#1097 – Episode 1097: Navigating Expatriate Life, Environmental Challenges, and Cultural Nuances in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America the show that tells you just what it's like to live Workplay and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right, like me and all you guys and gals out there and those of you who fall in between I mean all you guys and gals who aren't exactly guys and gals, you know, you fall in between that is the fashion these days, right? You're just bombarded with audios videos podcasts shows blogs

[00:47] who has time to read listeners see one one hundredth of the stuff you might be interested in and How many times do you start reading or listening to something and you figure out in the first minute or so? It's just not worth it and you move on I mean really how many times have you watched a movie and said God that was two hours of my life I'll never get back and how many of you are gonna say the same thing after you've heard this show God That's a half hour Get back and how many of us even if we're bored or not excited We'll give something a chance and listen or keep watching thinking something interesting or informative is gonna happen And it doesn't and you just want to slap the idiot who posted it But sometimes very infrequently you stumble on a blog youtuber podcasts That's just amazingly informative a podcast show or interview that when it's over you think man

[01:35] Everybody needs to see this but they won't well, you know me I have my opinions and my recommendations and I'm gonna tell you about an interview right now that just came out on YouTube a one-shot interview That when you're done seeing or listening to it, you're gonna say man Everybody's got to see this. Of course, we all have our favorite shows and people we listen to there's some people I like to catch everything they do like for example Jordan Peterson Some of the crypto youtubers like luck Davis another guy called that martini guy. Yeah, that's what his sights called that martini guy Like the cocktail drink and a Russian guy called Ivan on tech amongst others. There's a few more shows and youtubers I like to catch sporadically to most are nerds and geeks in science base So you probably wouldn't be interested in hearing about that. We all have our favorites others might hate but that's life

[02:23] So why am I bringing this up? Because I stumbled on one of those solid gold interviews just yesterday I thought man everyone with a half a brain has to see this and I can't stress enough You have to listen to this pretty soon because I think they're probably gonna take it down You know YouTube is just like Google twaddle and fake book They'll cancel you and demonetize you if they don't like what you're saying if you're not spouting their version of the truth You know, anyway, you check out this interview and you won't regret it No, but it's not about preaching to the choir about the covid you think in fact I don't think they mentioned the covid you think once in the whole interview. That's not the theme Just go to YouTube type in the words Lex freedman le X F-r-i-d-m-a-n along with the name Alex Gladstein a le X gl a d st e I n

[03:12] The date on the interview is October 16 2021 as this show goes out. It was just a week or so ago Anyway, after you see this interview your view about a lot of things will have a seismic shift. I'm sure that alright Speaking of seismic shifts. I want to ask a favor of you Let me explain why you know, I get lots of emails and every day I get emails from people saying Johnny I want to try that stem cell treatment. You're talking about I've got chronic shoulder joint ligament heart arthritis muscle Problems, whatever and I don't want to live this way or go under the knife if stem cells help. I'm all for it All right, fair enough, but then they always say Johnny What kind of success rates can I expect and how long does it take before I start feeling better feeling the effects of it? So in response to emails like that, what am I supposed to say?

[04:00] Everyone's so different in their perception of pain immunological response and Diet physical activity and genetics, of course to get an idea of the expected results You can go on stem cell websites and read about this stuff or you can listen to me talk about people I know who've given me the first hand blow-by-blow about their own situations and how much or how little they've improved But i'm looking to accumulate firsthand boots on the ground data So i'm asking all you guys and gals out there who've had stem cell treatments I'm talking about stem cell treatments outside the u.s Because in the u.s They give you a tiny quantity of stem cells compared to the number of stem cells you get when you're visiting a foreign clinic In past shows have explained all that and why and you long-time listeners might recall I started talking about stem cells at least four years ago now

[04:46] So there are some people who jumped on it early way back then that means plenty of time has elapsed So we should be able to collect some really good long-term data So i'd like to hear from all you guys and gals out there who've had stem cells Please send me a short description of your experience The reason why you went you know the problems you had the timeline the actual number of stem cells you received How much or how little it helped did the treatment and the results meet your expectations? Were the effects temporary or permanent and would you do it again? Was it worth it? What i'm trying to do is build a nice little informal database Now, of course people write me here and there about that very thing about the stem cells They had and the results and all that i've heard some fantastic stories some listeners have written me They were scheduled to get a knee or hip replacement then after stem cell treatments. It wasn't necessary anymore

[05:34] In fact, i've had a few people tell me when they went back to their regular doctor up in the states And he did new joint scans some months later more than one doctor said something's wrong here These can't be your x-rays which pretty much says it all at least in the cases of the people who wrote in So do send me your boots on the ground stem cell stories. Don't worry I'll keep it confidential You can just give me your first name if you want and if the stem cells didn't work in your particular case Send me that info too because you know, there are some chronic conditions cancer ms macular degeneration Alzheimer's etc, etc Stem cells may or may not help but people still get the treatment because they've tried everything else So anyway, send your stem cell boots on the ground stories to me at the expat files at gmail.com

[06:21] Speaking of the expat files living in latin america, you know a couple of shows ago I mentioned latinos in general are about 30 years into lag time when it comes to Cleaning up or even thinking about their environment. It's really funny You know when you go through latin america and you see these environmental cleanup projects They're almost always I mean 99.9 percent of the time initiated by gringos and foreign do-gooders Like for example, you visit lake managua in nikaragua one of the most polluted lakes in the world Yet the locals hundreds of thousands of them are still drinking and fishing from it Pissing pooping swimming and doing their clothes washing and it too But if you were to take a little boat trip across it occasionally you'd see a few floating very heavy duty inner tubes Anyway, they look like inner tubes Some only as big as a truck tire with a lot of technology in a solar panel or two on them

[07:08] Designed to aerate and balance the water and oxygenate it to eliminate some of the toxic algae blooms that just love polluted water I've seen those units here and there in various lakes in latin america including lake atitlan in guatemala Those were installed by a german do-gooder group And one day you see those things just magically appeared Of course the locals look at those things and think man those gringos and europeans are nuts More often though, they don't even have an opinion. They never even comment about it Problem is, you know, if you donate high-tech stuff like that to third world people You or someone involved with setting up the project from the first world just have to be there The problem is and i've seen this so often as soon as the first world do-gooders get the project up and running Pat themselves on the back for a job. Well done and turn it over to the locals and leave the project almost always falters

[07:59] It's so predictable too You long-time listeners might remember that story i told about the very first costco that came to central america It was in guatemala city 20 years ago back in the year 2000 In fact, I used to walk by the place almost every day because across the street across the highway From that new costco was a big commercial center with two towers back then. I had a radio program And a company that had 21 stations throughout latin america with the studios located in one of those two towers And i'd walk past that costco every day and i'd go in once in a while too to buy a few things And one day I got a phone call on the air I took a lot of phone calls on the air. That was part of the format That time it was from a 20 something latina whose english was pretty good And she told me off air that she was in middle management at that new costco

[08:47] She got the job. She said because she was a hundred percent bilingual and had a business degree So she continued to phone me up at the show once in a while She won prizes in a few of my quizzes and contests with that show I had lots of really good freebies to give away free dinners at restaurants hotel stays callers could win gold's gym Memberships cases of heineken things like that. Anyway, one day she phoned up and said she'd like to meet me at the little coffee shop Down by the costco. She said she had something to tell me I had no idea what it was going to be about and at the time I think the costco had only been open for around two years So I met her and she was sad. She told me she was going to lose her job They were shutting down the costco and letting everyone go best job. She ever had too She said was making around 750 bucks a month three times minimum wage at that time

[09:35] But now unfortunately they were closing She said when the gringos came in and set it all up it ran like a well-oiled machine the computers the inventory traffic flow Advertising marketing they trained all the locals up first world style Then after a few months when all was running smoothly All the gringos went back to the states and left it in the competent hands of latino managers or so they thought and slowly But surely the latinos in charge fell back into their old bad habits manana time and all that the place started Getting scruffy around the edges inventory and personnel problems workers showing up late and latinos Even the ones with money had never been exposed to a membership store before So that never caught on after two years it failed but they came back 10 years later stronger than ever After learning some hard lessons and the fact that us cable tv had penetrated latin america

[10:25] And now they had some free advertising But the main lesson was if the owner's not there things can go downhill quickly That's why there are so many failed do-gooder projects here in latin america And as far as latinos not given a damn about their environment Sure Everybody wants clean air and water and to live in an area that's not littered or loaded with garbage The question is why does it take gringos expats and first worlders to get those cleanup projects going? Like for example on the so-called mayan riviera yucatan peninsula in mexico or roatan honduras or costa rica All heavily gringoized tourist areas everywhere you go these days. You see those separate trash cans for recycling One each for paper plastic and cans and bottles Well take one guess who initiated all that gringos expats and foreign do-gooders

[11:11] But in a way who are we to call the kettle black? I remember in the 60s and 70s There were announcements every day in the chicago newspapers. Don't eat the chinook salmon out of lake michigan It's too contaminated But some people did anyway, there were even many rivers in the u.s. That would catch fire They were so polluted and remember love canal and all the birth defects and sequela Well, it took us first world people a long time to learn how to clean our environment and we're still not a hundred percent there But we're off to a good start Of course It didn't happen until they started enforcing the law and handing out big fines to polluters and little fines to literars on top of that Anti-litter campaigns popped up everywhere and suddenly people started shaming literars to their faces Yeah, I remember back then litter shammers were mostly mothers and older ladies. I remember all right shame on you boy

[12:01] What are you a pig? Yep, and I even remember a time way back when when I first started seeing people in the city Anyway carrying plastic bags to pick up their dogs poop man. I don't think before maybe around 1970 pooper scoopers even existed Before that I never saw a single person in chicago walking his dog in a public place Ever bothered to pick up the poop public parks hydrants and trees where every dog's rest stop And now you better do it or you'll get fined Now I have to say if you're in an upscale neighborhood in a big latin city Occasionally though very infrequently you'll be walking along in a nicely manicured boulevard or park or near the front entrance to A nice high rise building You just might see a sign depicting a stick man picking up his dog's poop or even a don't let your dog poop sign

[12:47] That would be a sketch of a dog with a red x through it Please also note in those areas There'll be plenty of poop in the non-pooping zone the scientist has no effect because latinos aren't trained up to do that Hey, look if chicken buses and motorcyclists constantly run red lights and stop signs You really think they're gonna pick up their dog's poop But you know as time passes it'll come lag time prevails, but it's not forever Now in that previous show just a week or so ago when I spoke about latins and how they litter after that show aired I received a number of emails from gringos and expats living in latin america Who reported their own boots on the ground stories about how latinos they know litter? In fact our good friend captain mangle even chimed in on the issue like me and so many others He's way off the gringo tourist trail lots of people don't know it

[13:34] But he's in charge of running a coffee plantation if there's anything you want to know about growing and processing coffee He's the man and we'll be glad to answer your questions He's also as you know a resident crypto expert with a really nice hands-on crypto course for beginners But you know that already right? He's also keeping an eye on a construction project right on that plantation He's got some guys building a living quarters right there for the boss That'd be him captain mangle and being that every day He's rubbing shoulders with not only his coffee workers, but his construction workers too today He's reporting in on their bad litter and trash habits Irritating to us gringos and expats for sure, but for the locals, it's no big deal. It's business as usual Let me read part of this here. He says johnny. I'm amazed and appalled at the level of littering that goes on here

[14:22] I saw an old lady just drop in an empty bottle right on the street It's as if for latinas and latinos the world is their dumpster as for me I'm cracking the whip weekly on this construction project I'm not about to spend the next five years of my life picking up after these pigs And if you think the word pigs is kind of harsh The owner of the plantation was inspecting the project the other day and looked down And saw a dirty diaper laying there and it seems yelling and lecturing these guys doesn't do any good So I use the excuse that other gringos are coming by to look at what's happening on the project I explain I want to make a good first impression and don't want them to see all this trash Anyhow, my plan must have worked because the head guy general contractor grabbed an empty concrete sack

[15:09] And proceeded to fill it with trash I mentioned that it would be a good job for his kid a 12 to 14 year old Who's just sitting there fiddling on his smartphone all day? You see the head contractor the boss of the project makes pretty good money for a latino It's all the guys he supervises making minimum wage Funny thing too. I've noticed how guys who make a decent living down here In other words, they're making a lot more money than the average grunt There'd be guys with decent cars that is They send the kids to private school and make sure they never have to work Nope, can't actually get their soft little hands dirty. Daddy doesn't want that to happen. Does that sound familiar? I see it all the time latinos making pretty good money. That is super gringo wannabes

[15:54] They treat their kids like princes and princesses. However, it's also true and i've seen this too Children of the poor are happy to pitch in to help the family I'm thinking how genuinely happy the little kids are who help pick the coffee They're absolutely delighted to pull their weight, but not this loser kid son of the boss contractor Hell no, he's entitled to sit all day. Just addicted to his damn phone But back to the point that in latin america you see both low and high class literatures All right, me johnny i'll cut in for a second just to say that many many times have been driving down the road Big highway plenty of traffic. Therefore plenty of witnesses And i'll be behind the chicken bus or a truck or some public transportation And the driver or the passenger or both will just throw junk out the windows

[16:43] Even as captain mangle says people tossing glass bottles. I saw that myself on the highway just a couple of weeks ago Don't think for a minute. It's just a poor and under educated that are tossing litter people that don't know any better The upper classes though not as obviously are doing it, too I've been behind range rovers brand new trucks suvs and minivans where litter's been tossed out the windows Even worse as you're driving between towns or cities out in the boonies You're driving along beautiful scenery and suddenly a giant pile of garbage appears on the side of the road Oftentimes where a pile of garbage didn't even exist a couple of weeks earlier And sometimes those unsanctioned roadside garbage jumps get so big They become magnets for other people dropping big loads of garbage and you'll see a truck or car or two Backed up to drop a load of their own. No stigma. No shame

[17:31] Nothing, and then a few weeks later you'll drive past the same spot The pile of garbage will be noticeably larger with just one difference There's likely to be a sign posted now that says no dumping and by then the pile has grown so big. There are a few Scavengers, there's always scavengers and junk piles. I'm not talking about ducks though. You'll have those too I'm talking about human scavengers adults with a kid or two. So yes, unfortunately, it's true. Latin America is filled with low and high class literers As captain mango would say equal opportunity porkers by the way I'm sure I mentioned in a show a long long time ago There is a very insulting word for a low class person that's used often in central america It's like the central american n-word And if you say it to someone who's not your buddy or friend You could piss off some people enough to get clocked and that word is indio. I n d i o

[18:20] Sounds so harmless and unobtrusive doesn't it indio? Well, it's slang for indigenous Actually insinuating more than that indigenous dummy and since most middle upper middle and rich latinos Are classist and racist and look down on indigenous populations simply because well, they're darker look different They're shorter dress differently and have a different culture altogether. They go to crappy public schools So they're not well educated They do most of the unskilled work the dirty work the grunt work and the maids and gardeners They're almost always indigenous or have a lot of indigenous blood So the word indio is used basically by Middle class upper middle class and wealthy latinos to mock another person as some kind of low class moron Anyway, just as an example, and I didn't get this for a long long time when I first got down and didn't speak spanish at all

[19:09] I joined a rock and blues band and all the members were latino They spoke pretty good english and were children of the rich turns out they were all good buddies before I ever met them They all went to the same expensive helicopter high school And I learned quickly that at any time one of them did something stupid drank too much hit a bad note or two while playing You know committed a full paw of any kind one of the other guys would say indio And me not knowing at the time it was the central american version of the n-word though soon enough I realized it was something you don't say in mixed company Because I never heard him say it in front of a maid gardener or cleaning lady never when there was a real live indigenous person present That's why it drives me in lots of long-term griggles and expats nuts when we hear all this talk about the us being somehow One of the most racist countries in the world

[19:55] Because man you ain't seen racism or classism until you've lived in latin america for a while Think of it this way What if all the blacks and latinos in the united states dressed completely different from the white middle upper and rich classes So you could spot them out at a distance and all the maids cleaning ladies gardeners and all the grunt workers in the united States were strictly latinos and blacks. That's it And it was an unwritten law that corporations and big businesses had an absolute glass ceiling for blacks and latinos Imagine you almost never saw blacks or latinos in executive positions in american companies Well, we know that's not true today in the states But a hundred years ago the case could be made that was the situation for blacks and latinos in the united states But that's exactly what it's like for indigenous people here in latin america right now today in 2021

[20:45] The fact is today in modern times the first world including the us is light years ahead in that regard Compared to almost any country in latin america and woke people talk about systemic racism and classism in the states. Come on So, how about this? Here's an invitation to all you brain-dead twisted woke people to come on down South of the border learn some spanish first spend a few months down here hanging with the locals off the tourist trail I dare you and then let's have that discussion But woke people they'll never do that. They've got way too much time on their hands and they need a cause It's important in their insignificant little lives to have something to whine about like the illusion of systemic racism Which is reason four thousand two hundred and twenty six seven eight nine and ten why you better get that plan beat rolling while you still can

[21:32] Meanwhile, we have this email that came in a little while ago from johnny flaco You know in spanish flaco means skinny So this one's from skinny johnny and i'll paraphrase here to streamline it a bit He says hey johnny a while back you had an episode on the quadrado female body type in latin america It was fascinating All right me johnny here with a clarification for those of you who may have missed that Quadrado means square in spanish and if you know enough spanish to be talking to the locals oftentimes you hear a lady A young lady usually 35 or under use the word quadrado when commenting about another young lady You know ladies are always competing so girls make comments about each other oftentimes in a lowered voice or whisper Could be a comment about someone they don't know who just walked by in the shopping center or even about a friend

[22:19] You know what i'm talking about. You've got sisters, right? I've noticed by listening to my own sisters that ladies can tear each other apart with just a seemingly innocent word or two Words can cut like a knife and down here in latin america when one lady says another lady's quadrada It's not a compliment. It means she's got no curves at all. In other words has a little boy's body Oh and another thing now up in the states We've all grown up to believe that a girl with the measurements of 36 24 36 has a perfect figure, right? Of course, that's the english system inches feet, etc Down here in latin america people say a girl with a perfect figure has the measurements 90 60 90 that's in centimeters works out Pretty much 36 24 36 except all of that's changed down here in the last few years now It's a hundred sixty one hundred or in the english system 40 24 40 not 36 24 36 anymore

[23:09] Ask anyone in the clothing business here in latin america I know a number of american gringos who own clothing mikilas, you know factories and they'll tell you the same thing since about 10 years ago in the explosion of plastic surgery and In the past five years those brazilian butt lifts. Everyone's talking about called for short bbls Well, it's just a fact that big curves for ladies are in and to be called quadrada or quadrada Is a slap in the face insult and to add insult to injury It's commonly known down here or assumed anyway that indigenous ladies are quadrada People in the clothing business will tell you that too the more indigenous blood the more quadrada And the more mix of african blood the bigger the curves and that seems to be all the rage and fashion worldwide these days so with the luck of the genetic draw

[23:55] Indigenous ladies seem to have lost out in the curves department now. I have to point out once again These may not be facts you want to hear people from different cultures and different places around the world are built differently It's darwinism again. Oh and those woke people really hate darwin, but back to johnny flaco's email He says johnny once you mentioned the relationship between curvaceous latina females versus indigenous females And you introduce the word quadrado. The funny thing is once you've realized this you can never unsee it So now i'm always looking at these short stocky folks where I live here in queens brooklyn And i'm sure they'll be much more common once I move down to latin america Oh and johnny since I tend to be interested in fascinating but useless stuff. I decided to research that word

[24:43] Quadrado and couldn't find a thing about it And then google suggested the word quadrado and I found an article that supposedly explains it on pub med Which is under a paywall? So we won't know unless someone pays for it Another little interesting factoid johnny is i'm trying to be more aggressive about practicing spanish even though I haven't been listening to my overpriced pimsler course For example, the other day I was trying to help an indigenous looking day laborer who was trying to navigate the subway system Guess what? You probably know this already But a surprisingly large percentage of immigrants seem to be indigenous and they only speak indigenous languages They can barely speak any spanish, let alone english The poor guy was struggling and it turned out he could not speak or understand my half decent spanish, let alone english either So I tried to improvise using sign language

[25:31] All right, me johnny here again. Yeah, that's so true. You know in guanamala There's 25 different indigenous languages and there are even more indigenous languages in mexico There's one thing you'll notice right away when your spanish starts getting pretty good You'll be in one of those big markets and there'll be indigenous people buying and selling things They'll be talking to each other and you won't understand a word They say and for a moment you'll think your spanish disabilities have failed you completely That somehow you've gone in reverse until you realize they're not speaking spanish at all Now some gregos and expats are a little paranoid They believe when they're cleaning lady or maintenance guys speaking an indigenous language on the phone or whatever They're saying things about you in secret. Maybe even making fun of you or laughing at you or calling you a jerk behind your back Well, maybe they are if you're not a good boss and just a dick

[26:19] But I digress. Where were we? Oh, yeah, johnny flacko's email. He says anyway, johnny unrelated to that I'm involved in a small but loud movement to resist vaccine passports and the mandates here It's beginning to look like an uphill losing battle But no one here is going to give up and i'll do my utmost to avoid getting jabbed because I actually believe Some of the evidence from dr. Malone etc That suggests a very large percentage of the vaccinated will wind up dying or getting very sick during the next couple of flu seasons Then he asks are there ways to get to latin america without getting faxed? Signed johnny flacko Well, the problem johnny is that very soon the airlines are going to require everyone to be vexed Now i'm not suggesting you do anything illegal, but it seems like everyone here in latin america has their price Everyone's imminently bribable. So if you can get down to latin america without being vexed

[27:09] You know what they say where there's a will there's a way But the clock is ticking and soon enough you're never going to be able to get out of the us without getting vexed You'll never make it through the u.s Side of border control on your way out without a vax card that's registered So if you don't want to get vexed, there is an ever closing window of opportunity In this case time is really of the essence You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b. Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com

[27:57] No spamos