From an email I just got from an American who's been in Costa Rica for 17 years:
"In terms of self-sufficiency of a country, Costa Rica is quite self-sufficient for electricity from Hydro power. Ecuador is quite self-sufficient for oil .
"I met a guy in Ecuador who had lived in Paradise, California, the town that was destroyed by forest fire. He sold his house there less than a year before the fire and moved to Ecuador. Bought a piece of land sight unseen over the internet , sent his belongings down in a container, which he then converted to live in provisionally on his new land. He told me he picked Ecuador because he figured that in the event of global collapse, Ecuador had enough oil to keep things going, but not enough oil to make them a target for invasion (by guess who?)"
Suffering from heat rash as I type, I can attest that tropical paradise’s are not all perfect and wonderful - you never know how you’re going to react until ‘After’ the wasp has stung.
Dear Teacher Lin Dinh, great admirer of your travel writings. In fact, I think you are a force of nature. Very grim world, but your characters are uplifting and hopeful. You should write novels. You have the literate genius of Maugham Somerset - easy. Stay in good health and keep up the spirits! T
Canceled, I lost two publishers, so even if I had a novel, it wouldn't be published. A few years ago, I published my only novel, Love Like Hate. With so many urgent issues to address, I'm most useful writing articles, I think.
Many thanks, though, for your very kind comment, and to everybody else, too. I've never been so exhausted, but I'll keep going.
I paraphrase Evelyn Waugh, "Like every man, he remembers every insult." It's hilarious, but I must remind myself I have many supporters, so thanks again!
Mate who publishes Gilad Atzmon? He's a veteran of being cancelled and his books get published. I've got his The Wandering Who?, here. It's got Zero Books as the publisher.
You do have many supporters! Even if not paying subscribers. I appreciated that comment to you as I second his thoughts especially the force of nature. You are! I have to screen grab or copy and paste many of your lines so I can revisit them later. Brilliant! Ciao da Padova (il Maledetto Nord Est, fka Il Bel Paese, now Draghistan)
Ah! Here for a while visiting folks, even tho (shame) I'm an adoptive NYorker.. Too long..) BUT you make me want to go back to the Cappella degli Scrovegni now (Giotto's chapel). Was there a decade ago last, not long after they reopened it after the meticulous and years long sprucing up.
Was always aware of false flags, stay-behind organizations (GLADIO) limited hangouts etc growing up here. Padova is where 'colorful' characters like Toni Negri, and Franco Freda came from. Strategia della Tensione, Anni di Piombo, you know. The Brigate Rosse first murders happened here too. U.S. Gen. Dozier was kidnapped and kept in an apt in Padova too.
Guess I have the classic patriotism of the Italian who left, ironically similar to one Mussolinian boomers like my folks display.. (Suspect it's different for people 'di sinistra' maybe..)
As patriotic as they are they don't realize that the insidious brainwashing via MSM has, like Katt Williams (think) said, 'TV programs program YOU program the watcher' Especially with everything happening in N.Y. and however bad Italy is, as you know from having lived here (if remember correctly) , there is a certain something Italians got (couldn't really speak for G... Hmmm Italian-Americans. 😂) But things are on a downward spiral no doubt about it. My childhood home's neighbor here is a little bar (Italian meaning cafe') 'Caffe' Rouge'. Crazy thing about it was after three or four different Italian owners who couldn't keep it going here comes a young Chinese couple who takes over and in no time it becomes a neighborhood fave, with all generations. The Chinese couple spoke Italian not great BUT remembered each patron's name and it had me wonder wtf did those Italians forgot how to use espresso machines. Maybe they were just aholes. Twist is that recently after a dozen yrs the Chinese couple went back to China! Italy's taxes being insane was the reasoning I heard.
Sorry for the meandering now I remember that post about your distancing yourself from Ron 'Covid is a Bio-Weapon but-dont ask me-to look -into -the mountain- of- evidence -pointing- to- this -that- and the -other- Unz..
I LOL reading The Jerry Springer of Alt-Media. Also 100% agree with you that now anyone not talking about the biggest scams of the century, biggest psyops and crimes against humanity in history is whatever you wrote they are forget but just wanted to say ! Bless
You're right, I hadn't heard that the Freedom Convoy had reached DC. News of that is, of course, not allowed on mainstream media. Lat time I checked the news, this is what I found.
MSNBC...Rachel Maddow's giant head appeared on screen. My fingers couldn't change the channel fast enough.
CNN....There was Don Lemon suckin' on James Clappers' dick.....again.
FOX....They're interviewing Condi Rice....lol, they don't F around over there.
A couple of 30 lb weights are staring me in the face. I haven't lifted them in months.
Lihn, not all is bad, Russia banned Facebook and Twitter. CNN, Netflix have stopped transmitting in the country, and I think even Pornhub is affected by the sanctions. Talk about an own-goal by the West. If it goes on like that, Russia might even end as a great place to live, free from all that trash. :D
Guys who continue doubling down on that type of glib "gallows humor" even as what was once shock-jock hyperbole becomes commonplace suffering show themselves to be genuine sociopaths.
Religion is a good cure for fear of death. Astral projection isn't too shabby either for the same purpose. I was outside my body a few times, recalled the entire process one time, and though I was only very young, I did understand what it meant. Life's been kind of like an adventure game since, though I suffer as much emotional turmoil as anyone, and the death of loved ones tears me up. Less because of the usual reason though, than because the one thing I do not know, is if there's anything else for real, or if apart from myself and what I call God, the "Other" the rest is just illusion. The thought of being alone forever is what scares me witless. The realisation I will probably live forever has been with me since I was quite young. It isn't myself I worry about, but all those I care about. Terrified at the thought they may all be an illusion.
"Some say sociopathy is a prerequisite to success."
The way I would put it is that since Earth is Hell, the Evil among us are better adapted to their environment. Look at the stunning longevity of profanely putrid creatures like Kissinger, Soros, David Rockefeller... Like fish in water, these humanoid monsters do indeed thrive while submerged in blood.
It has seemed so to me. I have a two years younger brother. I'm 59. he is unlike me very successful. He is furthermore a sociopath. We sailed together, on a catamaran as kids and he skippered our boat. We were state and national champions too, in the open events so included against adults and we were teenagers. one time I was out on the trapeze in heavy weather, our true forte, with the sheets in hand and we were barreling along very fast towards the finish line in the semi finals. Ahead by half a leg, we still did have competition on our tail and it was a high reach, so if we'd fallen away we'd have faced another tack to reach the line, which would have meant second place for us.. Unfortunately we ended up with a clumsy little wooden Pelican dinghy with father and son in our direct path and while we had clear right of way via Starboard rule, there was no way this pathetic little boat could maneuver in time to avoid our path. They had a crap boat, no skills and were obviously panicking at sight of us coming at them like a half tonne pair of arrows. With it's overweight dad and son and God knows what they were doing on the water in the middle of a race like ours, but they were.
My 13 year old little brother called "Starboard" on them and as I watched him partly fascinated and partly horrified, he steered our racing catamaran right through that boat, cutting it in half literally and leaving the pair floundering in our wake. He said only "I called starboard" which was true. We'd done nothing wrong by the rules, but he'd done a truly cold hearted thing to those two humans.
I knew then that even though I was the tough one, the bold Aries and I knew then as now I am at least as intelligent as my little brother, but I knew he was going to be successful and I was not. It's taken decades to fully understand it but I do. It is as you say an evil world and it would be odd frankly if the good, the kind and gentle thrived. I try at least to follow my conscience and I would have opted to fall away and try to make up the water we'd lose by doing so, and second wasn't going to put us out of the finals we were a very fast crew and boat and heavy weather was our thing. I would have been swearing at them. I'd have been furious but I couldn't have been so cold-hearted.
Now I know that such men as my brother are exactly the sort who rise to the top in corporations and enterprises, the ones who command nuclear submarines. Ships. He is a qualified sea captain by the way and navigator. He is also as happens in Ukraine and a Ukrainian tax citizen last I heard.
These are roles where a commander may be required to do something which would not be morally black and white, which could affect many other lives and normal people would typically struggle to make a decision faced with impossible choices. Not sociopaths. They have a set goal. A task. They don't allow human emotions or morals to cloud their vision. He is wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. He lives well and travels among important people. I am nothing by comparison. I would not swap his wealth for my own kind though.. I know something my little brother does not. Which is that nobody ever died saying ":I wish I had more money"
In my observation it certainly helps. Not being a sociopath, I often make decisions which go against my own interests, due to moral reasons typically. Sociopaths are never constrained by morals for their own sake. They can play at morals, if it pays. Witness Bill Gates.
War with Russia is upon us, just as the two-year Covid-scam was falling apart. Great timing, guys! But only crazy conspiracy theorists see a connection. Is this what those Green New Deal wackos and their senile puppet "president" meant with their "Build Back Better" mantra?
Yes and just like that, COVID was gone. COVID cured all other forms of death and Putin cured COVID. We know why Putin did this of course. COVID was woke and Putin hates poofters and protected perverts. Trust the science.
Linh--when you said "Hazy Joe’s installment after another fake election is the American deep state’s ultimate fuck you to all Americans...", this has been exactly my thought, even pretty much being my very own words. It is truly as though they wanted you to know it.
And I'll also go along with your thought: "Since it’s hard to believe the West didn’t see this coming, there are suggestions it’s deliberately inviting this catastrophe..." It's my personal thought that the cabal running the "Joe Biden" administration has set out deliberately to destroy any remaining faith anyone has in their institutions. I like how Matt Taibbi put it, "almost like they went to anti-governing school." Literally every single decision of significance has been made (deliberately?) wrong.
I, too, thought about where one could take refuge from all this, and came to pretty much the same conclusion as your friend, i.e., probably either somewhere in South America or some carefully selected part of Africa.
"In coming months, Westerners will eat less, sit in the dark during rolling blackouts and, if they make it to next winter, freeze, unless they make a U-turn and kiss Putin’s ass, country by country."
Nah. Things will continue to worsen for us westerners, energy, food prices will climb up but comparatively, by and large we will do OK. It is poor countries that are large importers of wheat and grain that will get truly whacked. Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Nigeria, Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil etc. Can you say bread riots and more arab spring mayhem?
Russia will languish. It cannot retool, rewire everything in the country that was made to work with western equipment, and this without access to capital.
Right move to not use a fake jab card, Linh. Governments are cracking down on them. Technology being what it is, I assume it’ll become easy to distinguish counterfeits from the real ones. More importantly? The principled stand. I’ve said and will continue to say that I wouldn’t use the internal passport even if I DID get the jab, which obviously I won’t ever do. Using a fake grants this system legitimacy. Albeit, it’s obviously different for you...I’ve only ever been to previously beautiful (and underrated) Canada! You’re rarely in one place for too long! Traveling abroad was never going to happen with my parents finances, and it won’t happen with mine.
When you suggest get out of Europe, would you include Albania ? I was considering trying to move there or to Montenegro but would you say Namiba is a safer bet than these?
Albania is siding with the US, and though Serbia, its most menacing foe, has also gone along with the US regarding Ukraine, most Serbians are fervently pro Russia. In Belgrade, there's a huge Orthodox church built with Russian money. Russia will punish Albania economically, and should this war spread, Serbia will definitely side with Russia, because that's the will of its people. In the Balkans, you have the Slavic world colliding with the US led "West," and all these countries have old scores to settle, so I wouldn't recommend moving to any of them as tension rises.
Namibia is a weird case. Since it must import much of its food, mostly from South Africa, you'd think it's very vulnerable to any disruption, but it only has 2.5 million people, with its whites and foreigners doing pretty well, for they claim all the best neighborhoods and shop in the nicest stores. If you're a black Namibian living in a shack without plumbling, and making just barely enough to eat, your situation is very precarious, obviously, but you won't be like that if you come down here with some saving. To put it most bluntly, if even the shack dwellers aren't quite starving, you won't.
Most importantly, the people here are generally calm and very pleasant. As I've pointed out several times, they don't even curse. Unlike in South Africa, instances of isolated white farmers being murdered are extremely rare, and I was told this by a white Namibian in Swakopmund. Her family has lived in South Africa, Namibia and Angola. She herself has lived in the US and Canada, but Namibia is home. She's very happy and secure here.
When I came to Cape Town seven months ago, the plan was to stay for at least a month. I ended up staying three, and though I was almost mugged near City Hall, I grew to love that city, and wouldn't mind staying longer. I left because my visa was expiring.
I arrived in Windhoek with a similarly vague plan, but I've been here for over four months already. Windhoek is much more provincial and boring than Cape Town, but it is safer and conducive to rest, and I'm exhausted after so much traveling. To get a visa extension, I paid $40 and it was relatively smooth. My landlord told me he had a Swiss tenant who stayed here for a year, so he got three visa extensions without any problem.
I don't know about getting residency, but in Swakopmond, where I just spent 12 days, there were all these retired Germans, so I imagine the process is rather easy.
For nearly 3 months, I tried to persuade a German friend to come down, and though he gave strong indications he would do so, he backed out of it just days before he was supposed to arrive. We can only guess what will happen next, but my German friend thinks it's safer to stay in Germany during this crazy moment. It's his call.
Anything can happen next, including flights being canceled. I'm staying in Namibia.
Did you try to persuade your friend to leave Germany permanently? What was your motivation for being so persistent with these persuasions?
I think the big counter argument people give is that in a SHTF scenario, if you are alone and around different race of people, more likely to be targeted etc...Not sure if that was your friend's idea.
To get the visa extension, what sort of docs did you have to show? Did you need proof of work or income?
I still think Albania would be a better bet than UK for me if things go down.
Do you think Romania might be a good place to escape? Thinking of taking a trip there at least.
But I guess none of us really know and a lot of this is just guess work. Almost none of us would have predicted masks to morph into flags almost overnight.
As they said, "Putin should get the Nobel Prize for Medicine for ending the pandemic". But it's temporary. The media cannot push more than one propaganda item at the time, or people get confused. Next winter, as Russia is forgotten, "corona" will come back. I don't know what is more sickening, the perpetual warmongers, or the perpetual vaccinators. Both want us to leave in a permanent state of emergency.
Interesting observation. When I see you article links on hotmail and click in it, and read it, I am still on the hotmail url, NOT on substack. I see this often now, in Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin, where those platforms deny traffic to other websites (or keep visitors on theirs, longer). It is these little evil things that drive people nuts. A small switch, and millions of smaller websites loose organic traffic. When I tried to press Like, then I saw it was fake. I was still on hotmail. So I clicked on the banner. Only then was my browser redirecting to your real substack page. So now, only now, do I count as page visiter. Now I could press like and comment. But I bet many people read your articles embedded in BigTech without realizing they are reading a hijacked url.
Hi everybody,
From an email I just got from an American who's been in Costa Rica for 17 years:
"In terms of self-sufficiency of a country, Costa Rica is quite self-sufficient for electricity from Hydro power. Ecuador is quite self-sufficient for oil .
"I met a guy in Ecuador who had lived in Paradise, California, the town that was destroyed by forest fire. He sold his house there less than a year before the fire and moved to Ecuador. Bought a piece of land sight unseen over the internet , sent his belongings down in a container, which he then converted to live in provisionally on his new land. He told me he picked Ecuador because he figured that in the event of global collapse, Ecuador had enough oil to keep things going, but not enough oil to make them a target for invasion (by guess who?)"
Linh
Suffering from heat rash as I type, I can attest that tropical paradise’s are not all perfect and wonderful - you never know how you’re going to react until ‘After’ the wasp has stung.
Dear Teacher Lin Dinh, great admirer of your travel writings. In fact, I think you are a force of nature. Very grim world, but your characters are uplifting and hopeful. You should write novels. You have the literate genius of Maugham Somerset - easy. Stay in good health and keep up the spirits! T
Hi Thorsten,
Canceled, I lost two publishers, so even if I had a novel, it wouldn't be published. A few years ago, I published my only novel, Love Like Hate. With so many urgent issues to address, I'm most useful writing articles, I think.
Many thanks, though, for your very kind comment, and to everybody else, too. I've never been so exhausted, but I'll keep going.
I paraphrase Evelyn Waugh, "Like every man, he remembers every insult." It's hilarious, but I must remind myself I have many supporters, so thanks again!
Linh
Mate who publishes Gilad Atzmon? He's a veteran of being cancelled and his books get published. I've got his The Wandering Who?, here. It's got Zero Books as the publisher.
Yes, I should look into that. I have enough to deal with just figuring out what's going on right now, and where I'll be in 3, 6 or 12 months.
Yes, tell me about it.
Hi NomadNationalist, I'm back in Vung Tau, where I intend to stay for a while. I'm too exhausted to keep moving.--Linh
You do have many supporters! Even if not paying subscribers. I appreciated that comment to you as I second his thoughts especially the force of nature. You are! I have to screen grab or copy and paste many of your lines so I can revisit them later. Brilliant! Ciao da Padova (il Maledetto Nord Est, fka Il Bel Paese, now Draghistan)
Hi Damn Scams, seeing the Giotto frescoes in Padova is one of the highlights of my life. I felt so blessed. Linh
Ah! Here for a while visiting folks, even tho (shame) I'm an adoptive NYorker.. Too long..) BUT you make me want to go back to the Cappella degli Scrovegni now (Giotto's chapel). Was there a decade ago last, not long after they reopened it after the meticulous and years long sprucing up.
Was always aware of false flags, stay-behind organizations (GLADIO) limited hangouts etc growing up here. Padova is where 'colorful' characters like Toni Negri, and Franco Freda came from. Strategia della Tensione, Anni di Piombo, you know. The Brigate Rosse first murders happened here too. U.S. Gen. Dozier was kidnapped and kept in an apt in Padova too.
Guess I have the classic patriotism of the Italian who left, ironically similar to one Mussolinian boomers like my folks display.. (Suspect it's different for people 'di sinistra' maybe..)
As patriotic as they are they don't realize that the insidious brainwashing via MSM has, like Katt Williams (think) said, 'TV programs program YOU program the watcher' Especially with everything happening in N.Y. and however bad Italy is, as you know from having lived here (if remember correctly) , there is a certain something Italians got (couldn't really speak for G... Hmmm Italian-Americans. 😂) But things are on a downward spiral no doubt about it. My childhood home's neighbor here is a little bar (Italian meaning cafe') 'Caffe' Rouge'. Crazy thing about it was after three or four different Italian owners who couldn't keep it going here comes a young Chinese couple who takes over and in no time it becomes a neighborhood fave, with all generations. The Chinese couple spoke Italian not great BUT remembered each patron's name and it had me wonder wtf did those Italians forgot how to use espresso machines. Maybe they were just aholes. Twist is that recently after a dozen yrs the Chinese couple went back to China! Italy's taxes being insane was the reasoning I heard.
Sorry for the meandering now I remember that post about your distancing yourself from Ron 'Covid is a Bio-Weapon but-dont ask me-to look -into -the mountain- of- evidence -pointing- to- this -that- and the -other- Unz..
I LOL reading The Jerry Springer of Alt-Media. Also 100% agree with you that now anyone not talking about the biggest scams of the century, biggest psyops and crimes against humanity in history is whatever you wrote they are forget but just wanted to say ! Bless
Linh
You're right, I hadn't heard that the Freedom Convoy had reached DC. News of that is, of course, not allowed on mainstream media. Lat time I checked the news, this is what I found.
MSNBC...Rachel Maddow's giant head appeared on screen. My fingers couldn't change the channel fast enough.
CNN....There was Don Lemon suckin' on James Clappers' dick.....again.
FOX....They're interviewing Condi Rice....lol, they don't F around over there.
A couple of 30 lb weights are staring me in the face. I haven't lifted them in months.
Oh well....one..two.....one..two
Bill
Lihn, not all is bad, Russia banned Facebook and Twitter. CNN, Netflix have stopped transmitting in the country, and I think even Pornhub is affected by the sanctions. Talk about an own-goal by the West. If it goes on like that, Russia might even end as a great place to live, free from all that trash. :D
A real charmer this Jonathan sounds to be.
Guys who continue doubling down on that type of glib "gallows humor" even as what was once shock-jock hyperbole becomes commonplace suffering show themselves to be genuine sociopaths.
"I would like to live always, even flat on my belly,"--Vallejo
Death does not scare me. Living on my belly does.
Religion is a good cure for fear of death. Astral projection isn't too shabby either for the same purpose. I was outside my body a few times, recalled the entire process one time, and though I was only very young, I did understand what it meant. Life's been kind of like an adventure game since, though I suffer as much emotional turmoil as anyone, and the death of loved ones tears me up. Less because of the usual reason though, than because the one thing I do not know, is if there's anything else for real, or if apart from myself and what I call God, the "Other" the rest is just illusion. The thought of being alone forever is what scares me witless. The realisation I will probably live forever has been with me since I was quite young. It isn't myself I worry about, but all those I care about. Terrified at the thought they may all be an illusion.
"Some say sociopathy is a prerequisite to success."
The way I would put it is that since Earth is Hell, the Evil among us are better adapted to their environment. Look at the stunning longevity of profanely putrid creatures like Kissinger, Soros, David Rockefeller... Like fish in water, these humanoid monsters do indeed thrive while submerged in blood.
It has seemed so to me. I have a two years younger brother. I'm 59. he is unlike me very successful. He is furthermore a sociopath. We sailed together, on a catamaran as kids and he skippered our boat. We were state and national champions too, in the open events so included against adults and we were teenagers. one time I was out on the trapeze in heavy weather, our true forte, with the sheets in hand and we were barreling along very fast towards the finish line in the semi finals. Ahead by half a leg, we still did have competition on our tail and it was a high reach, so if we'd fallen away we'd have faced another tack to reach the line, which would have meant second place for us.. Unfortunately we ended up with a clumsy little wooden Pelican dinghy with father and son in our direct path and while we had clear right of way via Starboard rule, there was no way this pathetic little boat could maneuver in time to avoid our path. They had a crap boat, no skills and were obviously panicking at sight of us coming at them like a half tonne pair of arrows. With it's overweight dad and son and God knows what they were doing on the water in the middle of a race like ours, but they were.
My 13 year old little brother called "Starboard" on them and as I watched him partly fascinated and partly horrified, he steered our racing catamaran right through that boat, cutting it in half literally and leaving the pair floundering in our wake. He said only "I called starboard" which was true. We'd done nothing wrong by the rules, but he'd done a truly cold hearted thing to those two humans.
...
...
I knew then that even though I was the tough one, the bold Aries and I knew then as now I am at least as intelligent as my little brother, but I knew he was going to be successful and I was not. It's taken decades to fully understand it but I do. It is as you say an evil world and it would be odd frankly if the good, the kind and gentle thrived. I try at least to follow my conscience and I would have opted to fall away and try to make up the water we'd lose by doing so, and second wasn't going to put us out of the finals we were a very fast crew and boat and heavy weather was our thing. I would have been swearing at them. I'd have been furious but I couldn't have been so cold-hearted.
Now I know that such men as my brother are exactly the sort who rise to the top in corporations and enterprises, the ones who command nuclear submarines. Ships. He is a qualified sea captain by the way and navigator. He is also as happens in Ukraine and a Ukrainian tax citizen last I heard.
These are roles where a commander may be required to do something which would not be morally black and white, which could affect many other lives and normal people would typically struggle to make a decision faced with impossible choices. Not sociopaths. They have a set goal. A task. They don't allow human emotions or morals to cloud their vision. He is wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. He lives well and travels among important people. I am nothing by comparison. I would not swap his wealth for my own kind though.. I know something my little brother does not. Which is that nobody ever died saying ":I wish I had more money"
In my observation it certainly helps. Not being a sociopath, I often make decisions which go against my own interests, due to moral reasons typically. Sociopaths are never constrained by morals for their own sake. They can play at morals, if it pays. Witness Bill Gates.
War with Russia is upon us, just as the two-year Covid-scam was falling apart. Great timing, guys! But only crazy conspiracy theorists see a connection. Is this what those Green New Deal wackos and their senile puppet "president" meant with their "Build Back Better" mantra?
I wrote the same thing on a local website a few hours ago.
The fading Covid Boogeyman has been replaced by the old, trusted and reliable Russian Boogeyman.
Yes and just like that, COVID was gone. COVID cured all other forms of death and Putin cured COVID. We know why Putin did this of course. COVID was woke and Putin hates poofters and protected perverts. Trust the science.
Linh--when you said "Hazy Joe’s installment after another fake election is the American deep state’s ultimate fuck you to all Americans...", this has been exactly my thought, even pretty much being my very own words. It is truly as though they wanted you to know it.
And I'll also go along with your thought: "Since it’s hard to believe the West didn’t see this coming, there are suggestions it’s deliberately inviting this catastrophe..." It's my personal thought that the cabal running the "Joe Biden" administration has set out deliberately to destroy any remaining faith anyone has in their institutions. I like how Matt Taibbi put it, "almost like they went to anti-governing school." Literally every single decision of significance has been made (deliberately?) wrong.
I, too, thought about where one could take refuge from all this, and came to pretty much the same conclusion as your friend, i.e., probably either somewhere in South America or some carefully selected part of Africa.
"In coming months, Westerners will eat less, sit in the dark during rolling blackouts and, if they make it to next winter, freeze, unless they make a U-turn and kiss Putin’s ass, country by country."
Nah. Things will continue to worsen for us westerners, energy, food prices will climb up but comparatively, by and large we will do OK. It is poor countries that are large importers of wheat and grain that will get truly whacked. Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Nigeria, Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil etc. Can you say bread riots and more arab spring mayhem?
Russia will languish. It cannot retool, rewire everything in the country that was made to work with western equipment, and this without access to capital.
Right move to not use a fake jab card, Linh. Governments are cracking down on them. Technology being what it is, I assume it’ll become easy to distinguish counterfeits from the real ones. More importantly? The principled stand. I’ve said and will continue to say that I wouldn’t use the internal passport even if I DID get the jab, which obviously I won’t ever do. Using a fake grants this system legitimacy. Albeit, it’s obviously different for you...I’ve only ever been to previously beautiful (and underrated) Canada! You’re rarely in one place for too long! Traveling abroad was never going to happen with my parents finances, and it won’t happen with mine.
When you suggest get out of Europe, would you include Albania ? I was considering trying to move there or to Montenegro but would you say Namiba is a safer bet than these?
Hi Zep,
Albania is siding with the US, and though Serbia, its most menacing foe, has also gone along with the US regarding Ukraine, most Serbians are fervently pro Russia. In Belgrade, there's a huge Orthodox church built with Russian money. Russia will punish Albania economically, and should this war spread, Serbia will definitely side with Russia, because that's the will of its people. In the Balkans, you have the Slavic world colliding with the US led "West," and all these countries have old scores to settle, so I wouldn't recommend moving to any of them as tension rises.
Namibia is a weird case. Since it must import much of its food, mostly from South Africa, you'd think it's very vulnerable to any disruption, but it only has 2.5 million people, with its whites and foreigners doing pretty well, for they claim all the best neighborhoods and shop in the nicest stores. If you're a black Namibian living in a shack without plumbling, and making just barely enough to eat, your situation is very precarious, obviously, but you won't be like that if you come down here with some saving. To put it most bluntly, if even the shack dwellers aren't quite starving, you won't.
Most importantly, the people here are generally calm and very pleasant. As I've pointed out several times, they don't even curse. Unlike in South Africa, instances of isolated white farmers being murdered are extremely rare, and I was told this by a white Namibian in Swakopmund. Her family has lived in South Africa, Namibia and Angola. She herself has lived in the US and Canada, but Namibia is home. She's very happy and secure here.
Linh
Hi Linh,
I see. So is your plan to stick it out where you are for a while? How is it to get residency there?
Is South Africa/Namibia likely to be unaffected by this war?
I am currently in the UK and looking to leave. I have read some people recommending South America due to it not needing heating.
Hi Zep,
When I came to Cape Town seven months ago, the plan was to stay for at least a month. I ended up staying three, and though I was almost mugged near City Hall, I grew to love that city, and wouldn't mind staying longer. I left because my visa was expiring.
I arrived in Windhoek with a similarly vague plan, but I've been here for over four months already. Windhoek is much more provincial and boring than Cape Town, but it is safer and conducive to rest, and I'm exhausted after so much traveling. To get a visa extension, I paid $40 and it was relatively smooth. My landlord told me he had a Swiss tenant who stayed here for a year, so he got three visa extensions without any problem.
I don't know about getting residency, but in Swakopmond, where I just spent 12 days, there were all these retired Germans, so I imagine the process is rather easy.
For nearly 3 months, I tried to persuade a German friend to come down, and though he gave strong indications he would do so, he backed out of it just days before he was supposed to arrive. We can only guess what will happen next, but my German friend thinks it's safer to stay in Germany during this crazy moment. It's his call.
Anything can happen next, including flights being canceled. I'm staying in Namibia.
Linh
Did you try to persuade your friend to leave Germany permanently? What was your motivation for being so persistent with these persuasions?
I think the big counter argument people give is that in a SHTF scenario, if you are alone and around different race of people, more likely to be targeted etc...Not sure if that was your friend's idea.
To get the visa extension, what sort of docs did you have to show? Did you need proof of work or income?
I still think Albania would be a better bet than UK for me if things go down.
No, not permanently, just to get away from Germany with its insane Covid rules and, now, war so near.
No need to show anything beyond my passport to get a visa extension in Namibia.
I've been writing about Graham Seibert who's still in Kiev, although 2 1/2 million people have left Ukraine. Leaving also has its risks, of course.
Do you think Romania might be a good place to escape? Thinking of taking a trip there at least.
But I guess none of us really know and a lot of this is just guess work. Almost none of us would have predicted masks to morph into flags almost overnight.
As they said, "Putin should get the Nobel Prize for Medicine for ending the pandemic". But it's temporary. The media cannot push more than one propaganda item at the time, or people get confused. Next winter, as Russia is forgotten, "corona" will come back. I don't know what is more sickening, the perpetual warmongers, or the perpetual vaccinators. Both want us to leave in a permanent state of emergency.
The perpetual warmongers and the perpetual vaccinators are the same people.
Afro-viet master race
If that's the plan, they should have picked a Viet with much better genes, skin, bones and teeth, etc.
Interesting observation. When I see you article links on hotmail and click in it, and read it, I am still on the hotmail url, NOT on substack. I see this often now, in Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin, where those platforms deny traffic to other websites (or keep visitors on theirs, longer). It is these little evil things that drive people nuts. A small switch, and millions of smaller websites loose organic traffic. When I tried to press Like, then I saw it was fake. I was still on hotmail. So I clicked on the banner. Only then was my browser redirecting to your real substack page. So now, only now, do I count as page visiter. Now I could press like and comment. But I bet many people read your articles embedded in BigTech without realizing they are reading a hijacked url.