Chile Forum

nwdiver wrote:Become a Canadian, you can travel to the US visa free and the Government really doesn’t care about what you are doing overseas, it was less than 10 years ago the Tax form even had a question about overseas holdings, it is a yes/no tick box they also don’t have the resources or will to chase you down should you have something elsewhere, plus people don’t go to jail for tax evasion here.

A few things to comment...
Yes, the visa~free in nice - but since 911, the more onerous passport issue exists... and the Border Gestapo (on both sides) seem to just get more and more obnoxious.

The gubmint doesn't care about what you do "away"... except for the fact if you earn a foreign income and there is no reciprocal tax treaty... they will want a piece of your action. When you file, such trivia must be declared... g~ had that issue for a few situations/years.
Yes... the Canuk system is not as anal as the Irritating Rat-ass Scum in the Excited States... but if you are a poor peasant such as g~... probably no worries in the long run.

But most importantly... "becoming a Canuk" these daze is not all that easy.
g~ is by birth... but ~j is just a wannabe.
At one point (for perverse reasons we will not disclose) g~ had his tarjeta verde (again before 911)
g~ remembers the time, hassle, frustration, the pound of flesh and offering up one fingerprint.
Now... arguably, the process is even more anal and frustrating.
I digress...
g~j recently pondered upon getting the equivalent of a Canuk tarjeta verde for her.
Let us just say that "the whirld has changed"...
If we thought the former~present Yank process was lengthy, time-consuming, expensive, frustrating, anal...
Well... just research the present day Canuk process... you will "not be amused"
So to cut to the quick... about "become a Canuk"...
This can certainly be achieved, thru much effort, but buena suerte in the process.

greg~judy wrote:Well... just research the present day Canuk process... you will "not be amused"
So to cut to the quick... about "become a Canuk"...
This can certainly be achieved, thru much effort, but buena suerte in the process.

Seems pretty easy to us... my wife is almost done.

Obtain Permanent residency... which can be done with out even setting foot on Canadian soil. Live in Canada for 3 years, write a test and swear to the Queen.

Seems pretty easy to us... my wife is almost done.

We are happy for you...
It's not to say it can't be done - but it will be quite "situational".
Perhaps for many, the hoops~bars are negotiable, hopefully w/o too much trouble
But not to go into too much detail - our case was different - which tainted our above "generalized" view.
All one can do is download ALL the appropriate sponsor~applicant forms and start wading thru.

Here is one of our big issues - others might be aware of?
g~j have lived and worked in too many countries over too many years...
The Canuks (in their wisdom and due diligence) require a complete record of every place and address and country and employer for every period of over 6 months since the age of 18 yrs.
No shit, Sherlock!
As well... a Police Report from each aforementioned place/country.
For us, this hoop/bar was not realistic... nor arguably for others, in a similar situation.

Fine=easy... if the sponsor+applicant have always lived in one country, are younger - such records might be more easily forthcoming.
But we knew for sure, we would not be able to dot all their i's and cross all their t's...
List a bunch of countries - like China, more in S.E Asia, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and South America...
Well, if truth be told, most of those kind police~folks in all those countries don't give a flying fig newton for what the "Canadian Gubmint" wants - ain't gonna happen.

A digression, as usual with g~j...
But to repeat - for any others...
All one can do is download ALL the appropriate sponsor~applicant forms and start wading thru...
g~j did... and saw it wasn't gonna work.
See if it's "doable" for yerself... ?
Whatever, eh?...
Chile is a nicer place to be now anyway... isn't it

Not to cause any controversy,but I truly feel sympathetic to Americans.It is no better in Europe.But the US has been for the last 20 years slowly abating their civil liberties, so famously established during the Warren Court Era. Just last week that crazy supreme court issued another ruling watering down the Miranda warnings. Two years ago the court abolished the 'Knock and ID' procedure first established in the Magna Carta. That court acquiesced and affirmed the right of the California Welfare Department to conduct warrantless searches of your home.If you visit your local Federal Courts, you will see that defendants are treated like a piece of garbage,especially with that 1984 bail reform act and mandatory sentencing gudlines.Speedy trials are a joke.If a Federal Judge does not play ball with the Government Attorneys,then he is indicted..see US v. Walter Nixon.
Like I sad Europe is right behind. The Germans have been illegally purchasing stolen data from all banks of the world as well as the French.In France you have no civil liberties,you are a ward of the state.The criminal process in Germany which used to be a model,is now a rubber stamp for the government. Most of all of the above spurned by 9/11. Ireland my home country has not totally succumbed. The Irish government refuses to sign the MLAT and other punitive information sharing schemes. Well I hope that my retirement will be uneventful but I totally agree that fascist big brother is just around the corner.

Brasstacks wrote: the US has been for the last 20 years slowly abating their civil liberties,

Slowly? It has been rather rapid. That is why they need another Tim McVeigh. Or perhaps several. Bad government needs periodic drubbing.

Where (in) Timothy McVeigh...

...people like Timothy McVeigh

That is why they need another Tim McVeigh.
Or perhaps several. Bad government needs periodic drubbing.

That's three times of late, on two different threads...
In some realms...three strikes and yer out!

So, OK... g~j will bite on this tangential bone - realizing that thrice is (probably) not sarcasm.
And if allchileans are being baited, well...?
And as g~j take offense to murder, of anyone, for any reason - we will take the bait and reel it out.

If this kind of person really to be held in some kind of perverse esteem or hero-worship?
Regardless if TMcV "lit the fuse" or was merely a pawn, a convenient scapegoat in a wider web...
(And there is some evidence he might have been.)
Should such horrific actions REALLY be emulated again?
If anyone espouses or condones the murder of innocent human beings, for whatever reason...
Well...?
WTF - ?

Thread(s), or not... regardless of which~either one that got crossed up here.
Is domestic terrorism, by someone who commits violent acts, either as an individual or in support of some group, movement, or ideology - really a rational route for intelligent people?
Of course NOT!
Are random, individual, cowardly acts of mass murder really needed to make a point?
NO!

Are there are alternative solutions to folks who are getting more and more pissed off?
Might not people consider non-violent means of making their point?
Start here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-violence
And follow the examples of Gandhi, MLK, Cesar Chavez, Lech Walesa, Daniel Berrigan...?
Lots, lots more inspirational leaders where those came from.
All that is needed is solidarity and action on a massive front.
Hit'em where it hurts - in their fat-cat elitist wallets.
Wanna bet they'll listen - just hit hard!
Things like a general strike...
Non-violent direct action...
Civil disobedience...
Tax resistance~refusal...
Non-cooperation...
BDS...
Lots, lots more ideas~methods where those came from...
These have worked, in many instances, in other "less democratic" countries (sarcasm intended)

Trouble is, most folks around the Excited States are too damn complacent, or cowed, or lazy, or afraid, or busy, or distracted, or stupid, or... (fill in the blank________________)
To get up, stand up - on their hind legs and actually DO something... anything.

But, as Ralph Cramden (in The Honeymooners) used to famously say...
"One a these days, Alice... One a these days...!"
One of these days...
Yep...
Folks are gonna finally Wake Up...
Coming soon, to dying Empire, near you.

g~j LOVE that scene in "Network"... one of the greatest scenes in modern cinema...
Where Howard Beale berates his audience to get...
"Mad as Hell"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08
Peter Finch won the Oscar on the strength of this performance...
ENJOY, allchileans...

To come full circle to the point we started with...
That is why we need another Howard Beale - NOT another TMcV...
Thanks for listening to our meme

patagoniax wrote:

Brasstacks wrote: the US has been for the last 20 years slowly abating their civil liberties,

Slowly? It has been rather rapid. That is why they need another Tim McVeigh. Or perhaps several. Bad government needs periodic drubbing.

Careful. Those guys at Creech can reprogram a Predator Drone to fly to Punta Arenas-stan just as easy as Afganistan.

This is a great article in the NY times today "America goes dark" by Economist Paul Krugman about how local state and city governments are cutting back services such as turning off the street lights and tearing up paved roads to make them gravel roads again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opini ... n.html?hpw

While Chile is rapidly developing, the U.S. is undeveloping.

greg~judy wrote:That is why we need another Howard Beale

Another actor. Another fantasy film. Hollywood acting will not result in any sort of meaningful changes in the real world. Governments/regimes rarely incorporate significant change unless they are weakened, generally from elements from within, or where internal competition by one faction or another can consolidate power by making or accepting changes. Real changes, well, those came from real revolutions, not elections. The French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and so on.

Real power does not go easily, nor simply through the will of what appears to be a plurality. The notion that the populist press is somehow mightier than armed struggle is one of the pleasing fantasies of the pacifist Left but is curiously rather under-represented in history. The core collapse of the Soviet union was not pressure by human rights groups nor idle threats from the so-called democracies, but a capitulation by leadership that recognised its weakness. Few sweeping generalisations are worth anything. The conditional Chilean transition from a military regime was exceptional.

McV is of course metaphor. There is a recognised style of literature and forum-speak generally referred to as gonzo, though there will always be some who take everything literally, who take the bait, who miss the metaphor and the hyperbole. Alas.

Since reference, even metaphorically, to McVeigh seems to offend those grounded in literal interpretation, maybe another metaphor will help. Eric Blair, perhaps. He could write and shoot, albeit for the wrong side at first. Far more influential than any fantasy actor, but only in an enduring cultural awareness sense, and not as an instrument to change. People have to be lured away from their telescreens and their film fantasies, and with something more meaningful and decisive than torches and pitchforks, to become greater than sheep.

If we need to tie this to Chile, we might. I don't mean to appear to support Allende, but he was warned in early 1973 that his government was living in a fantasy, if not on borrowed time. There might be a lesson in that, but I see that this station must pause for a commercial interruption.

admin wrote:
While Chile is rapidly developing, the U.S. is undeveloping.

While I am not in Chile at the moment, my heart IS there, and always will be...however, one of the most puzzling aspects of life in Chile for me was the first-world wired-up, red-tape buracracy with third-world customer service. I can get by the customer service thing, but when you can't buy a pay-as-you-go cell phone without a Chilean Identification number, I gotta shake my head. This all leads to this...while Chile is rapidly developing, how will it develope and what will Chile's top priorities be? For the time being, it is possible that the big Endesa-foreign owned land-crushing, life altering mega dams will be put off. But more and more, traveling south, into pristine, delicious territory, I saw giant billboards, Direct TV dishes on houses with plastic windows (meaning inside people are "realizing" how poor they are to not have plastic credit cards and more electric appliances...after all, how the hell can you squeeze an orange WITHOUT and little whizzing, twirling machine?) and middle school kids with their faces buried in xbox games or cell phones.

Watching HOW Chile developes and who and exactly what the benefits are, will be someting to keep up on. Color me an old fart, but when campisino kids start wearing their jeans belted at the knees and the cueca is no longer taught in primary schools, the country is headed (just a few decades) behind the US....culminating in the voracious consumerism there folks are sickened by. It's almost a mental illness, or an addiction (of which I know much about).

I wondered about the TMcV metaphore, frankly, and I am glad Patagonix explained it. Thanks. I was a little bothered by it. Gotcha now...wake up call, right?

Another actor. Another fantasy film. Hollywood acting will not result in any sort of meaningful changes in the real world.
McV is of course metaphor. Since that seems to offend, maybe another metaphor will help.

Actually... Fantasy notwithstanding...
It's Howard Beale who is the REAL "metaphor"

I wondered about the TMcV metaphore, frankly, and I am glad Patagonix explained it.
Thanks. I was a little bothered by it. Gotcha now...wake up call, right?

Hi V~G...
g~j too are glad for the explanation as well...
A Stale metaphor = A metaphor which has lost its impact due to overuse.
And for Blair (aka Orwell)... agreed.
Much better to plant memes with a pen, rather than a sword (... er, bomb)