Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Come on Scott – you write this frightening stuff and everybody is listening and then EF Hutton (LOL) doesn’t speak any practial antidote to the situation?? What – you got everybody holding their breath and you say nothing. Come on – what, buy Gold and Platinum. How about the Chinese currency or is it the Euro?? Everybody is listening.
What say you Sir Scott?
Chet,
Facinating idea. I totally agree and I think its such a good idea that it should be a you tube question for the presidential debate. BTW Chet I tried to email you but the mail was returned (no such address).
Roark – I strongly disagree and I wish there were Vegas Odds as I would love to bet that there would be an overwhlming majority to leave.
Roark, (Is the rork or ro-ark) always reminds me of the Sandra Bullock character)
Yes I will pay taxes (after Clinton balanced the budget by sacking social security and the president who sickens me to mention his name and that I am part of the same country that he leads (?) is bankrupting us) because who is going to watch out for the little guy.
The US system as been set up as it is, there seems to be no turning back unless the electorate decides to pay a huge price. Inevitably there will be a price to pay (financial, physical and emotional) for funding and participating in the most stupid of all wars). So reluctantly I will help pay it.
We have a chance to keep the US out of Costa Rica by not acting as if Costa Rica is the US. This is the gist of my article. Most US citizens here are so heavily indoctrinated they think blindly participating with the governments every whim is correct, its paint-by-the-numbers citizenry.
Also as little as 10 years ago you did not see the same types of Americans here. They were much more independent minded. Now the middle of the road follower mentality is here in force and is defiantly the wave of the future as CR is now mainstream, who robotically do what they are told, even if it enslaves them – remember the old bumper sticker “Blow up your Television” That’s the enslavers mechanism.
It’s funny how the new comers rush to get dish TV etc. I must say that when it became available in CR I got it. And the Dish still sits on the roof, even though I have not subscribed to it in many years. I still watch some TV at my neighbors house as he is a political junkie (both CR and US politics) – so its amusing to discuss ideas with him, ours and others.
Regarding genocide, there has to be a civil war. We caused that because we did not install someone to fill the vacuum and we decided to destroy the ruling government – big mistake. The high and mighty thinkers that never read Machiavelli didn’t understand that the populace is not educated enough for democracy and further more democracy is only a theory as if you notice as in the pledge of allegiance we do not pledge allegiance to a democracy but to a flag the represents a Republic.
I would never want a true democracy because an ill informed persons vote counts as much as an informed persons vote – that why we got bush whacked. If I was king (shutter at the thought) I would make people pass a test to gain voting rights. That way being a voter would be a status symbol of basic knowledge and earned.
Bush is an under educated man who is buddy-buddy with the head of the military industrial complex with a complex regarding his father – who by the way pleaded with junior not to begin an occupation of Iraq. He will undoubtedly go down as the worst president in US history – undoubtedly.
And i could careless about Iraqui nation building and their freedom. They have no other frame of reference than being good little followers and look where that got them. To me the Iraquis are spineless and could care less about personal freedom. They are how our Imperial leader wishes us to be: so engaged with making it through the day that there is no time left to think and act.
Gotta go and walk my kid to public school – how many other gringos do you know that send their kids to CR public school. That should tell you where my heart is.
I don’t seem to feel a consensus from the readers and sorry I drifted of into US politics but the gist of my article is about CR business and bigger CR Government. This also relates to CAFTA / TLC
1) In what ways would you want CR to be more like the US?
2) Should CR welcome corporate big businesses?
3) Should its government be funded through higher taxes?
4) Should CR join up with the US by forming an economic bridge (TLC/CAFTA)?
5) Do you as a long term visitor or resident want CR to have more infrastructures at the expense of higher taxes and changing cultural matrix?
6) Do you think if there was more participation in the tax system it would make a difference?
7) Finally, do you want to see Tico culture change to less agriculture and more financial ambition, similar to the US?
Please answer the above questions and follow up with a bottom line by giving a yes or no answer to – Do you want CR to be like the US?
My answers:
1 – less trash – less teenage pregnancy – better roads – faster service
2 – No
3 – No
4 – No
5 – No
6 – No
7- NoBottom line – No.
Although I do long for smooth roads and faster service I would not want these at the expense of CR becoming big government and the cultural changes of a big government nation – which to me, means less freedom.
That is one reason this country has one of the highest percapita debt. I do belive as someone mentioned that there is the money to fund the goverment but it is being stolen.
Thank you for the response and well thought out. I try to provoke self examination through challenging our personal beliefs which allow us to refine them or reinforce them. I am purposely provocative for the before mentioned reasons.
Regarding why most people come to the US – its the money and the freedom and the entitlements – depending on who you are. Let me say this right away. When 911 happened I was here in CR and my first instinct was to get on a plane to the US and defend my country. I am a patriot but also a realist. Living in reality means that nothing is static including our freedoms. They are being challenged by big and small government from the patriot act to seat belt laws to anti smoking campaigns. Citizen need to participate and question.
When push comes to shove the only way to respond is to withhold the pay check. Same in CR. When I build or participate in services I withhold as much of the compensation as possible until I see the results. In the states we pay upfront before we see the results and that is why we have the squanders – the spoiled bratty politicians that basically deserve no respect because they have no honor. Obama seems like the only one with respect and integrity. BTW I loved the you-tube participation because it eliminated the spineless media to a certain extent. They are worse than the politicians.
Hey Scott – now your web site is making people late for work! Watch out you could be labled an anarchist
Rick,
Niece piece, lots of souls. I love Ciba and my daughter is a citizen. I however disagree about the perceived importance you give to the native thing. Being born somewhere is like being born to someone. It defines you if you choose to define yourself by it. I choose to define myself by my Italian heritage for the longest time, then I went to Italy and realized I had very little in common with the Italians. Quite honestly I didn’t like them. My father has a mausoleum (?) where all our forefathers are entombed. I saw that his space was the last one and that every one of my forefathers had the same name. I asked him why I didn’t have one and he said proudly “you are an American, you are not an Italian.” So I have chosen to be buried where my heart lies and this can change, but right now my last will and testimony specifies Costa Rica in a nice little hillside cemetery with a beautiful view (Haaaaa). So I know what the Cuban deal is like as I have spent considerable time on the Island. It’s a proud bunch but don’t let your pride misguide you. You can choose to be a local. It called participation and what you participate in – you are. The nationalism thing is cool to a certain extent but if you abuse it it affects your humanity. We all belong to the same world.
Not at all Phillip, I advocate following justice and individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. If taxes are used wisely I will gladly pay more than my share. If they are stolen from the people then I do not want to pay them.
Phillip is it just easier for you to play along without having to make the tough moral decisions about what is right and what is wrong? If I choose not to decipline my child it is because I do not care about her. If I choose to discipline her it is because I love her. The same is true about the state and you are the father of the state as you finance it. So do you care enough about the state to discipline it? That is why I say I am a patriot and those that enable the squander because they do not care enough to discipline the squanders are less than patriotic and hevily indoctrinated.
Lotus you have taken time to bring up some valid points, so I will address them one by one
L) Well Diego very interesting article that made me think a bit about your ideas about government and how we live our lives. I am a little torn in my feelings on it, first my gut is to really embrace what you speak of, and I agree with you 100% about the Tico’s.
But then a little voice in my head tells me America is good, “superior” in some way…that our system works and gives much opportunity. We play by the rules because we understand this is an means to an end, a super power with the best of everything at our finger tips, science, medicine etc…It made me really search my core am I just a scared follower that likes to talk a big game but has to hide under the dress of America?
D) Scared follower? FEAR is an acronym for Forgetting Everything’s All Right
Freedom is the issue.
All things I have ever studied have been that which I wish to, and all things I have wished to study have one common taste, just as the oceans of the world have one taste, that of salt, my studies have one taste – that of freedom.
L) Funny you mention Thoreau, I am currently reading “Waldon” I practice mindfulness and embrace a Buddhist tradition based on no fear… being in the NOW, the moment.
D) Ask your self the classic Tolle question – Is there anything wrong right now in this very moment?
L) I have felt that I have escaped American middle class enslavement to some extent, I have always been self employed kept life simple but criticized by many for not being a good follower, doing the 9-5, getting the 30 year mortgage and hoping I make it to 67.5 to “retire”? But am I really as free as I think… as a Tico is,do
D) “Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose.”
Philosophically, if you accept the death of your ego you have nothing left to lose. Most people define themselves by their money. They cannot even fathom a death to that which defines them. That is why I say, take most wealthy peoples money away and they are completely lost. But take a campasino’s or wanders or spiritualist’s money away and he still has his “self,” that of which he has only ever had – his character which are the sum of his actions.
L) I want to really embrace this simplistic lie fully or do I like having a foot in both worlds?
D) A foot in both worlds is good because as you are part of both you can affect both. It signifies balance and a middle path. I live in 1,000 square foot home and drive mid nineties vehicles. Now the homes happen to be on some gorgeous real estate with incredible views and meditation gardens but it is the land I am brought to, not the house or cars, but the things made by God and not the things made by man (perhaps that is why I have chosen another round of parenthood at a later stage of life). Perhaps that is one of the things that draw me here. I feel very comfortable having a foot in both worlds. It’s like the Taoist adept ascending the mountain to self-develop and then descending the mountain to arrive in the city to teach his realizations.
When I talk to a Tico he says “I will be there tomorrow if God wants it.” There is a connection to the land that unfortunately due to the spread of western consumerism is disappearing and yes Lotus, I am being sentimental as I am one who chooses to feel on a deep level. I hope to see a rural Costa Rica for as long as possible. It is this connection with the land that seems to attract me to the people here as they seem to have a better feeling that life is fleeting, temporary and short and that in reality we own nothing. God owns it all; we humans are merely squatting for awhile
L) Diego you seem to make a pretty good living, so do I but can we do this if the whole world was like Costa Rica, don’t we need followers, consumptionists money chasers, enslaved dreamers to keep the money flowing?
D) If I had one thing I could change about the world it would be the system of money.
Printed paper currency has been the downfall of man. Lotus they say “it takes all kinds.” It really doesn’t, they just happen to be here. You choose who you are, and don’t worry about who others choose to be. There are three kinds of business in life – yours, mine and Gods. That’s their business. Global warming is Gods business and who I choose to be by how I choose to act, think and feel is my business.
L) Are we being a bit hypocritical to want CR to remain as it is but at the same time need/want a certain lifestyle that consumer driven capitalism provides?
D) Need? What do you really need? You mean “want.” Those wants are part of the indoctrination. You want because your neighbor has. I get sucked into it when I go back. The difference is I have played the superficial game including a stable of cars and bikes, and the superficial relationships that go along with people liking you for what you have versus who you are.
L) Perhaps things are fine just as they are and it’s who we are that is important, that we can function under any circumstances and can not expect the world to conform to our personal ideas of freedom or ideas of good/bad etc…
D) Things are as they are supposed to be. Expecting the world to conform would be dealing in God’s business.
Of course we are just fine. Things should not be any other way than how they are. If they should be different they would be. To say things should be different from “what is” right now is to argue with reality. But our choice about what we choose to think and how we choose to feel and act influence the “future now.”
L) But where ever we are we are really free because of our beliefs?
D) Correct.
L) Can we expect Costa Rica to remain static; frozen in a 1950’s episode of “Father knows best”? Or must we be willing to allow change to happen and leave it up to the individual to remain free, uncorrupted of heart, mind and spirit…separate from the rule of law untouched by it?
D) If we choose to adapt to Tico life rather than pour in here building mansion and destroying the land with wall to wall condos, then CR can remain a place of free and uncorrupted hearts. It’s the false belief that “material things produce sustained good feeling.” They are temporary highs like and similar to drugs after you ABUSE them they create a vacuum that needs to be filled, in this case with more purchases.
L) Are you being a bit to sentimental about the past or for that matter the present, as I read a bit of that sentiment in this forum from expats longing for the “old days”?
D) I choose to feel deeply.
L) Diego you certainly really stand out from the pack! I have read most of your post’s and you have quite a range of ideas from old fashioned machismo to a modern day philosopher…certainly filled with what would appear as many contradictions.
But that is what I like about you, just when you think you have this guy “figured” out he throws a monster curve ball at you. I can relate although in different ways, I’m a bit the same….convention doesn’t stand in the way of my thinking.
D) Lotus, it’s a real pain being an enigma (as my physiologist used to call me), but you also know you are alive. When you use your “crazy logic” to live, you choose to go to the body and its heart for answers; hence the phrase “crazy logic” as the heart does not rationalize like the mind so the intellect sees the heart knowing as “crazy.”
L) Lately I must say I have been really embracing the ideas of Eckhart Tolle you may want to read “The Power Of Now” or ” A New Earth” maybe not…I no longer believe that simply opposing government/life is enough, the key is to change ourselves our consciousness, awareness level. If enough of us can resonate with these ideas then the world’s consciousness can effectively be changed and then we can make lasting changes from a strong position of awareness of what is.
D) I agree with this whole heartedly and because you have taken the time to expound these important question and ideas I have obliged you equally. Choose what you think and it will define how you feel. Feeling is the heart’s souls and your feeling determine your actions. The sum of your actions is your character. How we think and what we say can be interesting, it is our actions that define us.
Good point. However, money allocated without intent, plan or education is likely to gain negligible if any results. The CR government has shown that it is neither effective nor efficient with its tax base. So i say choose not to complain about the crime, arm yourself with guards, weapons and dogs, in other words protect yourself, by your private means or do not live here. I have no problem with the former and I wish fewer gringos would come here so the crime thing is a natural byproduct of the gringo invasion.
Harlon,
You got it. First you cannot expect this to be like the USA and second the ol “throw money at it and it’ll get better” mentality is an ol US stand by used by the majority of US citizens that define themselves by their NET worth not their character. I wrote Scott an article about that maybe he will print it soon.
Upe –
You have got to be kidding… Blame the tourist about the drug trade??? Obviously you are a tourist or a Tico.
That is like blaming the tourist about sex with minors. I have been here almost two decades and I know who is impregnating and having sex with minors – The vast majority are Ticos. Period. It is also a double standard as Ticos are never prosecuted for having sex with minors and they do it all the time. It is a cultural norm.
Drugs and sex with minors needs to be addressed through Tico educational system to change cultural habits. Also it is traditional in Latin countries that women come of age at 15. This has always been the defining age of sexual activity. As western cultural habits have been adopted (for the better) the Ticos have not adapted to it.
Let me repeat myself, 95% or more of sex occurring with minors is between Ticos – undoubtedly. It cracks me up that the Tico Time feminazis and whatever that group is who I am sure is milking money from someone for posting those signs at the airport about underage sex, target the smallest part of the problems (tourist) and never mentions the Ticos. I am sure they do it because they could not get the funding without the sensational line “sex tourism.” If they would use that milk money to help educate the Ticos you would see a dramatic decrease in teenage pregnancy and less teenage prostitution.
