Picking up from Part One…
As unhappy I was with tyrannical overreaches in Canada from 2020-2022, the vast majority of countries in the world were no better. And no matter what aspect one believing the place to be a modernized shithole might focus on - restriction of movement based on imposed medical criteria, potential financial controls with CBDCs, “woke” ideology infecting politics and education, etc - none of these are exclusive to Canada or the US. Take any country in the world, and if you dig deep enough to get to details, you’d likely either find some variation of the same “problems” there - or different sets of conditions with their own “problems” that may likely even be worse. There are valid reasons why while some of us may want to “escape” these “first-world” countries, there are far greater numbers of immigrants from others wanting to come here.
While the guys charging five-figures to help people relocate may often hype up Dubai as being a “great” option due to its zero-tax, safety, and world-class almost-everything, for someone who’s complaining about free speech in Canada… HA. As alluring as the images of Dubai are, it’s worth keeping in mind why - how influencers are required to sign contracts declaring they will only say good about it and criticizing the place and its government can land you in jail. Having a good day and decide to dance a bit in the streets, unknowingly make the wrong hand gesture to a local, put the wrong thing on your social media feed… jail. Sure, being denied access to public places for not wearing a face-diaper in Canada sucked… but guaranteed, you wouldn’t have wanted to get defiant about the same policies in Dubai. And yeah, zero tax sounds great - but what’s the exit/departure tax gonna be in your home country doing a deemed-disposition on all your assets where capital gains are due if making the move legally… and how far ahead are you really gonna come out when costs of everything there are significantly higher? Think the Canadian government is repressive and “woke” politics is bad… might wanna do some homework into the specifics of what it’s like living under Sharia Law in a Muslim country; we might not all be rocking LGBTXYZ flags and keen on the whole transgender agenda, though there are certainly some upsides living in a country where you’re openly allowed to explore & express your (sexual) identity no matter what it is, rather than be jailed & killed for doing so. Yep, increasing Orwellian censorship of media in Canada isn’t ideal - but yet I still have the capacity to publish this all here… whereas could potentially be playing with fire even entering the United Arab Emirates with this single paragraph being publicly expressed.
Or take Mexico… a popular option for both Canadians & Americans. Beaches, great food, lower living expenses, abundant tequila… sounds great. But safety…? Ha. As much as catastrophic hurricanes such as those that just destroyed Acapulco might just be rare one-offs - alone, not enough to dissuade sun-seekers - the reality of drug cartels and consequences of entering their territory is something not to be casually brushed off. Yeah, chances are you’re probably not gonna run into problems if minding your own business, staying out of trouble and on the beaten path during a vacation - but if you think the cartels don’t have their tentacles keeping eyes on bank accounts or owning a nice property there won’t raise you onto any radars, think again. People do get kidnapped and held hostage for ransom when found out they got money, whether they’re flashy about it or not. And if you think the police will help… you may have some lessons to learn about police corruption in “developing nations.” As unsafe as many of us have been made to feel in Canada with the corruption in politics coming to light the last years, there are real physical safety risks in many other countries that’d make the complainers here look like whiny little bitches crying over baseless fears. As imperfect our systems may be, there are still legal protections and infrastructures here that do not exist in many countries expats aim to find sun, no taxes, and low living costs in. Not to mention a ton of other differences in infrastructure between “first” and “third” world countries one does/can not truly grasp the reality & implications of until actually living in both for extended periods of time. There is often truth to the saying,”you get what you pay for.” For all the pros of tacos, margaritas, and sunny beaches, their allure can easily overshadow many of the cons not immediately seen (especially in the highlight-reels of digital nomads’ social media feeds and expat consultants’ marketing pitches).
Or - one that’s all too-close to my heart: Bali. One of the top destinations for digital nomads & pretentious shitfluencers for fantastic reasons, there is nowhere else offering the magical blend of perks the Island Of The Gods does. Oh God, how my heart & soul long to go back… yet knows there is no “going back,” as things have changed - and I may never be able to see it through the same rose-colored glasses I once did…
“Gentrification” is a word thrown around alot lately as increasing droves of nomads & expats have moved to Bali, fuelling yet more ceaseless development of villas & hotels, drastically raising costs, increasing retarded traffic, pollution & garbage - all while cherry-picking the prettiest pictures to paint an image of paradise for social media supportive of narcissistic complexes required to sell people on bullshit pyramid-scheme-ish life-coaching and superficial “spiritual” programs. And as nearly 50,000 Russians have relocated over the last years, the consensus seems to be that the energy many have brought with them has significantly changed the vibe.
The extremities of life’s yin & yang… it’s tough to summarize how blatantly & potently they are exemplified in Bali. Such immense contrast between a local culture so fucking rich & beautiful and hoards of self-indulgent westerners milking the place for likes & follows; such vast disparity between the images of peaceful jungles & beaches and the sheer amount of chaos & intensity in between; and the parasitic, capitalistic-driven growth of beach club after beach club where “influencers” spend more in a single sunset than the yearly income of the entire family of the people serving them.
Perhaps part of me is overcritical of the hypocrisies… still coming to acceptance of how I, myself, lived & embodied that in many ways during my years there. Surely, there is part of me that wishes I could ‘go back’ to my old life there - one with the sense of “freedom” I don’t feel can/will be found anywhere anymore, in the fantasy-bubble I lived in. But all bubbles inevitably pop. Whether the narcissistic self-indulgence of the ego’s grandeur found in an informally well-crafted self-identity as ‘cool DJ, digital nomad, spiritual entrepreneur, etc’ was just slightly ahead of a trend that hit full-force post-CONVID or I didn’t see my own bullshit at the time, there was a degree of dissociation & self-deception - as much as it may have served “positively” at the time - that simply won’t/can’t work anymore. Riding around a scooter as though rules didn’t apply with no helmet… those days are over. Living as though tax matters could be ignored… they kinda could back when I was earning close-to-nothing DJing, but it’s a different ballgame as stepping up to higher levels. And thinking I was untouchable by the type of governmental corruption & tyranny in apparent in Canada… I’d easily brushed off the local corruption obvious in Indonesia, though with the larger NWO control measures CONVID brought in - they proved themselves just as if not more strict… especially since fairly cracking down on things once overlooked, as the increasing amount of dumbass foreigners have brought more problems of all sorts.
Add it altogether: Bali is not the same “perfect” place I - and many digital nomads & expats - once fell in love with. Nor are many of the other destinations they’ve tended to gravitate towards.
Costa Rica, another once on the list, has apparently lost much of its appeal as experiencing similar problems - the vibe in small once-charming towns changing (for the worse) as becoming increasingly touristy and living costs rising to levels not that much different than many places in the US. Similarly with Mexico… although not only raising housing costs for foreigners, but locals as well - which understandably raises tension, considering their wages are a fraction of what the foreigners make. (And circling back to the point on drug cartels violently squeezing funds out of expats, it’d be reasonable to expect increasing tensions towards foreigners would not help the issue.)
Meanwhile, Europe has been undergoing its own issues with immigrant populations crossing borders and ‘disturbing the peace.’ From rapes & crimes skyrocketing in countries such as Sweden, to others becoming increasingly strict on both expatriation & tourism… and wars in both Russia-Ukraine and the Middle East… the idea of there being an “escape” from the imperfections and seeming injustices of one’s country to any other that meets all the criteria of that idealistic destination presented in Instagram feeds may simply be an illusion.
No matter what perks, benefits, and upsides there may be to any place, there are always gonna be some drawbacks, detriments, and downsides.
No matter how good a place is made to look by marketing campaigns and influencers selling a dream - whether to cash in directly by pitching programs & service and/or subconsciously to convince themselves - there will always be other less-amazing sides & truths not seen, whether through ignorance or repression.
And no matter how bad others may be framed to seem, there may still always be positives that don’t get full credit while in the grips of either fear-based escapism or egoic desires for what appears to exist elsewhere only.
More to come in Part Three…