK campaign, is a pornographic video sharing website and the largest pornography site on the Internet.[4][5] Pornhub was launched in Montreal, providing professional and amateur photography since 2007. Pornhub also has offices and servers in San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans and London. In March 2010, Pornhub was bought by Manwin (now known as MindGeek), which owns numerous other porn websites.…As of 2009, three of the largest porn sites “RedTube, YouPorn and PornHub -collectively make up 100 million unique visitors”.[12]
Malvertising – Researcher Conrad Longmore claims that advertisements displayed by the sites were found to contain malware programs, which install harmful files on users’ machines without their permission. Longmore told the BBC that two popular sites – XHamster and PornHub – pose the greatest threat.[28] – Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornhub retrieved November 12, 2016.
[On the List of Websites By Traffic in the Appendix below, pornographic sites are # 57, 60, 67, 78, 139 and 190]
Drugs
Marijuana legalization is now the norm for 40 percent of the American population. (A previous blog-commentary details the challenges of decriminalizing drugs in the Caribbean region). See the story here:
Title: A Bunch of States Just Legalized Weed, Which Is Great Because We All Need It Now
California’s referendum to legalize marijuana in the world’s sixth-largest economy passed Tuesday night. So did voter measures in Massachusetts and Nevada. Maine’s referendum was still being counted early Wednesday morning, and Arizona’s was poised to lose. Three other states passed medical marijuana reforms, and a fourth appeared likely to do so. This means that in eight states (plus Washington, D.C.) weed will be legal for recreational purposes, and in sum, 28 will have some kind of legalization on the books.It’s a good thing that a large chunk of America will soon be able toke up at their leisure, because for the next four years, we are really going to need it.
The conventional wisdom about the 2016 ballot measures was that their approval would make federal legalization truly inevitable — millions of Americans are already using marijuana within the letter of state law. This has created a $6 billion industry, and those figures are only likely to continue to multiply. While the Obama administration has continued to go after some growers and sellers, it has largely allowed state legalization to take its course. The state policies certainly aren’t perfect, but they’re ultimately good and just: Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of marijuana-possession arrests every year, and they disproportionately affect (read: ruin the lives of) poor minorities. Treating marijuana more like alcohol and less like heroin changes that.
Of course, now all that could go up in smoke. If it wanted to, a Trump administration could undo the progress marijuana regulation has made in an instant. As one reform advocate told the Washington Post: “The prospect of Rudy Giuliani or Chris Christie as attorney general does not bode well.” Sure doesn’t! But what policy implication of a Trump presidency does?
Someone pass me some of the strong stuff.
By: Jonathan L. Fischer, Slate senior editor.
Source: Slate Online Magazine; Posted November 9, 2016 from: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/09/a_bunch_of_states_just_legalized_weed_good_we_all_need_it.html————
VIDEO – Big Pot: The Commercial Takeover – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/big-pot-the-commercial-takeover
November 7, 2016 – CBSN Originals explores the rapidly changing landscape of legal marijuana, traveling to five states and Canada to interview key figures on all sides of the issue.
Rock-n-Roll
America gave birth to this musical art-form; but is now leading the music industry into a downward spiral of dissolution, dissension and dysfunction. The sad state of the music industry is a frequent topic for this commentary and the underlying book Go Lean…Caribbean. This subject was exhausted in a “Lessons Learned Case Study” regarding Music Piracy: See Appendix ZT – To Catch A Thief – Page 351. Many previous blog-commentaries have detailed the sad state of the music industry:
- Record/retail stores are non-existent,
- Concerts have become inexplicably expensive, and
- Internet streaming is the only viable business model.
The vice associated with Rock-n-Roll is that of cultural nullification. The Go Lean book details this debate as deliberated in France: cultural preservation versus cultural nullification from American Rock-n-Roll. France held its ground … and today, the city of Paris enjoys 30 million tourists and $25 Billion in culture/tourism spending …annually.
This commentary asserts that it is easier for Caribbean people to prosper where planted in the Caribbean, rather than emigrating to foreign countries, like the United States.
But, globalization being what it is, means that left unchecked, we will see all of these American vices in our communities, whether we want them or not.
This commentary declares: We do not want them.
This point aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean, which states that American leadership is not always focused on the best interest of America, but rather the best interest of special interest groups. We cannot submit, yield and follow their lead in fostering our own society. The book supports the notion that the Caribbean can be an even better place compared to America for Caribbean people if we adhere to the community ethos of the Greater Good, “the greatest good for the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.” – Page 37.
If we succeed at adopting this community ethos – underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of our society – then we can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. There is the need to optimize the economic, security and governing engines in the Caribbean region to pursue these goals, not American values.
This is a continuation from the previous 3-part series from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, in consideration of reasons why the Diaspora should repatriate back to the Caribbean homeland. The previous commentaries detailed:
- Time to Go: Spot-on for Protest
- Time to Go: No Respect for our Hair
- Time to Go: Logic of Senior Immigration
Now, this new extension to the series considers the additional topics as detailed in this series as follows:
- Time to Go: Marginalizing Our Vote
- Time to Go: American Vices; Don’t Follow
- Time to Go: Public Schools for Black-and-Brown
All of these commentaries relate to the Caribbean disposition in the United States. The Go Lean book and movement serves as a roadmap for the introduction of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic, security and governing optimizations. 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 ensure public safety and protect the economic engines.
- Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.
The Go Lean roadmap posits that the Caribbean region is in crisis now, and so many are quick to flee for refuge in foreign countries. But the “grass is not necessarily greener on the other side”. Considering the actual vices in American society – which will only get worse with time – life there is definitely not optimized for Caribbean people. As mentioned in the foregoing, the Black-and-Brown of America are the ones that have been imperiled the most because of the drug eco-system. The Go Lean book asserts that because every community has bad actors – the Caribbean has bad actors and the US has bad actors – there is the obvious need to reform and transform the region, security-wise. 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 of criminology and penology to assuage continuous threats against public safety. The Federation must allow for facilitations of detention for [domestic and foreign] convicted felons of federal crimes, and should over-build prisons to house trustees from other jurisdictions.
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 apparatus to ensure public safety and justice assurance is a comprehensive endeavor, that will encapsulate the needs of all Caribbean stakeholders: governments, institutions and citizens (residents and Diaspora).
An important mission of the Go Lean roadmap is to dissuade the high emigration rates of Caribbean citizens to the American homeland. This means being conscious of why people flee – “push” and “pull” reasons – and monitoring the societal engines to ensure improvement – optimization. (“Push” refers to the societal defects in the Caribbean that moves people to want to get way; and “pull” factors refer to the impressions and perceptions that America is better). A second mission is to encourage the repatriation of the Caribbean Diaspora back to their ancestral homeland, where the dangers associated with these vices are less intense.
There is risk to security and justice assurance on all sides of the issue of vices – this is heavy-lifting. The book details this complexity, with a focus on the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to monitor, manage and mitigate the security risks to Caribbean society. The following is a sample list:
| Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification | Page 21 |
| Community Ethos – Job Multiplier | Page 22 |
| Community Ethos – Privacy versus Public Protection | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Light Up the Dark Places | Page 23 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development | Page 30 |
| Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good | Page 37 |
| Strategy – Vision – Integration of Single Market Economy | Page 45 |
| Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization | Page 57 |
| Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy | Page 64 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security | Page 75 |
| Tactical – Separation of Powers – Justice Department | Page 77 |
| Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up | Page 103 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy | Page 151 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Ways to Mitigate Black Markets | Page 165 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance | Page 168 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract | Page 170 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice | Page 177 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Remediate and Mitigate Crime | Page 178 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security | Page 180 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Prison Industrial Complex – Parole Eco-System | Page 211 |
| Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage | Page 218 |
| Appendix – Mediating as French Culture and Economics Collide | Page 311 |
Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people and governing institutions, to lean-in for the empowerments described in the book Go Lean … Caribbean.
For a long time these vices that are now being unleashed on American soil were heavily regulated by other societies; the governments and leaders were protecting the people from destructive behavior. These vices are still destructive despite any American Stamp of Approval. This is not the lead we want to follow.
“Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”. – Matthew 15:14 Berean Study Bible.
America has lost its moral high ground. It is Time to Go!
As reported in previous commentaries, justice – for its Black-and-Brown populations – is already a fallacy in the US. Now personal virtue is also becoming frivolous in their society. The country is so duplicitous: there is so much that America does right, but there is so much that America does poorly – and people that they do not respect – that we want to mitigate those influences in our homeland.
It is the conclusion of this Go Lean movement that the “grass is not greener on the American side”. We can do better. We can make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. All Caribbean stakeholders are hereby urged to lean-in to this Go Lean/CU roadmap to elevate the Caribbean. 🙂
Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
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Appendix – List of Websites By Traffic
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites retrieved November 12, 2016