[Phnom Penh, 12/2/23] Though your average Oriental doesn’t crave cheese, I did spend decades in the West, including +4 years in Europe, so yesterday, I paid $7.02 for 300 grams of Danish gouda, speckled with cumin seeds. From that Lucky Supermarket, I’ve also paid the same for English sharp cheddar. A week ago, I had feta cheese, plus falafels and hummus, at Hummus House. Since that joint was so busy, I never got a chance to chatter with its Lebanese owner. One of my poetry books is
"Only cowardly losers flee the U.S." Absolutely true. Put me in that category.
Yesterday I gave my landlady 30 days notice. I explained to here that I was going to the Philippines and taking my Social Security money. That I no longer needed to stay in Bridgeport and pay extortionate level rent to live in a sh*t hole with thuggish neighbors who bully and threaten me when I try to cook a quiet meal in the kitchen And leave poison pen notes around the bathroom telling me how to properly use and to not use the toilet.
And then when I walk to buy groceries I am threatened by drivers who apparently think running over old people is a form of recreation. After all, what sort of fool still walks nowadays? If you don't have a car you must be a criminal or at least up to no good. Why not run the old slob over?
My landlady berated me after I told her I was going to the Philippines. She doesn't give a damn about me. She just wants my monthly rent payment. She informed that I would "die" shortly after I got there.
Maybe so, but it's better than living in the U.S of Hell. Full of hellish, thuggish people.
Somehow, Linh, the sense that there is relative safety in a poor neighborhood in the Far East, is the one thing that would be most conducive to normal life and human interaction --- at least, so I think, and so you basically say. In the United States, venturing into a poor area has never been safe, particularly if you are of the wrong skin color. It wasn't always thus in the U.S., at least so I am told. Affluence and bigness brings alienation and sorrow. I think that maybe the Western world took a wrong turn maybe about 200 years ago. We sure are richer but we sure aren't happy.
Hi Linh, Perhaps its "most troubling" matured as a result of the chains and the slavery, the perpetual segregation, the enduring second/third class status, and the fascist crypto-racism of the present age, etc. And when one looks at the historical birth place of the concept of 'race'--the West--mustn't even this long held belief be questioned? For who has been best served by this 'science' and the 'sciences' of phrenology, eugenics, vaccination, etc., all Western born? A great many now question vaccines and germ theory, as, literally, millions die and are greatly harmed across the world. Are they, the vaccines, 'safe and effective' or death and destruction? Just saying.
"Dissolving Illusions" is an excellent resource to understand that the 'witch doctors' have always been in the West and have always caused unimaginable destruction and death, more so than all the shamans or the so called 'witch doctors' of the world. Another derisive name--Witch Doctor--coined in the West to ascribe 'less than' to a people not them (see Race).
Thank you much for your essays. I look forward to them!
Yeah, there’s definitely more air in my bags of potatoes chips.
I’m reporting from
Green Bay Packers
Cheese-head-landia, with three different varieties of differently aged, extra sharp white and yellow cheddar.
And, some fantastic fresh mozzarella that’s been assigned to a super sized lasagna dish.
I was just thinking about what it must be like to get shipped out from Southeast Asia, to go live with your proposed executioners at the AMERICAN DREAM.
Would you like some dystopia with that lasagna???
It ain’t as bad as you describe, where I’m located.
But, it still ain’t worth a damn/$hit.
I’m trying to be one of those fleeing losers.
But, my Uncle Sam, is barring the door.
Might have to sneak out the upstairs window, after he falls asleep.
Remember, too much cheese, and it can be hard to poop.
Some 20 years ago, British filmmaker Mike Leigh made a movie called, "All or Nothing", about an English working class guy slowly being crushed under the weight of his inability to make even his modest dream (to own an ice cream truck) come true. His practical and sturdy wife works hard at her menial supermarket job while her husband daydreams about all the money his ice cream truck will bring in, and plays lottery tickets in hopes of one day buying one. His wife scolds him, "it ain't about winning! It's about getting by!" Eventually, the guy tries to kill himself. All or nothing is the encroaching reality of everyone's life now.
There's a John Steinbeck, depression-era quote about how in America the poor consider themselves "temporarily embarrassed millionaires". Greater and greater the chasm grows between the tiny handful of have-it-alls and the teeming masses of have-nothings. One particular Japanese have-it-all illustrates something comedian Chris Rock once said: "If poor people only knew how rich *rich* people are, there would be rioting in the streets."
Why Ohtani Is Worth $700,000,000 Without Even Playing:
I am not usually an emotional person. But I feel head over heels in love with your "In This Sacred Ruin" Substack. You've been able to articulate thoughts I've had inchoate for years now that I haven't been able to express. And then some.
With much admiration,
Tom
Ps. Even left-leaning sites like Counterpunch won't dare to say some of the truths you reveal.
Thank you for the kind words about my substack, filled though it is with throwaway essays of half-formed thoughts I've never spent more than 15 minutes writing. Hate to disappoint, but rather than the brainy, sexy, babe of your dreams, I just an old guy making a last wobble through the burnout belt (a fave, stolen William Gibson line, that one).
Counterpunch, yeah what happened to that place? Either they changed or I did. Probably a bit of both. Since I have a readership you could fit into an minivan, I just try to write honestly. Seeing as we live in the heyday of all forms of censorship—particularly self-censorship—maybe that's why some of it comes across as unusually candid. I dunno, even someone like Michel Houellebecq has admitted to pulling punches on occasion, and I'm not going to claim I don't either.
Honest writing is the best, though, isn't it? There aren't many Bukowskis or Samuel Becketts or Jimmy Breslins around any more. Linh Dinh is one the last of a dying breed. And though I'm sure we'd all appreciate dying already at this point, I'm glad he's proving tough to kill. Cheers.
Thanks for the video clip on the Japanese baseball guy. I'd never heard of him. (Which probably reveals me as a "bad" American uninterested in what we Americans should be interested in.)
It's not the obscene amount of money this guy makes for playing a children's game that perturbs me; it's his adoring fans, American and Japanese, who throw so much money away to watch him perform and keep themselves diverted while their "elites" steer the American ship of state onto the rocks of destruction. Bread and circuses, indeed.
From 2023 Q2 to 2023 Q3, severely delinquent credit card debt jumped by 1.4%. The largest 1 quarter increase during the great financial crisis was 1.2% and that was at a time when credit card debt was shrinking.
America is a 50 year old jalopy being held together by duct tape and chewing gum. But she still runs baby! Nothing can stop her!
i'm surrounded by PMC virtue signalers - BLM signs, Ukraine flags, Russia evil, support the 'i'm a tranny' fad, etc. - who call anyone who doesn't agree with their Liberal Authoritarianism as deplorables, stupid - evil! - i haven't voted for years - but this year i'll vote for TRUMP - in the hope he'll bring down the shit-show of 'Murkah FASTER
With most items selling for 25-75% more than they used to, the holiday percentage increases are the result of people paying more money for less items, we're running on fumes until the November elections.
Yes, that's me in the Vietnamese owned clothing store with a tiny cafe attached to it. My black coffee cost just 50 cents. For writing, I move to a nearby place with Wifi. A cappuccino there goes for $1.25.
A lot of equally hellish and thuggish people in the Philippines who will prey on a foreigner like you.
I personally knew of an retired Vet who married a Filipina in Cebu living in a house with the boyfriend pretending to be a cousin of some sorts.The guy knew but was helpless since he was old.It was so sordid and cruel.
Take care and I hope you will be one of the few who lived safe.
Equal number of hellish and thuggish people in the Philippines who will mercilessly prey on a foreigner like you.
The horror stories of the men who naively move to the Philippines are not mere “stories”…I personally knew a retired vet who married a Filipina and lived in Cebu along with the wife’s boyfriend who was introduced as a cousin.The old man knew but he was stuck and had nowhere to go.It was so sordid and I felt so bad for the vet.
Hope you have a solid plan.Keep your eyes open to the harsh reality of desperation.
Has the healthier lifestyle and associated better health had any impact on your travel plans? More travel? Less travel? Different type of places. Or do you just feel better while doing your thing?
I feel much better than six months ago, but I'm still not 100%, and I'm exhausted. This healthier lifestyle has its drawbacks. Before I would unwind by eating and drinking, but now I can't quite do that.
At my blog, I just posted this update, "Finally back inside Vietnam! In Saigon, I paid just $8.25 to ride in a car to Vung Tau. This morning, I found a very nice room in a great location for $247 a month, but I won't move in until January 1st. In that apartment I will stay at least six months.
"Since I entered Vietnam by land, I'm only allowed a one month stay, however, so I will get out soon, then fly back in so I can stay three months. For this next trip, I'm thinking about Taipei, Manila or Singapore, or I can make it simple and comfortable by returning to Cambodia."
P.S. Vietnamese immigration forced me out late last year. Before that, I lived in Vung Tau for seven months. My +2 years of wandering from 2020 to early 2022 was because of the Covid hysteria. Unable to return to Vietnam, I drifted from South Korea to South Africa.
Please indulged us with a trip to Manila.The ghettos are especially concentrated in Pasay,Ermita,Tondo(Smokey mountains-mountains of garbage).Good,cheap food in Binondo(the oldest Chinatown in the world)the elites usually live in Makati or the Fort.
"Only cowardly losers flee the U.S." Absolutely true. Put me in that category.
Yesterday I gave my landlady 30 days notice. I explained to here that I was going to the Philippines and taking my Social Security money. That I no longer needed to stay in Bridgeport and pay extortionate level rent to live in a sh*t hole with thuggish neighbors who bully and threaten me when I try to cook a quiet meal in the kitchen And leave poison pen notes around the bathroom telling me how to properly use and to not use the toilet.
And then when I walk to buy groceries I am threatened by drivers who apparently think running over old people is a form of recreation. After all, what sort of fool still walks nowadays? If you don't have a car you must be a criminal or at least up to no good. Why not run the old slob over?
My landlady berated me after I told her I was going to the Philippines. She doesn't give a damn about me. She just wants my monthly rent payment. She informed that I would "die" shortly after I got there.
Maybe so, but it's better than living in the U.S of Hell. Full of hellish, thuggish people.
Where do you plan to live in the Philippines?
Good luck in the Philippines, Thomas! Let us know when you've landed safely.
Equal number of hellish and thuggish people in the Philippines who will prey on you.
Hope you have a solid plan…and not relying on a so-called young,submissive woman to protect you…like a lamb to the slaughter.
after reading this, I'm glad I live in Portugal, food prices and rent is rising fast
Somehow, Linh, the sense that there is relative safety in a poor neighborhood in the Far East, is the one thing that would be most conducive to normal life and human interaction --- at least, so I think, and so you basically say. In the United States, venturing into a poor area has never been safe, particularly if you are of the wrong skin color. It wasn't always thus in the U.S., at least so I am told. Affluence and bigness brings alienation and sorrow. I think that maybe the Western world took a wrong turn maybe about 200 years ago. We sure are richer but we sure aren't happy.
It baffled me when I moved to the US that you cannot live peacefully in a poor neighborhood.
The downtrodden usually look out for each other and share what little they have.
Walla Walla has three supermarkets with a plethora of fine cheeses from Europe.
Hi Linh, Perhaps its "most troubling" matured as a result of the chains and the slavery, the perpetual segregation, the enduring second/third class status, and the fascist crypto-racism of the present age, etc. And when one looks at the historical birth place of the concept of 'race'--the West--mustn't even this long held belief be questioned? For who has been best served by this 'science' and the 'sciences' of phrenology, eugenics, vaccination, etc., all Western born? A great many now question vaccines and germ theory, as, literally, millions die and are greatly harmed across the world. Are they, the vaccines, 'safe and effective' or death and destruction? Just saying.
"Dissolving Illusions" is an excellent resource to understand that the 'witch doctors' have always been in the West and have always caused unimaginable destruction and death, more so than all the shamans or the so called 'witch doctors' of the world. Another derisive name--Witch Doctor--coined in the West to ascribe 'less than' to a people not them (see Race).
Thank you much for your essays. I look forward to them!
Yeah, there’s definitely more air in my bags of potatoes chips.
I’m reporting from
Green Bay Packers
Cheese-head-landia, with three different varieties of differently aged, extra sharp white and yellow cheddar.
And, some fantastic fresh mozzarella that’s been assigned to a super sized lasagna dish.
I was just thinking about what it must be like to get shipped out from Southeast Asia, to go live with your proposed executioners at the AMERICAN DREAM.
Would you like some dystopia with that lasagna???
It ain’t as bad as you describe, where I’m located.
But, it still ain’t worth a damn/$hit.
I’m trying to be one of those fleeing losers.
But, my Uncle Sam, is barring the door.
Might have to sneak out the upstairs window, after he falls asleep.
Remember, too much cheese, and it can be hard to poop.
Lotsa poop here in Wisconsin, though.
Happy trails.
Some 20 years ago, British filmmaker Mike Leigh made a movie called, "All or Nothing", about an English working class guy slowly being crushed under the weight of his inability to make even his modest dream (to own an ice cream truck) come true. His practical and sturdy wife works hard at her menial supermarket job while her husband daydreams about all the money his ice cream truck will bring in, and plays lottery tickets in hopes of one day buying one. His wife scolds him, "it ain't about winning! It's about getting by!" Eventually, the guy tries to kill himself. All or nothing is the encroaching reality of everyone's life now.
There's a John Steinbeck, depression-era quote about how in America the poor consider themselves "temporarily embarrassed millionaires". Greater and greater the chasm grows between the tiny handful of have-it-alls and the teeming masses of have-nothings. One particular Japanese have-it-all illustrates something comedian Chris Rock once said: "If poor people only knew how rich *rich* people are, there would be rioting in the streets."
Why Ohtani Is Worth $700,000,000 Without Even Playing:
https://youtu.be/i6lXHNLePjo
Dear Ms. Optera,
I am not usually an emotional person. But I feel head over heels in love with your "In This Sacred Ruin" Substack. You've been able to articulate thoughts I've had inchoate for years now that I haven't been able to express. And then some.
With much admiration,
Tom
Ps. Even left-leaning sites like Counterpunch won't dare to say some of the truths you reveal.
Thank you for the kind words about my substack, filled though it is with throwaway essays of half-formed thoughts I've never spent more than 15 minutes writing. Hate to disappoint, but rather than the brainy, sexy, babe of your dreams, I just an old guy making a last wobble through the burnout belt (a fave, stolen William Gibson line, that one).
Counterpunch, yeah what happened to that place? Either they changed or I did. Probably a bit of both. Since I have a readership you could fit into an minivan, I just try to write honestly. Seeing as we live in the heyday of all forms of censorship—particularly self-censorship—maybe that's why some of it comes across as unusually candid. I dunno, even someone like Michel Houellebecq has admitted to pulling punches on occasion, and I'm not going to claim I don't either.
Honest writing is the best, though, isn't it? There aren't many Bukowskis or Samuel Becketts or Jimmy Breslins around any more. Linh Dinh is one the last of a dying breed. And though I'm sure we'd all appreciate dying already at this point, I'm glad he's proving tough to kill. Cheers.
Thanks for the video clip on the Japanese baseball guy. I'd never heard of him. (Which probably reveals me as a "bad" American uninterested in what we Americans should be interested in.)
It's not the obscene amount of money this guy makes for playing a children's game that perturbs me; it's his adoring fans, American and Japanese, who throw so much money away to watch him perform and keep themselves diverted while their "elites" steer the American ship of state onto the rocks of destruction. Bread and circuses, indeed.
From 2023 Q2 to 2023 Q3, severely delinquent credit card debt jumped by 1.4%. The largest 1 quarter increase during the great financial crisis was 1.2% and that was at a time when credit card debt was shrinking.
America is a 50 year old jalopy being held together by duct tape and chewing gum. But she still runs baby! Nothing can stop her!
i'm surrounded by PMC virtue signalers - BLM signs, Ukraine flags, Russia evil, support the 'i'm a tranny' fad, etc. - who call anyone who doesn't agree with their Liberal Authoritarianism as deplorables, stupid - evil! - i haven't voted for years - but this year i'll vote for TRUMP - in the hope he'll bring down the shit-show of 'Murkah FASTER
With most items selling for 25-75% more than they used to, the holiday percentage increases are the result of people paying more money for less items, we're running on fumes until the November elections.
I know little about these Asian places, except the Philippines I thought appeared Americanized
Is that you in the first picture, Linh?
Hi Peggy,
Yes, that's me in the Vietnamese owned clothing store with a tiny cafe attached to it. My black coffee cost just 50 cents. For writing, I move to a nearby place with Wifi. A cappuccino there goes for $1.25.
Linh
You look pretty good in that pic.
Sometimes a diet change can do wonders...(me too)
A lot of equally hellish and thuggish people in the Philippines who will prey on a foreigner like you.
I personally knew of an retired Vet who married a Filipina in Cebu living in a house with the boyfriend pretending to be a cousin of some sorts.The guy knew but was helpless since he was old.It was so sordid and cruel.
Take care and I hope you will be one of the few who lived safe.
Equal number of hellish and thuggish people in the Philippines who will mercilessly prey on a foreigner like you.
The horror stories of the men who naively move to the Philippines are not mere “stories”…I personally knew a retired vet who married a Filipina and lived in Cebu along with the wife’s boyfriend who was introduced as a cousin.The old man knew but he was stuck and had nowhere to go.It was so sordid and I felt so bad for the vet.
Hope you have a solid plan.Keep your eyes open to the harsh reality of desperation.
Has the healthier lifestyle and associated better health had any impact on your travel plans? More travel? Less travel? Different type of places. Or do you just feel better while doing your thing?
Hi Al,
I feel much better than six months ago, but I'm still not 100%, and I'm exhausted. This healthier lifestyle has its drawbacks. Before I would unwind by eating and drinking, but now I can't quite do that.
At my blog, I just posted this update, "Finally back inside Vietnam! In Saigon, I paid just $8.25 to ride in a car to Vung Tau. This morning, I found a very nice room in a great location for $247 a month, but I won't move in until January 1st. In that apartment I will stay at least six months.
"Since I entered Vietnam by land, I'm only allowed a one month stay, however, so I will get out soon, then fly back in so I can stay three months. For this next trip, I'm thinking about Taipei, Manila or Singapore, or I can make it simple and comfortable by returning to Cambodia."
Linh
P.S. Vietnamese immigration forced me out late last year. Before that, I lived in Vung Tau for seven months. My +2 years of wandering from 2020 to early 2022 was because of the Covid hysteria. Unable to return to Vietnam, I drifted from South Korea to South Africa.
Please indulged us with a trip to Manila.The ghettos are especially concentrated in Pasay,Ermita,Tondo(Smokey mountains-mountains of garbage).Good,cheap food in Binondo(the oldest Chinatown in the world)the elites usually live in Makati or the Fort.
“On 11/1/23, Lazyeyewitness commented after one of my videos” wut? You have videos? Pray tell, where may one find them?
Hi Jeff,
They're laughably bad, the worst!
https://www.youtube.com/@linhdinh99/videos
Linh
Hi Linh,
Thank you for the link! These are great. Love your photos by themselves, but the videos add depth, or maybe immersion, to the experiences you share.
Plus, now I can hear your voice when I read your posts, rather than my own!
Thank you for all you do.
Kindest regards,
Jeff