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Don’t get your point. The cowards were the hijackers who hit the twin towers.
My point is that to protect you have to deal with your fears. If we had more courageous citizenry we would have a better country.The “I” s are used because its personal to me. There is nothing vicarious about my honor. Just the opposite actually. I am not honoring veterans through watching and doing nothing (vicariously). I acted to show appreciation through communicating my sentiments.
My intent is to honor those who have served the country. Whether my government has earned my allegiance is one thing. The people who fight for my country is something else. They will always have my allegiance, sympathy for their families loses and respect.
They are not dying for me and my freedom to live in Costa Rica, but I believe those who have died did so for the reason they entered the service: protecting our way of life. “Die for nothing” you write. I respectfully disagree.
I don’t see the political viewpoints in my post – just that I am against a wasteful government. Freedom is not a free download. Anyone who has had their freedom taken away knows how valuable it is. Whatever your politics are I think you would agree that people of our country have earned their freedom. I appreciate my freedom. That’s why I wrote the post.
I hear you about the tragedies of war. Not all life lost in service is wasted. Yes there have been unjust wars. Opening that can of worms would be politics.
Soldiers fight on command. They go into whatever battle they are sent. Do you think they should choose? Isn’t that what responsible energetic courageous citizens are supposed to do by their support or opposition to the issues and the policy makers. Do you think those protesting Vietnam made a difference? I do. There are many people that could be protesting the current wars, but I don’t see the numbers. That is what the too lazy or scared remark was all about.
You want to see an example of citizens that are not lazy or scared – look at the humanitarian effort for the Gaza and Palestinians. Regardless of your politics, those people are energetic and courageous.
Let’s just eliminate war. And money and sickness and all other inequities. But until they do, I thank the soldiers that are out there protecting us regardless of their personal motivations.
Know yourself.
Miss O.
From what I read, my intuition tells me you are not ready for change.
Years ago, CR was full of adventures and characters. These people all though quirky, magnificent and risk takers, knew themselves.
Now those who have done the 9-5 thing their entire life and never taken much risk or the time to know themselves, the first step of personal development, are looking to CR to replicate their north American lifestyle.
You can either come here and integrate and assimilate with the Ticos: which will require you to understand the culture and do as the Romans do,
Or
You can try to replicate your North American lifestyle.
You can succeed or fail at either. So what you choose to do here does not matter as much as your ability to do it.
That ability has to do with your experience, mindset and commitment to reach your goal.
Do you have a goal? I think you probably do. But is it realistic. That is, is it realistic for you?
You won’t be able to answer that unless you take inventory of who you are by understanding and looking at what you have done over your life and then assessing if this transition to Central American living is feasible.
This forum is like going into a bar and talking to the bartender and the patrons for therapy.
You get what you pay for.
I have had some luck with bartender therapy, but when I have had big challenges in my life, the best money I ever spent was not in the bar but with professionals.
So, I would recommend you find a good consultant to speak with. Tell him your history, which will include your family and financial status and what you wish to accomplish by moving here. You may not know yourself what that is. This is where a good consultant can help by pulling out what you really want to do here. They have seen many peole come and leave so they will have a pretty good idea if you can make it and will open your yes to the realities of living here.
Don’t go to a real estate person that will only tell you the things he/she wants you to hear.
Considering this large lifestyle decision it would probably be the best money you ever spent.
So Miss O, is your goal something you really want? By reading your posts my gut says “no.” It seems like you really don’t know what you want to do here. If you did know, these concerns would not be relevant enough for you to question.
That is just me never-to-be-humble opinion LOL! Good luck!
You are welcome. I always feel that people should SHOW their appreciation [u]not just say it[/u]. Take time to make a gesture or write a note or place a flower or make a phone call or donate to a veterans fund.
The cushy life most americans lead is built on the bedrock of our fighting men and women. They do a crucial job for a less than crucial-job price. We should all ackowledge them by at least taking a moment to write something about those who have SERVED US.
I just went through a car buying ordeal and ended up buying in the states and shipping here because the cars are sfer and I wanted all the airbags and crash protection I could get. I did not save any money though. I did get what i wanted. I wish i would have shipped my used 99 4runner here. It had 165K miles but I bought it new and it was in perfect shape. I cannot find a 2001 in as good shape as it. The cost to ship it was steep $8K, but in retrospect I wish I wouls have done it.
Good cookware here is almost double and the quality is less.
Vacumes cost way more and don’t seem to be as good. Beds here are a fortune if you are picky and want top of the line more or less. Shoes here tend to all be fake. Does anybody know where to get real brand name shoes beside multiplaza?
Carpets are a fortune here. The one good thing about shipping stuff here is that you do save time shopping as it really is a time consuming job finding quality items here.
To bad there are not some sort of mini containers because I would like to ship a load of stuff here but probally not more than a small moving pod’s worth.
Weed eaters and lawn mowers are expensive but they are good quality.
The Honda agency here is FACO. I just bought a new CRV – EX. I would suggest the agency doing the repairs because:
1) You get the experts. Local mechanics will use low quailty fluids and parts and then show you a recite for high quality ones and then return the high quality parts to make up the difference in price. Also local mechanics will trade out expensive parts on your vehicle or snatch inteior items. I am not being paranoid.
2) With the dealer you also document the actual milage and have a service record which is huge when it comes to selling your car because the majority of importaed cars have had the odometer rolled back. Yes it is easy to roll back a digital odometer. It cost like $20 in Limon.
Also newer cars require less maintainece so doing things right the first time in Costa Rica costs less when it comes to car maintainence – and everything else really. That’s why I always use a third party consultant to oversee all my transactions, contracts and major purchases. When sellers know that you have someone who knows what is going on, it prevents mistakes before they occur. If you are shipping a car you will save money by talking with an expert other than the shipper.
Shippers say they charge a nominal fee and then they add a ton of money onto the taxes. They clip you on the registration by charging you the full years marchamos when, lets say your car entered April 1, you would only need to pay the last 7 months of the year, but they will charge a full 12 months and pocket the first 5 month. Import duties are another way they tack on fees. Write me a mail and I will hook you up with the guy who oversaw my last importation of a used 07 vw rabbit. He saved me almost $2,000 over what the local shipping companies quoted.
Culture versus religion,
I can only speak from my experience and yes I have never been to Saudi Arabia and I know a couple of handfuls of Muslims.
I assume you are saying that the majority of Muslims are uneducated and are led to belive in an extreme view of Islamic law that supercedes national or regional law.
Aren’t you really condeming culture rather than their religion. Hasn’t cretain cultures corrupted the religion to reflect their culturl values.
Culture and religion: one and the other are not necessarily the same.
I think this thread has shown how much we all really care and want the US to prosper. However, untill we all stop voting Republican or Democrat nothing will change. The only way to change things is to vote for a differnt candidate because both parties represent more of the same.
You know the only way to change goverment is to make government fear the people. That means protest and riot. But, most Americans don’t have the balls to protest, especially the young apathetic ones. I see the tea party people out there and they are all over 30 years old.
Protesting makes those who really control the US uneasy, because if there is no peace, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, as your quality of life will be compromised.
Amen David. At least Obama mentions the word “middle class.” The ignorant cowboy never did and could care less. The funny thing is people call Obama an elitist. There was never anyone who thought his excrement didn’t stink more than Bush and the cohort war criminal Cheny. They made me ashamed to be an American. What’s wrong with cowboys, nothing, but you know what they say about cowboy hats and hemmoriods – they are both attached to the posterior orfice.
I cannot belive that an educated person that has their eyes open would write such a thing about those who practice the muslim religion. 99.9 percent of them or more are peaceful people. What an ignorant post. if you don’t change with the world, the world changes without you.” I am ashamed for you, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Yeah – sorry well I get over heated when I think of a man that sent thousands of people to war and caused countless injuries and thousands of deaths for his own vanity and to make money for Haliburton. Not to mention the how many billions of dollars wasted? If I was a Texan I would demand that everything with the Bush name on it be destroyed.
Kordan,
If Bush is sphyilis, I’ll take genital warts any day, even on my tounge!
I love the idea of local goverment. Then the thives gotta look you in the eye as they pass by. No faceless victims. Why do Gringos want to grow goverment anyway? Look at how willing they are to cooperate with the Tico government. Amazes me. They want to repaeat their mistakes here. Must be the indoctrination.
The Repugnants are yelling stop spending – they are the fricking hypocritcs that spent the crap out of our money! Know they are calling the pot black! Woe to the downpresser Bush. He will burn in Hell if any one does. Stupid is a stupid does and Bush did stupid real well (not to mention arrogant). I whish Texas would have left the Union when they tried and taken all their loser inbred politicians with with them. What do they say about Texans – when a plane load lands in CR they only have to fill out one customs form!
How many here would rather have Bush back? At least the president talks about the middle class, treats other countries with respect, is intelligent and does not talk in purely political sentences. he is a politicain sure, but he has done more for our forign relations in his term than Bush did, and actually Bush pushed our relations back to the stone age. I don’t remeber Pakastan helping us before? Look things are getting better. Dis the stimulus help’ I don’t think so. But compared to Bush this guy is a dream. The best of the worst!
So tell me how many want to bring back the turd tossing Texan?
First of all I just liquidated my Colon account and bought dollars at 515 each.
Lets see what happens.
Second, if any of you have read Costa Rica Now you understand the authors point of view that we are tricking ourselves believing that we make things better here by throwing money at it. Isn’t that the American way? Hey just throw money at it and it will get better, like the education system and I could go on and on. Now, I am not just picking on N. American here. I intend to pick on anyone who does not follow Tico social norms. You do not have to follow the law at the expense of being human. Remember “A Few Good Men” where the marines that gave the code red were eventually found guilty for following an order because “They were supposed to know what order to follow and which not to follow.” Well you see this in Tico society every day. And that is a good thing that we foreigners should learn from. We do not owe our allegiance to those rules and the governments that do not earn our allegiance. So next time you blindly follow a rule without thinking it through, you just reinforced your US indoctrination and moved farther from Tico assimilation.
It takes courage to be a patriot. Tiocs exemplify their willingness to control government by participating with it as little as possible. You are not your government – you are a human that lives with other humans in a community. That should be first priority.
