The Russian Communists were our pretext for a lot of vile and truculent shenanigans in the name of national security: the cold war, the McCarthy witch hunt, the nuclear arms race, and the tragic destruction of a miniscule South Asian country which was about to push over the first piece in a series of deadly “dominoes” which would take the Red Menace to the American heartland via the port of San Francisco.

It’s clear to us now that all of these allegations were either false or grossly overstated. Never mind, they became part of Ameerican popular mythology and served to take our eye off the ball. In the fifties, while we were busy digging shelters in the backyard against imminent atomic attacks, our own politicians, in league with our testosterone-rich and endlessly greedy military-industrial complex—were pursuing their deadly agenda of corruption and coercion all around the world. (See John Perkins‘s cogent, fact-filled books on the subject.)

One of the goals of this blog is to tell you a lot of shocking things about your beloved country and its most illustrious people, things that you should have noticed on your own. We’ve been waiting what seems like forever for you to do that. But since you haven’t, we’re going to set them down here, as succinctly and plainly as we can.

At first these commentaries will seem impertinent. But we hope you’ll hang on long enough to understand our point of view. It’s not complicated. Almost nothing is as complicated as they would have you believe. “They” are your country’s most illustrious and powerful leaders. They have to keep things complicated so as to keep their citizens confused. They need them confused because it’s midst the smoke and mirrors of confusion where they can best peddle the profitable lies which are their stock in trade.

Perhaps you thought that the most profitable things your country produced were arms or oil. These things are certainly money spinners, but not nearly so much as the product flogged by your most illustrious people: lies in all their many guises:

• Big Lies (The United States is a beacon of justice and democracy in a dangerous and depraved world…)
• Little lies (Santa Claus is a jolly and benevolent old gentleman who loves children and lives at the North Pole surrounded by dwarves…)
• Half Truths (We’re surrounded by enemies… True enough, but most of those enemies we made ourselves by being greedy, unfair and heavy handed.)
• Innuendo (As he’s a socialist he must want to bring down the United States…)
• Rumors (Barak Obama was born at the North Pole…)
• Non Sequiturs (New York and Washington have just been attacked by Saudi terrorists; let’s invade Iraq…)
• Inversions (War is peace; permanent war is permanent peace…)
• Resounding Irrelevancies (All news of the intricacies and activities of the orifices of mindless boys and girls who appear in magazines sold in supermarkets…)

This list of lies is not definitive. You can invent some more categories if you like. It’s fun and easy. Look:

• Theological lies (Jesus will heal you if you put some money in an envelope and send it to me…)
• Military lies (Just give us 30,000 more high-tech troops and we will defeat those little brown peasants and their lousy old AK-47’s…)
• Financial-sector lies (Our bank will give you a guaranteed 11.5% interest for investments over half a million dollars…)
• Election-campaign lies (We will save the country by lowering taxes for the rich…)
• More election-campaign lies (We will save the country by raising taxes…)
• Sweet, intimate little lies (Trust me…)
• Big hairy political lies (Trust me…)
• Faith-based lies (God is on our side…)
• Utterly ridiculous lies (Anything beginning with “When I am elected…”)

To sum up, once they can get you to believe their lies they can get you to believe anything. Once they get you believing a lot of poppycock, they will soon have you under their control. Abraham Lincoln said, “You can deceive some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time, but you can’t deceive all the people all the time.” That is certainly true as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. Lincoln forgot the most important question: Can you deceive enough of the people enough of the time to control their lives and thoughts and ultimately the fate of the nation? The answer to that question, as we have seen over the past century and a half since Lincoln’s time–and particularly in the past 50 years–is a resounding yes.

So, who are the bad guys?

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Representative Boehner cannot be faulted for patriotism (which we’ll discuss in an upcoming blog) but he might have been a bit more discreet in terms of his geopolitics. Exceptionalism has deteriorated in recent years into “We do what we please, anywhere we please…” That might be construed as a Good Thing, if it’s your own country which is “exceptional.” That is to say, the United States can ride rough shod over other sovereign nations, imposing American “justice” wherever they fancy, by any means they choose, and at whatever cost to the “natives.” So far, so good. But you must have the military and economic firepower to back up your rough riding. Otherwise your exceptionalism is relegated to an exceptionally poor bluff.

Unfortunately Representative Boehner has lost sight of is the Chinese dragon waiting in the wings, waiting to make its exceptional debut. When it does—and it looks increasingly as if it will be sooner than later—the dragon will have no trouble justifying its actions, however heinous, however illegal under international law. Why? Because illuminated American politicians like Representative Boehner will have paved the way with their own exceptional precedents.

The Spanish have a saying for these exceptionally interesting times: “¡Que Dios nos coja confesados”! “My God take us as we’re coming out of confession!”

The events and ideologies which underpin this flareup are at least in part economical. As Richard Wolff affirms in an excellent article published on January 8 in The Guardian, it was in the seventies that “real wages stopped rising, as US capitalists redirected their investments to produce and employ abroad, while replacing millions of workers in the US with computers. The US women’s liberation moved millions of US adult women to seek paid employment. US capitalism no longer faced a shortage of labour. Employers … stopped raising wages. When basic labour scarcity became labour excess, not only real wages, but eventually benefits, too, would stop rising. Over the last 30 years, the vast majority of US workers have, in fact, gotten poorer, when you sum up flat real wages, reduced benefits (pensions, medical insurance, etc), reduced public services and raised tax burdens. In economic terms, American ‘exceptionalism’ began to die in the 1970s.”

It was this squeeze by the American capitalists on their own countrymen of the working and middle classes, coupled with egregious bank rapacity and forced taxpayer bailouts for the super rich, along with simplistic and self-centered right-wing truculence in the media and on the street, which divided the country in two. No longer united, the States became two warring camps, one driven by greed and naked self interest (some of it vicarious on the part of poor people merely aspiring to affluence), the other by simple survival reactions. Until last January 8 the war was verbal and ideological. Since that day we now recognize it for what it is: a shooting war.

Let’s consider your possibilities for making a living. Obviously, if you’re a writer or a visual artist, you’re in business.  You can do your work (almost) anywhere.  Or, if you have money to invest you might get into rental property or a business. This is trickier and, having failed in a couple of businesses myself, I wouldn’t recommend it. The European bureaucratic obstacles can be formidable, and doing business here requires a lengthy, expensive learning process. Can your work be done over Internet?  A lot of jobs can these days.  If that’s your case, then you’re home free.

We recently met a couple from Oxford, U.K. They are both IT consultants and work in London. They said they used to spend five hours a day on the train getting to work and back.  I couldn’t believe it.  “It must be one of those great trains with desks for working, Internet connections, a great bar and all that, no?”

“No,” he said, “none of that. It’s a train, you know, a train…” They moved to Granada a couple of years ago and now do most of their work from here.  When they do have to visit London they get one of the great cheap flights from Granada to Gatwick airport in an hour and a quarter and are actually in their offices in less time than it used to take them to get there from Oxford. They think they’ve died and gone to heaven.

It Takes Creativity and Conviction

Can you teach, build, consult, train, design, program, photograph or cook? There just might be a job for you in another country.  We know people who have made it in Spain in the most unlikely ways. One 50-year-old woman from Kansas turned up in Spain on vacation and decided she wanted to stay.  “How are you going to make a living here,” jeered her husband, “you don’t even speak Spanish!” “No,” she said, “but I speak English.”

She taped up some signs around the neighbourhood and started giving English lessons in their apartment.  Little by little the network of students expanded to the point where she had to rent a suite of offices and convert them into classrooms, and hire a couple of teachers.

A British sheep farmer came to Andalusia a few years ago, bought a farm and started raising sheep here. Eventually he wrote a book about his experiences, and had a big success with it.  It didn’t go to his head, though.  He still raises sheep and guides occasional walking tours. That is to say, with a bit of creativity, hard work, and luck, you just might be able to make a go of it in a new country.  But you’ll never know unless you try.

More People Who Re-invented Themselves Abroad

An American friend of ours from Chicago showed up in Spain 40 years ago with a backpack full of books. He gave English lessons and did translations for the first few years, before deciding to study Arabic at the University of Granada.  Eventually he got a PhD in Arab studies and wound up as a Spanish university professor. Though he has just retired, he continues to write and has just published a new book.

A British woman we know owns two infant schools in Granada.  How did she start out? She was originally a tour rep in the Sierra Nevada ski resort for a British travel agency.  She married a ski instructor there, and when their son, Scott, was two years old she couldn’t find a suitable, English-speaking pre school for him. So she opened one herself. The boy has just turned 14 and has just been selected to go to Madrid to join the Spanish national golf team’s intensive program for young golfers, and his mum has expanded her nursery school three times.

Expatriation Helps You Stay Young!

Obviously, age is a factor in any expatriation project.  If you’re older you’re going to have to work harder to learn the skills you need to prosper in your new country, starting with the language. This is not to say it’s impossible. Some of the youngest people we know are chronologically old, and I firmly believe that forcing one’s self to deal with change is one of the best ways to stay young.

I heard a fascinating interview on the radio this afternoon with an elderly Jesuit priest. He’s been retired for years, but he’s never stopped.  He’s currently working with young offenders in Spanish prisons.  “The first thing I make clear to them when we meet is that I’m not doing them any favors, that they’re helping me just as much as I’m helping them,” he said. “I’m 86 years old. If it weren’t for them I’d be spending my time sitting on the sofa watching television or on a park bench chatting with old priests.  It’s a tremendous privilege for me to be in daily contact with these young people, working together on worthwhile projects, their lives.”

A major issue for people about to move to a new country is the language, and you would do well to get started on it now, unless you already speak the language of your new country, or your new country speaks English. There are some powerfully attractive places where English is spoken: Canada, for example, the Scandinavia of North America; or New Zealand, perhaps the most pristine place left in the world.

So you see, expatriating yourself and saying goodbye for good is not as complicated nor as traumatic as you might have thought. By going about it calmly and systematically you have a good chance of making it happen. It’s just a question of doing your homework, making your plan and then working it, never taking your eye off your goal. ¡Buen viaje!

You need to start out with a mission statement. That’s your North Star; it has to do with the essence of your project and your objectives. That is to say, what are your priorities and where do you want to go, not only geographically, but philosophically? Think hard about it and get it right. Again, you’re not in a hurry. This is the genetic code of your expatriation project, and if you get it wrong at the outset, when the cells of the embryo are just beginning to divide, you may run into trouble down the line.

If you’ll forgive me stretching the metaphor a bit, you’ll also need some market research. You’ll need to investigate what is possible, and where.  You’ll need to look into the economic situations and the labor laws in your possible destinations. Don’t be put off by seemingly stifling regulations, though.  Rules are made to be broken. You’re a creative person; if you weren’t you wouldn’t be reading this.  Don’t be afraid to trust your luck.  So many good things happen by serendipity, if you’ll let them.

The Better Your Preparation, The More Chances for Success

Try to nail down as many opportunities as you can before you leave. If you’re a freelancer, let your clients and potential clients know you’ll be spending a year in Greece, but you’ll have a DSL Internet connection there. Then don’t forget to find out if you can get a DSL connection in Greece! If it’s feasible, pay some of your clients a visit before you leave.  They’ll be delighted to participate vicariously in your adventure by giving you some assignments.  Don’t forget to put out some feelers to businesses in your destination country, either.  You are, after all, an American expert.  You know the definition of an “expert,” don’t you? “A stranger with a briefcase.”

Do you want to teach English?  Take a course and get yourself accredited for the job.  It’s not complicated. Do you love working with children. Get a Montessori certificate.  Montessori teachers are sought after by infant schools all over the world. Do you have specialized skills you might use in a new country? Are you a good carpenter? You can write your own ticket!

Some People Who Achieved It

We have a friend who used to manage a big sheep farm in New Zealand. He came to Spain and started looking for work, and wound up running this country’s biggest sheep exploitation, a project which he soon found was doomed from the start. Before he arrived on the scene it was the economists of a local bank who were in charge of setting up the new agro business. Aware that they had to start producing sheep’s milk as soon as possible, they sent agents out all over Spain to buy producing ewes. It wasn’t till months later, when production figures were far below the economists’ projections, that our friend the New Zealand sheep expert figured out what had happened.

The bank’s purchasing agents had approached shepherds all over the country offering top money for adult ewes for a big agro project.  The shepherds had selected the biggest, plumpest ewes in their herds to sell to the bank. Why were those ewes the biggest and the plumpest?  Because they didn’t give any milk. In the end our friend the New Zealander spent his tenure at that farm liquidating 15,000 ovine malingerers and dismounting some of Europe’s most modern sheep milking installations.

It might be encouraging for you to know that people from other countries have been successfully expatriating themselves for some time. In recent years, for example, the British have been leaving the UK for other countries in droves.  And their places have been taken by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Poland, Rumania, the Caribbean… This British exodus is being fuelled from both ends, first with the Brits’ desire for a more attractive lifestyle in the sun—the Northern Europeans’ fixation. Understandably their favourite destinations are the Mediterranean, Australia, the Caribbean, even South Africa. But growing dissatisfaction with life in Britain is also a factor. It’s exorbitantly expensive. It’s multicultural, which is offputting  for some of them. Education is flagging; house prices are—especially in and around London—are still over the moon; public services are deteriorating.

Shortly after Margaret Thatcher’s government privatized the water system in the U.K. the quality of the water which the British drank fell below European Community standards, not to mention the deterioration of their hallowed national health service. Ironically, many Brits, especially those in need of a serious operation, come to Spain for its excellent socialized medical care. Others, in a curious out-of-the-fire-and-into-the-frying-pan dynamic, say they are immigrating in order to get away from the immigrants.

It was the seemingly never-ending real-estate boom in the U.K. which made it possible for most of these British citizens to leave their damp little island in the North Atlantic and start new lives elsewhere.  Until recently, anyone who owned a house in Britain, especially in the southern half, could sell it and buy two or three houses on the Continent, or four or five in South Africa. The majority just bought just one, and used the rest of the money to live out their remaining years playing golf and sipping gin and tonic on the veranda. A minority of younger expatriate Brits managed to find jobs or start businesses and integrate into their host societies, enriching their own lives, as well as those of their adopted countries.

The Americans Are a Special Case

Americans, on the other hand, tend to be much more parochial, unwilling to leave the nest, feeling that life is not possible beyond the borders of the U.S.A., unless it’s within the familiar confines of corporate America. This attitude betrays its roots in chauvinism, provincialism, and ignorance of the world around them. That’s their loss. Interestingly, the vanguard of those leaving the U.S.A. behind were the black jazz musicians of the sixties who, after touring Europe extensively and being treated like distinguished visitors, staying freely in fine hotels and playing in concert halls instead of smoky dives, eventually stayed on to live in places like Holland, Sweden or France, swapping Jim Crow for la vie en rose.

Next, in Part III, Making a Living Abroad

So, you’re finally fed up with the seemingly endless string of cynical,  self-serving, and ruthless  magnates, politicians, and generals, and the infirm society they have created for you and your fellow Americans.  You’re frustrated, ashamed and depressed. You really want out.  You’re convinced, ready to make your move.

Would you like to hear a few suggestions from someone who’s been through it, and who has met a lot of people over the years who have achieved the goal that you aspire to? Maybe I can help you out. Expatriating one’s self is like any other worthwhile project; it requires some planning. You don’t just pack your bags. First you think the whole thing through, consider your alternatives, make preparations, and cultivate contacts, both in your home and destination countries—you’re going to need all the friends and business contacts you can get.

Heady Stuff

This is one of the most exciting and rewarding times in the process of leaving. You’re actually beginning to act, to make choices, to savor the taste of change. This is the stage of active dreaming, and it’s heady stuff. Everything is possible. You get to choose your destination, make work plans, marshall your resources and do endless research on the Web. During this stage you can permit yourself the luxury of taking it easy and making careful plans.  Now that your mind is made up, there’s no urgency. More-careful preparation will save you surprises down the road. And you’re lucky, because leaving your country is not a cataclysmic, all-or-nothing act.  You get to test the water before diving in.

Be Discreet

First of all, be discreet. Do your best not to publicize your move as a protest or  flight from an insufferable situation.  That will only complicate matters.  The fewer explanations you have to give, the better. And don’t worry about the legal aspects; they will sort themselves out in time.  This is, after all, a long-term project.  I arrived in Spain to stay at the end of 1968, but I didn’t renounce my American citizenship and take Spanish nationality till the early 1980’s. It was a 15-year process.  If they had asked me in the beginning if I wanted to become Spanish, I would have said no. I wasn’t ready yet. But, little by little, the country and I began to understand and appreciate one another, and over time—a matter of years—a bond was created which I wouldn’t trade for anything. So don’t be impetuous.  Don’t try to renounce your citizenship.  Under current American policy they won’t let you, anyway.  Don’t burn your passport. Don’t burn your bridges. You’re an idealist, but you’re not stupid.

Shall I give it to you straight, in two words?  Just leave. Come up with a project which will take you abroad. Do your homework. Make a plan. Then do your best to carry it out. It doesn’t even have to be long term or definitive. Make your first goal something feasible: “I’d like to spend a year teaching English in Italy.”  Why not? Go for it! As my old boss, Charlie Craig, used to say, “What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll have to go back home and get a job.” When I came to Spain I had no idea that I would spend the rest of my life here.  My initial goal was to stay out of the U.S. for five years, an objective which seemed to me wildly extravagant at the time. That was more than 40 years ago. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew I had a wife and family, a house and garden, dozens of Spanish friends, then a whole clan in Spain, and enough animals to fill the Ark.

The “Business Plan”

A candidate for expatriation needs something very like a business plan, and if you’ve ever written one, you’ll recognize the similarities immediately.  Though you’re not primarily interested in profit, you’ve got a project and you’ve got a product.  Your project is expatriation and your product is you. You’ve got some resources and a timetable. You may be surprised to hear that your most important resource probably isn’t economic. It’s probably moral; call it conviction, desire, or aspiration. Mere money won’t get you where you want to go. You need vision, heart and a sound value system.

Though it’s a spiritual endeavor you’re embarking on, your expatriation project lends itself perfectly to a businesslike SWOT analysis. You’ve got Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and they can be written down and analyzed on a four-square matrix. This simple exercise is not only fun, but it will permit you to get a clearer idea of what you’re about to do, what your chances are of success, and maybe even how to head off disaster. How to go about it? Look it up in Google.

Next, in Part II, How to Get Started

I just ran across this eerily prescient article by Indian novelist, journalist and activist, Arundhati Roy, published by The Guardian on September 29, 2001, less than three weeks after 911. The New York Times refused to publish the article. They probably thought she was a dangerous Commie. And she is.  Just look at her face.

Here’s the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4266289,00.html

Read’em and weep.

When I was a child at school we were taught the importance of individuality, how different we all were from one another. Now that I’m an old codger I feel more and more like everybody else. All of us old codgers want the same thing: for our kids and grandkids to be healthy and happy. So please bear with me while I give you a quick rundown on ours.

Our son Bill (almost 38) and his wife Victoria are still pending delivery of a child in adoption from Madagascar. In the meantime Bill works as a geology professor at the University of Granada and spends his spare time photographing insects and tending his olive grove. From his childhood we wondered if he would become a biologist or a geologist. Turns out he’s both, and an olive farmer, as well.

Tanya, the eldest at 47, and her husband Javier, sold their farm and Spanish mastiff breeding operation near Montefrío in Granada and moved to Burgo de Osma, a beautiful little historic town in the province of Soria, Spain’s coldest. Javier is having his second novel published this month and working on his third book, a non-fiction work about Iceland, the richest country in the world for 15 minutes. They have spent time in Iceland and actually bought a little house in a fishing village on the north side of othe island.

Tanya’s three kids; Leo (26), Lucía (24), and Elisa (21); are all in good shape and about to finish university in physics, agricultural engineering and fine arts, respectively. Last fall Leo climbed up a tree and sat there for two hours till he shot a wild boar with his bow and arrow. They’re all driving up to Burgo de Osma together to spend Christmas with Tanya and Javier.

Maureen remains everybody’s favorite person, and she works hard to deserve it. She’s what Kurt Vonnegut called a “wampeteer,” a person who brings other people together. She’s also a fairy godmother: just ask Kristina. Aside from that, she makes art. She’s had two exhibits this month, one at the Delagua Gallery in Úbeda (Jaén) and the other here at home. The open-studio show here worked better. The sights and smells of an artist’s studio exercise a powerful influence on art buyers.

We lost two of our old home-bred dogs this year, Gusi and Chuf Chuf, but were given a new puppy by our friend, Miguel Ángel Arcas, as she was finding increasingly creative ways of punishing him for leaving her home alone, like peeing on his pillow. She’s a delightful little bob-tailed white Shi Tzu cross called “Cuca” and her rugged character reminds us of Piki China, a Pekinese we used to have. Though she’s docile and playful, she doesn’t stand any nonsense from anyone, particularly the neighborhood tomcats.

That leaves me. The good news is that after two years with tendonitis in my shoulder which kept me from swimming, I’m now fully recovered and back in the water four times a week. The secret? Google. After trying acupuncture, physiotherapy, massage, osteopathy and like that, I looked up “tendonitis” in our favorite search engine and it said, “Don’t do anything that hurts.” Six months later I was almost new.

My book (which turned out to be two books) is on the back burner, as it was running over bumps and I had to get back to work and didn’t have time to fix it. I must say, it gets depressing when you’re revising your own manuscript and start finding it too boring to go on. Now I’m reading a book about plots, which I should have read before. As soon as I get some free time, I know what I have to do, I think.

It has been my good luck this year to discover some remarkable people on the World Wide Web, people to enjoy listening to and reading, to learn from, and yes, to admire.  Paul Jay, the Canadian television journalist and film maker, is the man behind The Real News, an indispensable information source for those of us who distrust the mainstream media. I find it hard to believe that the best people to consult on the news of the United States are the members of a Canadian news organization, but that’s the way it is.  I also want to mention Naomi Klein and Leila Fadel (here in an interview from Bill Moyers’ Journal), the former a writer and activist, the latter a reporter in Iraq. Both of these young women seem to me to be people capable of changing the world for the better. Who else can we say that about these days?

So, all in all, it’s been a very good year for us, though not so much for other folks around the world. Now that the New American Century is taking off with such impressively mediocre results, however, I think there is some hope for many of those unfortunate people who are weary of having their savings filched, their oil fields occupied and their weddings bombed. Time will tell, of course, but I’m optimistic.

So, here’s wishing you all a very merry winter solstice, and new year full of prosperity and solidarity. Do drop us a line if you get time. I promise to answer.

Kind regards,

Mike, Maureen & Family

In a week in which it comes to light that President George W. Bush revealed that God told him to invade Iraq–with all that implies–and former Repulican presidential candidate–and pretender to the vice-presidential slot along with John McCain–Mike Huckabee made a supposedly jocular comment in the middle of a speech to the American Rifle Association to the effect that his Democratic opponent, Barak Obama, was taking cover as someone had him in their sights, I am at a loss for words.

“Sinister?” “Grotesque?” “Macabre?” “Surreal?” “Bizarre?” “Perverse?” “Ominous?” “Sordid?” “Infamous?”

None of these words seems grand enough to express the magnitude of the villainy at large in the United States of America these days, villainy which continuously stretches our credulity beyond the breaking point.

I cannot make a comment which is commensurate with the circumstances. If I were a Buddhist monk I would immolate myself. But I’m not a monk unfortunately. I’m not even a Buddhist.

If I were a poet I would write:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

But I’m not a poet. Besides nobody listened to Yeats, either.

So I give up. I’m at a loss for words.