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From what I have been told, the part about everyone being cleared by Homeland Security for every flight leaving the US is in place already. I think it was in January or June. The Canadian border crossing passport requirement was put on hold…For now.
About the gov’t national ID. Here in NYS the Governor just announced his plan the other day for illegal immigrant drivers licenses, and the rest of us plain citizens get the enchanced version, which will comply with federal regulations, and act like a passport when crossing into Canada. It will take about a year to enact. Anyone else see this? It was not on the front pages of the newspapers. It was on page 3 in mine. I guess it wasn’t all that important for NYS residents to be advised.
The ACLU is up in arms over this. One of the only times I’ve actually agreed with them.
The coffee’s in the pot, time to smell it.
The $2000 per month was if you buy on your own and not through the employer’s group, Sprite. Also it was for 2 people. Still, an outrageous sum! Your’s may be $200, but my guess is, your employer is picking up part of the tab.
He’s still got a liitle more to go before he receives SS. And quite a bit more still for Medicare. $24k a year, can you believe it?
I love the advert at the bottom of the article for the Panama RE report. Kind of almost makes you feel like the whole story was meaningless… Who does their advertising?
I know your post wasn’t directed at me, Becky. I appreciated the article you wrote, and I think you have done a great service for those people. By exposing fraudulent or incompetent individuals, you help all of us wade through the garbage that is out there. CR is like any other place, and maybe more so. It can be filled with pitfalls. It is encouraging to know there are people like you and Scott who put themselves up front, and sometimes take the hits, for doing the right thing. Look at all the other blogs and forums, and you will see the difference. There are some who will knock their competitors unjustly to gain advantage. It always comes back to bite them.
I’m not just saying this to curry any favor with you or Scott. Over the years I’ve seen my share of dirtbags in many fields of endeavor, and appreciate the refreshing change of seeing someone who puts people ahead of profit. The two, people and profit, are compatible. If you put people first, the profit will follow. It all depends on how you conduct yourself, and the things you truly value. My business practices have always been upfront and above board with anyone I’ve dealt with. Our family business has been around for 95 years, and still going. We may never become rich, but at least we can sleep at night.
Sometimes, there are those who feel the expeditious thing to do in business is to rip someone off. In the short-term that may work, but when you are trying to build a future and a solid business, customers always have to come first.
I wish you continued success.
Becky, I certainly don’t want you to get the wrong idea in that I am nitpicking or correcting you on your post. The reason I put up this topic is because there ARE naive people who assume it won’t happen to them. Stuff like this has happened to me, and other people I know. And we all thought we had it figured out.
You are a professional, and I am sure you have seen the “pie in the sky” look people get when they want to purchase homes or property. Many RE salespersons and contractors can and do take advantage of the “paradise” mentality would-be buyers can have.
I wouldn’t want to speak for anyone but myself, but I did get the meaning of your article, and was hoping others would post their horror stories and the solutions they came up with to remedy the situation.
I realize your post was directed at someone other than me, and I would not even think of questioning your integrity. I believe you are an honest professional, and you have your clients interests uppermost in your dealings with them. Just as you took the time to help the people who weren’t even you clients in the article, I would think all your clients get the service they deserve.
I look forward to the followup article. I hope they are able to get it resolved. It is not fun to have your life’s savings go down the drain due to some unscrupulous individuals.
Guru, Supervision on a project is paramount. If you are having construction done in your native country and can check the progress you may have a chance to head off problems. When having construction done in a foreign country, and you possibly being thousands of miles away, you are just begging for problems.
I work with a Honduran national who is building a home in his country. His wife supervised the project daily in Honduras. He did not have Internet access, so his wife would send photos of the progress to me at work. Being a very intelligent person, she took pictures of every stage and aspect of the construction.Like you said, once the finish is on the walls, all sorts of mistakes can be covered up. You have to be vigilant. It is your money, and you should be very concerned how it is being spent. No one will watch out for you as well as you can for yourself.
Rebeca, I would love to see what you can write when you have plenty of time on your hands.lol. As you are about to see, I have entirely too much time on mine.
Great piece of work. And good luck on your midterms.In my own much more simplistic way, I would just like to throw out a few of my own observations. Culture, while being very hard to define, almost always gets defined by people using stereotypes. Any culture differing from our own is open to this. We can’t see it in ours, but are usually willing to attach it to other people’s. An over simplified example; if your ethnic group is very nurturing to your children, and you happen to see someone from another ethnic group not treating their kids with respect and caring, it is easy to assume, “they’re all like that.” You can apply it to almost any situation. I think it comes from the feeling that we do it right, others do not. Not all people think this way, but a good amount do.
Culture can develop with separation from other groups. Whether it is by language, geographical features (islands, rivers, mountains, manmade borders), skin tone, or physical features. Communal living of these groups gives rise to their individual culture. They tend to mix with their own kind and develop ways and customs to interact with each other, as you said. When another small group comes in, the impact is minor, but if they are enough in number they have an effect. I’m told the word “Tuanis” in CR is a contraction form of the English phrase “too nice.” It was picked up from the North Americans living there in the 1960s. It has blended in to now become part of their culture. The influence from Spain in CR is fairly prominent due to the smaller amount of indigenous peoples when they first arrived.
In other Latin American countries the indigenous influence is much greater in their culture because of their higher number when the Spanish came, and they did not subjugate or kill off as many. In the US, even though we are an English speaking country, settled mostly by British, the hundreds of years of separation from the mother country has given us our own unique culture, and unique idioms of language. As the saying goes, “We are two countries separated by a common language.” This, plus the mixing of other immigrant groups as well, gives us our own culture. But there is only one prominent USA culture, and most groups have assimilated to it. Primarily because of controlled immigration has this happened. There are subcultures for sure, but the majority is the one government and business operates within. In one or two generations of emigrating, the mother country’s tongue is all but lost, along with traditions of food and family rearing and interaction. Almost all of us here eat at Mcdonalds and other fast food places at one time or another. Many kids stay single longer, or leave home at a younger age than their parents or grandparents did. They are more self reliant than family reliant. While these are not all the things that define us, they are some of them.In the US, the big issue now is illegal immigration. Many are afraid our culture will be lost through unrestrained immigration, and in some sense they are correct. The fear is, if a large enough group, in this case Mexicans and some other Latinos, come into the USA, our culture will be supplanted with theirs. It is visible in signs that have two languages, use by us gringos of Spanish words and phrases, finding more Latin foods in stores, and other subtle changes. People are worried, because they say Latinos coming to the US in large numbers tend to congregate in their own communities, do not learn English, and do not assimilate. While this may be true to some extent, as it was in most other groups, I think we will see a blending at first of cultures, and then a new unique one born out of it, if the numbers hold up. Latinos are about 12.6% of the population in the US right now. It is rising due to immigration, and the higher birthrate among Latinos. The birthrate for US native born is dropping. Westerners in the US are somewhat fearful of this change. It is normal for one group to want to hold onto what is perceived as their own culture. It has been our own, now indigenous culture, for hundreds of years. And as such, any change, seems to frighten many people. I am not as fearful of this, but my belief is we have to control our borders in order to retain a stable country.
The reason I bring this up, is now Costa Rica is faced with a similar situation. As we age here, Baby Boomers are looking for new places to retire. Costa Rica had provided that new fertile ground for many of us gringos. We are building and moving there in large numbers. Only to increase in the next ten years. On the highway to Jaco, you see many signs for developments predominantly in English, not the official Spanish. Many Ticos have learned to speak English in order to promote tourism and commerce. More real estate is being sold by non-Ticos, more businesses being opened by them as well. My question then is, how do you think they really feel about us being there? Do they look at us as invaders, interlopers, or as assimilators to their culture? Do they feel their culture will be impacted and changed dramatically, or even lost altogether?
While I don’t really have the answer, my feeling is I would hope to assimilate when we get there. My reasons for leaving here would be to change my life, as other immigrants that came to the US did. By the time we get there, my wife and I would be to old to start a fresh new life, and we’re not sure if our children would really want to follow us there yet. I don’t know how many others are relocating with the mindset of assimilation, or if they just want to change latitudes. If they don’t, this might breed tensions, and a dislike for the many northerners and Europeans relocating there.
My thoughts of how to get along with Ticos, and to really make your life, and their life, as easy a relationship as possible, is to become as much a Tico as you possibly can. You will never be accepted as a national, but you can immerse yourself in their unique culture.
Do what they do, eat what they eat. Learn the language and customs. Be very patient and let your former life yield to the culture. Don’t fight it and complain how things were not done this way or that back home. Wait on lines quietly, as they do, try to understand they have been doing it this way forever, and you are not going to change them. If you are punctual and they are not, so what! That’s why it is called the land of mañana. Deal with it. If they don’t invite you into their homes as quickly as you would, learn how to be a better friend, or more respectful possibly. If they still don’t, let it go.You cannot, and should not expect others to treat you in kind all the time, if it is not their way. You are the one who has to adapt, not them.
Edited on Oct 23, 2007 21:54
Checking brains at the airport has to be one of the truest lines spoken. I think we all do it to some degree. We think we have found paradise, no matter what anyone else says. We think we can conquer the new found land like nobody before us had. “The anticipation is always greater than the realization.” A quote from my 7th grade English teacher. How true it is.
Lotus, I don’t know how long ago you bought in the Catskills, but I know some people that had properties upstate that they thought would never be worth too much. After 9/11 the properties skyrocketed in price, and they sold and made a tremendous return. Many people wanted to buy and build away from NYC, “just in case.” For years before, I toyed with the Idea of upstate property. Another opportunity lost.
Yesterday I was listening to public radio here in the US. They were talking about the breeding grounds in Costa Rica of the turtles. The big mystery is where they go after they hatch and move out on the sea. They say they swim feverishly nonstop for about 24 hours, then move off to open waters. The problem is, scientists are not able to locate large groups to study habits of feeding and migration. This is why they are not sure how many die off in the wild due to predators or pollution or other natural causes.
More study has to be done to prevent them from becoming extinct.
Scott, Please accept my apologies for any part I played in the melee that broke out on the site. You have a business to run, and my personal amusement should not be any reason for me to have taken advantage of your generosity. I have met some of the finest people here and hope to still have the opportunity to meet more.
Rebeca, The pleasure has been all mine. Hope to see you one day in CR. Pura Vida.
If certain persons are interested? I have a nice brace of dueling pistols for sale. OOPS, I forgot, no commercial posts.
