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Ecuador: from the city that never sleeps to sleeping in peace:
As a former Upper West Sider (85th between Columbus and the Park) I find that the best way for me is to seek a bit of the vibe you loved before... a bit of homeopathy of sorts. I used to hang at Knickerbocker's on University..loved the jazz..so now when I can I'll go to the Jazz Society of Ecuador here in Cuenca for a bit of nostalgic fun. There's a vibrant music scene in Loja too. Music may not be your thing, but whatever that "thing' may be, chances are it is here in one form or another. My belief is that a complete cutting off from that which we have left behind is unnecessarily harsh on us. Personally I love life here and loved it there too. After nearly 4 years here I though about moving back to close-in Upstate last year, (New Paltz area) but couldn't bring myself to do it. Life here just got too darn sweet. Best of luck to you..enjoy!
Ecuador: Expats or no Expats:
I like the way you ended this, Brandon. I often ask myself "What is an expat?"..I was interviewed recently by a grad student here who put the label "American" on everything. What is an American? I guess everything from a gangster on the streets of Baltimore to the yoga instructor in LaJolla. There are stereotypes for everything, but I found the question pretty much unanswerable. Everybody has the right to be who they are and we are, each one of us, on our own unique journey. You've been around. You know there are great people and jerks and everything in between in every culture. I neither run away from a person because they are an expat nor run towards them because they are otherwise. It's a question of discernment at the end of the day, isn't it? Good luck to you, sir and best wishes.
Rich
Ecuador: Renouncing your USA Citizenship.:
My take on the "renunciation" issue can only be predicated on some background and my own experiences. I've observed a fair number of expats here, to me a somewhat surprising number in my 3.5 years of life here, who suffer from internalized rage due to what is known by psychologists as 'institutional abuse'. More to follow.
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What I have also seen of late lurking behind this is a form of systemic, covert racism. I will try to connect these dots of insitutional abuse and systemic racism in the body of this post.
Both of these can play out in very painful, very toxic ways in individuals affected by them.
Here's an example of both combined and how they can be interrelated.
Recently an acquaintance went into a surprisingly unexpected, quite vitriolic rant about the TSA, followed immediately by another about White House excesses and the first lady. He would be soon traveling and this had become heavy on his mind. The message to me was loud and clear and very mixed; I distrust government and even moreso because the president is a liberal, black man, It upsets me to take orders from or feel my sovereignty compromised by a liberal black man who holds power over me. I will fight back as I can, even if only in these words to you. I am frightened to go back.
He could not elaborate the intricacy or the intimacy of what was on his mind to me directly, but i could feel his deep anguish, fear and frustration.
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Factually, of course, even Bill O'Reilly of Fox news freely admits that the George.W.Bush WH budget surpassed that of this administration. Obama had only one of 100 Senatorial votes involved in the passing of the Patriot Act. So what, then is the basis for what he was actually saying.? Was it the budget or the president, his wife or an airport screener earning $12.50/hr that was troubling him? Or perhaps it was something else altogether?
My guess is all of the above, but the latter holds the key to the deeper understanding.
What i witnessed in that moment were very deep feelings. This man is a bright, concerned man, a patriot who was literally on the verge of bursting into tears when he spoke. But about having his luggage scanned? My years in mental health make these reactions of keen interest and concern to me. I like this man very much, and I felt for him and his plight. Now for some possible causes.
Instituional abuse.
People may perceive themselves as having been betrayed and hurt by institutions and government, perhaps over the larger part of a lifetime. For some, this is a reality, not a mere fantasy. They may feel frustrated, betrayed, victimized and powerless. And unfortunately, they may be unable to process their feelings other than through some form of externalized rage or what is known as 'scapegoating'.The sacpaegoat is the immediate, available, obvious figure we 'pin' it on when the monster in the backgound seems like something that might swallow us in one gulp. By the above statements, I am certainly NOT implying Obama's innocence or anyone else's guilt. That is not my intent here. This is about the need for scapegoats, for fall guys, for jesters and dunces.
Who has not "hated" a power company, a bank, a phone company, car dealer, the IRS, the insurance company...among others. I have hated them ALL, plus may more, at one time or another! The deeper problem starts when a person begins to experience a sense of overwhelm as time and time again they feel like powerless victims of one institution or another, or often multiples. The abuse associated with this, when experienced repeatedly and consistently, actually changes brain function over time and can can activate symptoms of PTSD. Once the receptors are activated and the pathways opened, hyper vigilance and "high alert' become the norm.
Now, I am a very calm, patient man, but like most people, I have my limits. One day in the mid- 90's i was helping a client with a particularly agressive collections agent who would resort, among other things, to shame tactics, bullying and literal screaming as well as incredibly mean personal insults. He woild leave my client in tears every Friday afternoon. He knew he could ruin her weekend and he gloated on this. A gas credit card. $300 dollars.
Friday arrived and I took the call on my client's behalf. It was after lunch and this man seemed altered to me. I was astonished by what was to come. I listened patiently to everything this man said to me. This wasn't even my bill! and he had never spoken to me prior to this. He called me a waste, a deadbeat, an idiot, a lowlife a drag on society, a person with no values, on and on it went. When he was done, I took a deep breath and calmly told him the following: ' Sir, you know from the billing address on this account exactly where I am located. If you are even reasonably nearby, I would invite you to come so we can talk. Come after work if that is more convenient for you, perhaps we can have a coffee and discuss this calmly. Your anger is evident to me, and a part of me is moved by it. I sincerely encourage you to come. i work in the mental health field. And yes, there was a part of me that was at times thinking something VERY different. Sometimes compassion can come in different forms.
After 6 months of this man's abuse, every Friday, he was not heard from again. The next week, another person called.
What happened, I cannot know. But i can guess. This is a nearly perfect example of institutional abuse and it can cause deep emotional trauma in people.
Now back to the expat situation and another illustration.
Mere hours after this initial incident regarding what was ostensibly a dislike for the TSA, I went for coffee. There, I overheard a shocking conversation between two Canadian and American expats. When asked by the Canadian what his motivations for moving were, the 3 word answer by the U.S expat knocked the oxygen out of me: His reply: "That f___k n___r."
In this case, the Obama figure again represented the scapegoat...perhaps for a life filled with rage, deep racial feelings, betrayal, hurt, many collections agents, failed career, deep disappointment, a perceived loss of liberty, eroding values, unwillingness to abide by'new' laws. Easy to guess, hard, again, to know. One thing was clear; what erupted from this man did not begin on Jan. 20th, 2008. It had gathered steam over a lifetime of repressed emotions and the escape valve had just been opened an eigth of a turn.
These are but a few of many, many more such interactions I have been privy too. Remember, this within 5 hours of one day!
Back to the renunciation question.
Only the underlying motivations will tell the true story. But if those underlying motivations are deep fears and potent phobias that remain unexamined in the individual, then who can truly know what they REALLY are, as even the person themself may be unaware, a victim of institutional abuse or a lifelong scapegoater? This is akin to asking a person why he or she divorced and getting the response "My ex was a jerk". Right.
Rejecting citizenship, other than for purely pragmatic reasons, is an enormous fulcrum in a person's emotional life. it may represent an expat's ultimate chance to satisfy the part in the self that seeks revenge for a lifetime of hurts and transgressions. A firing. A divorce. A bad boss. Low self-esteem. Depression. Chemical imbalances.Failed relationships of any kind. Unending institutional abuse, a letter carrier who pepper srayed the dog. A bankruptcy. Medical issues. A lifetime of dings and hurts, both personal and impersonal
Through renunciation, people whose lives have been frought with painful, unsatisfying experiences over and over again may finally be able to make the ultimate ideological statement, the primal scream, feeling empowered enough at last to bring the 2 words that may have been parsed on their lips for decades (use your imagination here!) to some sort of self-satisfying conclusion .To stand for themselves, to finally, in one bold move, feel the mastery of their own destiny within reach, and once and for all be able to avenge every slight and hurt, real, imagined and most likely both, in one fell swoop! Chop! Done! I am done with you once and for all!
Really, though?
Obviously, Obamacare has sparked a huge amount of controversy and vitriol. I know it was the final straw for many and has diivided a nation deeply. I will never use it, and the thought of paying for it irks me. Would I have liked it when I paid dearly out of my own pocket for what was diagnosed as a terminal illness? You bet I would have. But what of those now in what were my boots?
But still, Obamacare represents the infinitesimal tip of an enormous iceberg. Blaming it froall one's ills is merely finding yet another scapegoat.
Here is where i will get personal. Maybe some will see it as righteous. I cannot know. When asked to pay for wars that I disagreed with vehemently and which took the life of one of my dearest friends, I paid begrudgingly, with both deep moral reservations and deep sadness for the lives both snuffed out needlessly or lives forever changed. But I paid. I continue too.
I paid because I do have some love of country, some gratitude for the thousand and thousands of days that were not so bad at all, for the days that got us here, for the legacy of those who immigrated to find better lives for people like me, for those who risk their live still to find something better for themselves and their families, the friends and family I left behind who call themselves Americans. They all existed before, Bush, before Obama. Hopefully most will survive them both and see better times ahead for America. I don't want the memory of my children, family and friends being that of an angry, embittered old man who gave one final ugly gesture to them all due to my own inabilty to look into the mirror and see who was atually staring back at me.
Some of the toughest and most injured young men and women I have worked with, returning veterans, have told me that looking into that mirror, even for mere seconds, was more frightening than any experience they had experienced in Afghanistan or Iraq.
However, the mirror isn't the first place people tend to go when they are guided by raw emotion..The mirror gets put away for lack of use, sometimes forever.
Moreover, most simply cannot carve out vast swaths of their entire emotional body and transform what's left into a reservoir of hatred with their hand ever poised above the metaphorical valve, ready to open the flow at will ,and expect to live a happy, balanced life.. I've been at this for a while. It rarely happens. The 'one thing that will make it all okay ' can be a phantom indeed, leaving a deep, sometimes bottomless pit.
Here are some of my own expereinces regarding the concept of renunciation.
I have looked on line at procedures involved. I have weighed the pros and cons extensively But I don't think I could bear the deeper emotional/psychological consequences. My world is about more than just me. Life to me is more than about skimming the cream and leaving the skim milk for "the other" because the all-important "me" is irate, and is unwilling or unable to try and firgure out why.
I will take a guess that there are a myriad of deeper, highly complex motivations for renunciations than few will have the willingness, if not the abilty, to look at deeply, much less share in conversation. Who will admit over coffee their deep emotional scars?
In the case of one's life having been left unexamined up to the point of making a decision to renounce one's citizenship, the overwhelming odds are that it may now be too late to make that inquiry as to why. If one's deeper motivations are perhaps not readily accessible to the self, if perhaps reactions have overridden introspection in one's life, the trajectory may be unstoppable.There is neither the need nor any value in pathologizing an individual for making such a decision.
Everyone is entitled, within reason, to be who they are and do what they wish, as long as others are not unreasonably harmed and some culturally acceptable social contract is adhered to.
But what of potential harm to the self? If one's intent is to seek revenge,, who or what exactly is one sticking one's middle finger up at? That complex, deeper question, I fear, may sometimes remain unanswered, even to the self with the finger raised. Sacriifced on the alter of raw emotion. Obama or Bush may have given some a nudge, but in truth, they were already in mid-fall.
Does this apply to all? Of course not! To imply that would be nonsensical. Does this apply to some, perhaps even a majority? Here I can again only make a guess based on my observations. That guess would be a tentative yes.
There is no "real" answer .There is no correct response. It's every renuciate's subjective, contextual experience of life, every experience that brought them ultimately to their conclusion.
And so ends my take. I shun absolutism, these are loosley formed opinions based on very basic theory. There is no right or wrong in these discussions. Just ideas based on what I see as we bring to the table of life. It's a table we ALL sit at and how we sit depends on how we have sat!
I truly appreciate your genuine curiosity in raising such a question. I am grateful to have been able to answer with my opinion as i am able.
Be of good cheer.
Ecuador: Observations from New Year's Eve - Part 1:
This reminds me a bit of an 'incident' last year in Cuenca which brought these same differences to the surface and continually brings a smile to my face. I was standing outside The Gobernacion Building on Parque Calderon waiting to get a glimpse of Presidente Correa as he emerged from his meetings. Security was tight, the building was literally ringed by elite troops and plainclothes security officers. At one point a woman who was quite beautiful and suggestive (the rest can be left up to individual interpretations) walked slowly past the line of troops licking an ice cream cone she had bought at Fruitaldos across the street. It is not an exaggeration to say that the President could have safely left the building, entered his SUV and driven off without ever having been noticed. My first thought was 'lapse in security' followed almost instantly by 'how utterly human'. It's nice to feel secure..but that moment redefined in one small way the innocence and sweetness that thankfully is also a part of being human.
Ecuador: Finding my way around Vilcabamba:
Roots, a block of the square...El Atillio...you will need to be on their email list to get a reservation as they only serve dinner on Thursday and Saturday and only for 25 people. This is in another league altogether from anything else in Vilcabamba and if you are serious about food, it's not to be missed. Ask Dennis at the Juice Factory he'll be able to get you in touch. We tried citrus oil for the bugs, but they ate me up alive and are one of the reasons I left, among others. Ask at Charlitos or the juice factory and you get the answers to all of your questions.
Ecuador: Folding lawn chairs in Cuenca:
I've seen charred wood on the corner of Las Americas and Avenida Mexico, across from the big Primax station on Americas. I've also seen it by the traffic circle on the far side of Feria libre, there's a place right off the circle that sells wood and charcoal.
Ecuador: Used Auto Prices - Patiotuerca vs Other Classifieds:
On the other hand, our '06 Terracan from Guayaquil was by far the cleanest, lowest mileage (undercoated) fanatically maintained car I have ever owned, so the assumption that cars from Guayaquil are simply to be avoided is not universally true. It can be..but regarding a well maintained late model vehicle, i would be more concerned about the stigma than the vehicle. Admittedly, though, re-registering it in Cuenca was a nightmare. If it had not been the PERFECT car, I would have bought locally.
Ecuador: new single family homes in Cuenca:
I can only speak of my own experience in this regard. We purchased a home very hastily, our 3rd day in Ecuador, our very first time here. Based on my somewhat dubious real estate track record and the impulse purchase, I quietly waited for the other shoe to drop. It never did. We live in a truly lovely home, it is quiet and safe and in hindsight I think it is the best area to live in Cuenca. Of course, i speak with a personal bias as life has been nothing but good here, We live in San Joaquin, sector San Jose, just off the road that goes up into Cajas National Park and ultimately to Guayaquil in around 3 hours. (Autopista medio-ejido Sayausi) It is never more than 15 minutes to get from here into the historic center yet it is a world away. It is a little higher (9100ft. on our GPS) and cooler. There are lots of upper-middle class Cuencanos building around us, I think we have one of the smaller homes. Land prices are not cheap, however, running a minimum of $50 a meter, but my numbers are not up to the minute so I wouldn't put stock into that without a good check of the market currently. Most Cuencanos I have spoken to think it is a wonderful place to be as it has a touch of a rural feel to it still. The property taxes will kill you, though. $27 annually. And for that we have trash and recycling pick up 3 times weekly!
It is highly advisable to own a car here. Virtually everyone does. Good luck.
Ecuador: Travelers Checks or ATM near Palermo building in Cuenca?:
There's an ATM across the street about a half-block from the entrance to the Oro Verde Hotel. About 2 minutes from the Palermo's entrance, really.
Ecuador: Bigfoot in Ecuador?:
Great conversation! I'd love to add my two cents... Having experienced Vilcabamba for about 6 months, I would like to touch briefly on the nature of the conspiracy theorist expats who eventually convinced me I would be better served living in Cuenca. For many, Vilcabamba is the end of the line...the place to go to hunker down for end times. For those thus motivated, they consider it a place that will be survivable when (not if) the world collapses. In general, they have deconstructed EVERYTHING..from God to religion from nationalism to government right down to laws, ethics and morality. They toss it all, regardless of content. Few, if any, are critical thinkers. They simply shed an entire belief system like a suit of clothes and put on another, fully defined by the likes of people such as David Iche, George Green, etc, and off they go, the newly converted, zealous in their beliefs that, among other things, the Moon is a mother ship, most U.S. presidents since Kennedy are clones, the holocaust was staged, less than 40,000 Jews died in Europe, the chemtrails, the Pleadians, the Zetas, Queen Elizabeth ruling the world, (actually now it's some little known guy in Switzerland!)..house cats as spiritual healers...the dollar collapsing in less than 90 days..( it's been happening now for almost 3 years now!) I could go on and on. I have heard it all. I cannot tell you how many dates there were and are upcoming which foretell apocalypse. These things were the topic of conversations at every gathering, ad nauseam. The paranoia was rampant. The fear and anxiety pervasive. Everyone ELSE is under some sort of "spell' brought on by consumerism, the government, etc. Only these people know the REAL truth. Oh boy. As the old saying goes..'It's a nice place to visit, but...'. Vilca real estate prices will probably take a dip in January 2013 when they realize that the Mayan calendar maker probably just ran out of stone...
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