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Lot of good info here. I’ll add this – if you build with block rather than galvanized studs and fiberglass sheeting you are nuts. I have done both and the quality of fiberglass is superior and goes up way faster. IMPORTANT – doll out the extra money for rolled fiberglass insulation. Comparatively expensive here but worth every colon.
The stories people tell themselves about safety have everything to do with Costa Rica. This is a place where truth walks on a long leash if tethered to reality at all!
Its cultural and those that now little of the culture here would not see a post on truth as applicable to Costa Rica.
Once you have been deceived by a deceitful professional then you will see why truth matters and how peoples need to hear what accords with their truth matters, as they fall prey to those without personal honesty.
When others can realize this in print they may be able to realize it in themselves, and know when someone is playing to their sympathies and/or preference at their expense.
Thanks Davidd – egualmente…
Most do not appreciate an accurate mirror. As a matter of fact it infuriates them. When one brings up views that intelligently threaten others “sacred” truths and causes self examination – that person is often not only exiled but despised. Its the nature of the beast, the vanity of the goddess to ever want to feel less than above it all.
I think this post has to do with what is the reality of living in CR and what is the fantasy???
You want to sell something – appeal to peoples fantasies of Costa Rica. You want to maintain your personal honesty and actually be of service to other. Tell you personal experience.
The truth is your personal experience. Outside of mathematics, there is no absolute truth. None.
One and one always make two. That is absolute truth.
Everything else is a lighter or darker shade of grey.
As a man or woman you do your best with sincere intentions. if you trample people’s illusions, their higher dreams, you will be demonized, no matter that you are trying to protect them.
They think you are telling them their dream is a lie. Even it it is, its their dream and they protect it viciously.
That is why the guy was ate by the lion.
His dream, his story, was greater than reality (lions are dangerous and you must be cautious (just like Costa Rica).
People do not like you messing with their fantasies.
Great sales people are loved. Why else do you think they can con people into giving them thousands of dollars. They are loved because they speak sweetly and tell you what you want to hear. They play to people sense of rightness, to their ego, their sense of knowing best, their superiority.
Be a straight shooter and tell what they need to hear and you are practically hated. Why, because you made their dream less, inferior.. If someone made the guys dream inferior by saying “watch out for that lion,” he probably would have said, “Your crazy, that lion is not dangerous, look at it! Does that little kitty look dangerous to you?”
So go figure.
It falls into the “no good deed goes unpunished” category.
People don’t want the truth. They want to hear what they want to hear.
You play to that and you make a sale or a con.
You play with a sense of personal honesty you lose money when it comes to telling your experience (truth) to others that are so sold on their own stories of what they want to experience, because your truth violates their hopes, their illusions and you are the bad guy for doing so…
The question of truth is one thing,
The question of who wants to hear it is another.
Yet still there is the question of who deserves to hear the truth.
The more I learn about human nature the less I believe that there are many that deserve the truth.
It’s like casting pearls to swines…
When it comes to Costa Rica, most don’t deserve the truth… Why, because they are not interested in it. You tell them the truth and they dismiss it and go right on believing their comfortable story, there illusions that fits their world.
Why do you think people are continually ripped off here?? They hear what fits their truth and that is all it takes…
Like in the video Scott posted that illustrated it’s in their nature to want to believe their story, at times without investigation or logic applied.
Its like parents that cannot accept that their kid stole candy, Not MY KID! Not my darling story! Its mine, I love it (even if its unture).
How about a food camp where you illustrate upfront and personal how you make what you make and how you shop. You know a day with Marvy making yogurt, buying milk, going to the feria and coming back and cooking.
You could also make a book or great blog out of it and you could also incorporate a monthly supper club gathering where people can have a great dinner and you can make a few hundred dollars.
Many time people that want to make the changes you outline (great changes BTW) just don’t know where to start.
A program that encourages a boot camp seminar for the basics, a weekly blog about source and recipies and [i]food fascist facts[/i][u][/u] and then a get together where every one dines and enjoys but also asks question or are shown corrections would be gret.
Personally I think there is not greater cause than changing eating habits and consumption consciousness.
Food is a common denominator that unites us.
personally I admire your eating style and wish to emulate it. But your way crosses the food line and unites it with the lifestyle line…
While I am brain storming I wish I could find a maid/cook that knew how to do what you do. How about a certification course for locals. Man i would pay extra extra to employ a maid that could cook green and use fish and chicken as more of a condiment rather than a slab of food.
Just dreaming I guess, just my imagination running way with me.
“If I am wrong, them my apologies, but your post on welfare, food stamps and your whole manner-being offended, implying others are and censoring you and then assigning motives, blame and the like where none is stated nor found, is rather telling……it is typical of the American Neo”
Apologizes accepted.
I have never expressed my opinions on welfare.
Think you have me confused. But nice rant. Feel better?
Try following the topic rather than ranting about the authors.
Obviously I was replying to Sprite with whom I enjoy butting heads… We have a long history of head butts – you I am not familiar with…
Come on Camby – are you another one that cannot have provocative honest discussion without playing the “I am offended” card. Typical gringo/a…
Your opinions regarding the discussion topics would be welcome.. your options about the discussion and its manner are not welcomed by me…
They smack of censorship.
I think Scott feels that we are all adults here….
If you want censorship go to Costa Rica Living yahoo group and discuss where to buy pomegranates… you will feel right at home there as there are plenty of rules to follow and expected behaviors to live up to!
Very limiting but cushy definition of cowardice.
I suggest hormone therapy. The “man” kind…
Somewhere I read that all the unused estrogen pills flushed down the toilets have contaminated the water supply… (not a joke).
A martyr is someone who suffers death rather than compliance.
Very dramatic choice of words. Is that another way to ease your compliance justification and remain in the gringo comfort zone with every hair in place and 2.5 kids and a never ending groundhog day lifestyle.
Funny how you associate death (martyrdom) with discomfort of confinement. They are two different things… Ah but you know that – and you are just trying to ease your conscience.
I am hopeful I am smart enough not to be a martyr but there have been hills I have chose to die on, if that was what it took. Not many mind you, but a great life should be accompanied by a great death.
The thing and point is that Ticos have a bias toward noncooperation and are very much more likely to act in accordance with Thoreau’s views. Contrarily, many Gringos come here and set an example that encourages compliance with all laws no matter how unjust or unreasonable. “Why can’t these Ticos stop at a stop sign!!!!” hahahahaaaa
Ticos do not understand laws for the sake of organically obeying (gringos do).
I am glad you are finding when to question authority – I applaud that.
Sophomoric efforts are better than nothing and better than most. But like all sophomores they envy the seniors. Maybe someday you will graduate into Maverickdom with a capital M. It used to be all gringos here were mavericks, steers that did not run with the heard. Now Middle America is here with Middle America follow ALL THE RULES values. The same middle America that follows the heard – all the way to the slaughter house.
The same middle America that is ruining it for the mavericks – those eccentrics and adventurers that came here to get away from Middle America and Middle American rule following values.
Middle Americans and other levels as well have sold out to a false sense of security.
I see Ticos as much freer and have a real idea about what is important. There is no such thing as security, especially provided by the police. Yes, it can help but it is hardly a guarantee. Much better choosing the right neighborhood than thinking the police will protect you because you pay a lot of taxes.
It all gets down to buying a boat load of crap from paying taxes to a system that makes promises it cannot deliver.
The theory is “Blah blah blah” says the government.
The practice (reality) is “Act in “X” manner” says the savvy Tico…
Rather than learn, the Know-better gringo does not act like a Roman when in Rome.
That arrogance is usually born by defining one’s self by an ability to have a high level of physical comfort in their lifestyle.
Social cushion to me is a lame way to define oneself. I guess that is why I like Costa Rica and the beat up streets and the dysfunctional system that frequently strays from theory providing the gaps that enable me to fill then with “practice”.
But until you resonate with the Ticos rather than look down on them by applying your behavior according to gringo values (customary US behaviors) than you will always curse the practice vs theory quotient and wonder why “it’s like this” and why it can’t be “like that” (like home) where everybody follows the rules… obliviously – and all the way to servitude…
Until this is “home” by accepting that because you are living here you have chosen to be like “they” are, and when you see yourself as them, and the idea of “they” goes away,, you will see that there is a nice rhyme that goes to the reason here.
And you see that practice becomes a great antidote to theory.
Then you come to appreciate Tico wisdom… Then you feel truly at home. And things are like they are back home because this is “back home.”
Welcome to Costa Rica. Welcome to being/thinking Tico…
“Nobody is obliged to obey immoral laws”
People oblige themselves to follow immoral laws all the time. Especially people from the land of the free – as in free to work themselves into the grave to sustain an overblown military and support those who profit wildly from the military industrial complex, you know the free people too busy or too comfortable to do anything about the financial servitude they have self designed? The ones that come down here and encourage growing government to placate their guilt (from cowardice) and ease their conscience at the expense of others…
and since “forced compliance is not obedience”
Nice try at a convenient excuse (placating guilt).
Forced compliance is physical obedience. Physical obedience is what perpetrates injustice.
Moral disobedience is a placebo. A convenient way to rationalize compliance, an excuse to comply – as in “if I don’t comply I will be jailed.”
So what, be jailed. That is what patriots do – they sacrifice.
But serfs rationalize their way to obedience – they tell themselves rational lies to make their obedience palatable – “not my fault they made me do it.” A way to disguise their cowardice only to themselves… Patriots understand their cowardice and despise them as much as cowards silently despise themselves.
Perpetrators silently participate with injustice and their silent cowardice is the voice of complicity.
That is a perfect example of practice vs theory
There are plenty of car owners making $800 a month paying car loans and they cannot afford those tickets – but in [u]theory [/u]they are supposed to pay them.
Ahh but in [u]practice [/u]no cop is going to give the driver of a 96 Corolla a ticket if the driver slips him 10K colonies (or less).
So if your are a patriot you pay the cop because to accept the ticket is to perpetuate injustice (excessive/punitive fines). If not, you are part of the problem rather than the solution.
It can happen. Just don’t come here and leave your brains on the plain.. Check it out. In boldness lies genius…
Thanks Davidd – Level headedness is not appreciated these days as it is often politically incorrect and those who are so, are about as popular as the plague. Especially if you are pro men!
Many gringos just refuse to adapt to the social mores (customary behaviors). Gringas see no middle ground between between extreme feminism and subjugation. Ticas understand a middle ground and gringas hate that.
They are too big headed.
Gringo/a have lived indoctrinated by an unnatural system and they cannot even handle the thought that following every rule is inappropriate. They are blank-check rule followers. Just like the US system taught (indoctrinated) them to be.
Real patriots only follow the just rules. They make up their own minds. Most of these good little rule followers are usually effeminate males and women. They would never spend days in jail to oppose an unjust law.
Try reading one of the greatest of all Americans, Henry David Thoreau’s [u]Resistance to Civil Government[/u][i][/i] (Civil Disobedience).
In his essay the American transcendentalist first published in 1849, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to [u]overrule their consciences[/u], and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice.
How many of you can say that participating with governments at times have not over ruled you consciousness
Ahh but its too big to tackle now! (you say). Why – because the Americans were more concerned with materialism (being comfortable) than freedom. We still have a chance here, as Ticos use civil disobedience! But the majority of gringos see them as wrong! Follow that rule! Stop at the stop sigh when there is no traffic. Grow a bigger government by your blind faith participation… Approve the patriot Act! I could go on and on..
The gringos are wrong!
Every time we follow an antiquated rule that does not cause the intended consequence, we are agents of injustice.
Subversives rather than patriots.
Subversives that would rather live of the teat of government rather than risk discomfort to protect freedom. Look what the TSA has done with its invasive actions! I would rather take the a higher incidence of plane crashing than endure that humiliation.
Ah but Americans are accepting of humiliation, even like it if it will bring them 15 minutes of fame. Look how men are continually humiliated on TV. Look how women are continually portrayed as sluts. When was the last time you saw a women portrayed as an honorable stay at home mother happliy raising a family and making a warm and lovong home for her husband and child??/
These same subversive are now perpetrating a huge government attitude in Costa Rica by social customs such as effeminism and occupying peoples minds with materialism rather than freedom. Well focused on working to make more to buy more, they are to busy to think about the consequences of their actions (sound familiar?)
Why extreme feminism plays a big part and should be stopped is because its out of balance, because women spend the money and many women define themselves by their possession, and the men in incorrect support of their women’s greedy wants blindly follow…
Where have all the honorable wise women gone to?
Their is a hge crisis in female leadership similar to the archaic “black Leadership” portrayed by the Jessie Jackson’s of the world.
Feminist want to portray women as subjugated to derive power for their leadership position. Just like the Jackson’s of the world did for black leadership positions. Its sad.. as no one can nurture a baby and young child as well as a women can.
Hopefully a level headed woman with the balance of president Obama will come along and put and end to the extremism, as Obama pt an end to the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world…
To be an agent of justice is to be a patriot. It is to lead your family by conscientiousness rather than by peace with your spouse (caving in).
The rest are agents of injustice because they see it as too much of a risk to protect real liberty. You could call them pussy cats (if you get what I mean).
