#940 – The Expat Files: Religion, Politics, and the Search for Practical Knowledge

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 out to play and now 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 work play 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. Let's get rocking with an email. This is from Curtis. He says thanks so much Johnny In fact, I cannot thank you enough for what you're doing and for introducing me to Richard Martin's wake-up call show Then he says what once was a couple of shows that brought entertainment and practical tips are now essential

[00:50] Listening for me even though I'm not quite in my plan B yet I got out of the states to Puerto Rico and I feel a lot better on an island that's been through some tough crap instead of stateside where paradigms of comfy life and the system always seem to be there for them until now as We all can see those paradigms are being shattered I don't want to be around for that and it was your show that helped get me to Puerto Rico Thanks again Kurt. Well, thanks for that Kurt, but I didn't read that email just to blow my own horn I read it because you mentioned how much you like Richard Martin's wake-up call show now you longtime listeners I've heard me mention him over the years He used to be on PRN FM to out of New York like me But he broke away a few years back to do a podcast a subscription podcast on his own and you know

[01:39] When people ask me, what do I listen to? What do I have stored in my iPod? What are my favorites? Well, as you know, there are millions of podcasts I mean really millions of podcasts to choose from but I only listen to about three listen to Gary Nall Caravan and Midnight with John Wells Though I don't listen to every one of his shows when he's got some holy roller on talking about biblical end times Armageddon Fulfillments of prophecies and stuff. That's when I roll my eyes and move on to the next one now Isn't it funny as the world collapses around us? We hear more people talking about end times in prophecy and I say good for them But you know what that does not help solve the immediate problem And you know for me, there's nothing worse than hearing someone say it's in Los manos de Dios

[02:25] It's in the hands of God. Yeah, isn't it funny when things are going good No one ever says that only when things are going down the crapper. Is it in the hands of God? Yeah, right and as for me, I can tolerate pretty much any halfway intelligent conversation But when it veers into religious prophecy or any kind of religious stuff, I just completely tune out I guess maybe it's because I did read the Bible many times I went to Catholic school and I took way too many engineering and math classes Or maybe it's because I read too many science books and actually know a little bit more than the average guy about physics Electronics, chemistry and the hard sciences. That's why you'll never hear me say it's in the hands of God Unless it's a joke or I'm screwing with someone because you know what?

[03:12] You're the captain of your own ship. Your destiny is in your own hands, man And if you're in a spot and don't know what to do check out a book sometime or go to YouTube Everything's on YouTube. Hey, I'm not putting anyone down here believe what you want to believe But I don't feel much like getting into a religious conversation with anyone who hasn't read a few Science books. So why am I even bringing this up? Because in the last few days I've heard that it's in the hand of God phrase in Spanish Of course more times than I've heard it in the last 10 years and remember I went to Catholic schools through my whole childhood So that phrase doesn't sit very well with me And yes, I did get whooped occasionally by the nuns and I certainly deserved it and more I was an altar boy for many years, too And you know why I volunteered for that job just like every other altar boy

[04:00] It was not because we were nice guys and loved God so much It was because you got tipped for weddings and funerals in being an altar boy I learned awful fast that religion was a business In fact, I remember very well the old-time priest head of the church the Monsignor He was a real trip us altar boys learned mighty fast that we didn't want to do weddings and funerals with him Because at the end of the gig when you're supposed to get paid For example at a funeral you're standing at the cemetery by the casket The services are over and one of the family members walks up and hands you an envelope Well, the old Monsignor would take the envelope open it up count it and give us half Even though it was written right on the envelope. This is for the altar boys Whereas if I worked a funeral or wedding for one of the younger priests one of the assistants

[04:50] They wouldn't open up that envelope and take a cut the hand the whole thing over to us So as far as signing up to be an altar boy for noble purposes or to serve God or humanity Don't make me laugh. It was for the Benjamins or I should say for the Lincolns and Washingtons So the truth is we loved funerals. In fact, we were rooting for people to crook Hopefully no one we knew but still we looked forward to it now. We liked weddings, too They paid well sometimes but they were planned way in advance and we knew by looking at the Sunday bulletin When one of those was coming up, so we'd flip a coin to see who'd serve it But funerals and dead folks they could pop up any time and was like getting a Christmas bonus So we'd have to hide our excitement when getting that call for a funeral We'd put on the right face acting somber and stoic, you know to fit in with all the other sad faces at the funeral

[05:40] But really all we could think about was that envelope I mean look how could it be otherwise we were only 10 or 12 years old death and dying had nothing to do with us That was for old people though. I will state for the record all the years. I went to Catholic school There was no hint of hanky-panky going on You know us altar boys had to suit up in the rectory You know where the priests live and I never saw a single jar of Vaseline or tuba K-y jelly though my brother who's 10 years younger went to the same schools and reported it happened to one or two of his buddies I'm a so-called Christian retreat different set of priests make that perverts in his time But I digress as usual man. Did I digress how'd that happen? Now, where were we? Oh, yes Kurt was talking about how he listens to Richard Martin's show and I mentioned how I only listened to two or three podcasts regularly one being Gary

[06:28] No, and other being caravan to midnight with John Wells. Oh Yeah, that's how I got on the religious thing. I Also listened to Joe Rogan's podcast, but probably only one out of five because most of his guests are sports figures and comedians And to me that's boring. So who else? Well like Kurt I listened to Richard Martin's wake-up call now over the years I've gotten some emails from people saying they love Richard Martin, but he's just too pessimistic There's never a bright side though. They know every single show has some golden tidbits in it But it can also leave you feeling like there's no hope for the first world and he's right He's also been saying over and over again get the hell out of dodge while you still can and he's a hundred percent Correct about that. He's always been a little ahead of his time

[07:15] And now that the reset button's been pushed and there is no business as usual anymore It's proof that Richard was right all along and he hasn't changed his tune over the years and he's taking a lot of heat for it Too. I mean really who wants to be the party pooper the guy that tells you it's all coming down anyway, I just thought I'd give Richard Martin his due because he deserves it if You haven't heard of just go into your browser By the way, I hope you're not using Google and instead you're using an anonymous one that doesn't track you or sell your data Like duck duck go.com or my favorite start page dot-com just plug in Richard Martin's wake-up call Now I've said about that now an angry email from London who was born in Venezuela and escaped not to the US

[08:02] But to London England he says Johnny My name is Lennon and when people find out it always raises a few eyebrows But you know the president of Ecuador its name is Lennon, too If you're wondering how I got that name It's pretty easy to figure out because there was a time in Venezuela in the 1990s When Marxism and socialism were all the rage that's when oil prices were booming. That's how Chavez got elected It's funny how you can vote in a socialist government quite peacefully But in order to get rid of them it takes violence and guns They rigged the election so you can't vote them out funny You're still one of the first things they do when they get in outlaw guns perfect example, Venezuela There are a couple of million Venezuelans who have left Every one of us has been asked over and over wherever we end up. What's it like in Venezuela?

[08:52] Why'd you leave how things get so bad and we all preached the same warning be careful? Don't let it happen to you don't buy it that everything is gonna be free stuff and don't ever believe that the government Nationalizing private companies is a good thing. It's terrible in Venezuela The government never did anything right though. They're marketing and publicity machines will tell you how many houses They built for the poor how many schools hospitals, etc. It all sounds good and those buildings do exist But just walk into one of them sometime we've got countless 20-story high-rise apartments built in the Chavez days 2005 or so they're not old and decrepit. They're new but they look like hell There's no personal pride in ownership because you don't own it the government does where shit the elevators don't work

[09:43] Where's yet? There's not enough water pressure in some of those buildings for the taps to flow on the upper floors That's what you get when the government runs things like housing so now you have a few million Venezuelans like me living in other countries and When people asked what's going on? We're not shy about telling them and we warn them to if you want more government and you want them to do more things What you're gonna get is socialism and you'll have no idea what kind of monster you've let loose The monster will keep on growing Eventually regular people will start starving to death. It'll start slowly though. At first you'll have bad water or low flow Or no water brownouts and blackouts crazy high crime rates I can go on and on but the lesson we have learned as millions who have left is that the government should keep their hands off

[10:34] The private sector government should only be the referees of capitalism. They should never control the means of production. Oh But they want to they want to in the worst way and the average guy he's not thinking ahead So he lets them he doesn't care who controls the schools the water the electricity Healthcare long as he gets a fair deal when he uses those services. It always starts out Okay, but that's short-lived and soon enough you find out what you've really bought into and Johnny If you're wondering why my English is so good and now I could write a nice email without any errors I worked for a few years as a government translator at the British Embassy in Caracas and while on the job I was able to make some British friends and I was lucky when I got out to make some connections through them in London

[11:21] Where I've been working as a translator for the last few years I want to state for the record that I'm one of those unfortunate millennials with my contemporaries There's a huge belief in socialism or what they call democratic socialism It's kind of funny all my friends who are Millennials always had a soft life at home Enjoying the fruits of their boomer parents labors unlike me. They never really suffered or had their work They have their parents as a safety net. I suppose every generation needs a cause So they're all gung-ho for a democratic socialism or what you call Scandinavian socialism now for my story When I was young living in Venezuela my parents had a small convenience store like a 7-eleven and a little pet store and one day our fearless leader Hugo Chavez

[12:08] Nationalized the shopping center where my parents had their two businesses and the government fixed the prices for all renters in that mall So my parents nor anyone else there could adjust or raise their prices Though they could do so if they applied to the Department of Commerce and filled out stacks and stacks of paperwork It was a nightmare. So no one bothered then came the shortages that always come as a result of fixing prices Millennials from my country grew up and all that and no it doesn't work That brings us to a second problem It's rather shocking to me when I talked to Millennials here in the UK they firmly believe that Capitalism is the culprit for all the financial and social problems and the disparity in classes and income I find people like that impossible to reason with so I just tell them if they want to truly understand why they are

[13:00] Wrong. All they have to do is read a book on economics other than Keynesian Economics though. I know they never will not only because economics is such a dry subject Frankly Millennials apart from a very few of us don't read books either We prefer three-minute soundbites the real problem is and I rarely get to explain it to most people is that when people say Capitalism is the problem. They're starting out with a false definition of capitalism because as long as you have big government real Capitalism does not exist what you get is corporate capitalism with government favors backdoor deals Subsidies to corporate political contributors and big fat no-bid government contracts So it's capitalism for the little guy businessman

[13:46] He sinks or swims on his own and pays big taxes and it's socialism for big corporations and banks who get subsidies and bailouts And that's why when I hear someone say Capitalism is the problem. I know they're just ignorant take it from me or any one of the millions who's escaped Venezuela The quickest way to kill an economy is to start nationalizing things like oil electricity cell service food production transportation healthcare, etc one of the biggest lies and misconceptions is that people think governments and banks can create wealth when in fact They really only erode and destroy it over time. That's been the case with a 100% of every country state and empire in all history

[14:31] They all started out with small governments that grew and grew till they got so big and so costly They'd go off the gold standard which made it easy to go into deep debt They'd be forced to start running the printing presses full blast. Finally. They default then as a last resort go to war as For Venezuela people ask me will I ever go back? I tell I'm sure I'd like to I've got relatives there I'd like to visit. Unfortunately, if I fly back in order to leave again, I'll have to pay a $750 bribe to an immigration lawyer to get a valid visa to leave the country again That's life in socialist Venezuela coming soon to your country, too And Johnny if you want to laugh, I have a childhood friend back in Venezuela

[15:16] His name is Che as in Guevara and there were more than a few guys in my grade school named Fidel Keep up the good work Johnny. I'll be listening signed Lennon PS being in London people here Think I'm named after the other Lennon John. That's all right with me though. The spelling is slightly different Imagine that all right Lennon. I get it Imagine that by the way, did you ever listen to the words in that song? Imagine? Isn't it strange how entertainers in Hollywood types always talk about how the government needs to help this or that group? They're always whining carrying on and insisting is the government's responsibility to prop everyone up But you don't see them dipping into their pockets Do you and when they do they have to make a big PR photo op out of it though?

[16:05] There are a few a very few that do things without ever telling anybody like for example Did you know that Mel Gibson like them or hate them built a hospital for poor kids in? Guatemala City without telling a soul and that was years ago. No photo op no PR stunts No social media glory though. He's been spotted going in and out of place Meanwhile back in the twisted mainstream media seems like every single day you read about Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman Ryan Reynolds Ellen degenerate Oprah Hugh Jackman and so many other talking about the millions They're donating to this and that cause there's something phony going on when they have to announce those things, huh? By the way, just another little aside here Do you know where the word phony comes from? Maybe your great-grandma knows if she's still alive

[16:54] You see way back when telephones were first being used in a big way voices sounded tinny and unnatural thus phony Anyway in response to a topic I was babbling about on last week's show talking about how the Cuban health care system Is not what it appears to be? That is unless of course you're a party member or a tourist then if you get sick You can go to a special first-world style hospital in Havana Otherwise if you're one of the common folk you're stuck in one of those hospitals where you have to bring your own blankets pillows sheets and toilet paper Well in response to that I got a few emails from Cuban Americans In fact from some older Cuban Americans who got to taste a little bit of that Education system that caps roll put into place around 1960 that same

[17:39] Education system that Bernie Sanders thinks so highly of and was praising just a couple of weeks ago You probably know by now that pissed off a hell of a lot of Cuban Americans And one of them who lived through that sent me this little article and I'll paraphrase this to cut out some of the boring spots if I can it says it was 1961 when Anna Garcia a 17 year old had been sent out to a small rural town in uniform a green shirt with green pants and black boots As part of Fidel Castro's literacy campaign that was promoted as a way to eradicate illiteracy in the compo But Anna Garcia knew something was strange the moment she picked up the training manual and materials produced by the Cuban government the teachers manual included

[18:27] 76 pages of chapters outlining the glories of Castro's revolution and the dangers of American imperialism Only 20 pages out of the nearly hundred pages in that manual Were filled with vocabulary words for kids So you've got 76 pages of propaganda and 20 pages of actual words to study Where she had it says instead of the usual ABC's that students manual featured F for Fidel R for Raul his brother and V for victory as a technique to drill in the glories of the revolution Then she sent an actual page from this manual if you want to send me an email the expert files at gmail.com It shows Fidel with a rifle in his hand and vocabulary words at the bottom now on the page for the letter F

[19:15] It says F Fidel F-i-d-e-l then it says a fusil de Fidel is Su'isla Translation the rifle of Fidel is his island Cuba is his rifle All right, so I'm looking at page 15 photocopied out of this book. It looks like it's for second or third grade So imagine if you were a second or third grader learning spelling and vocabulary words Illustrated with tanks rifles and soldiers something's really wrong here All right Then she says in those moments when I was teaching people and they were learning of course it felt good I love teaching and that's what I wanted to do says Garcia Who's 76 now turns out she left Cuba a few years after that incident and later became a teacher in Miami

[20:01] Then she said everything in the Cuban school system was designed to introduce Communism to the kids that was the point then it says now Bernie Sanders has to face the wrath of Cuban Americans mostly in Florida when he repeated his praise for Castro's literacy program during a February 23rd 60 minutes segment saying that Castro's program totally transformed the society then he added on 60 minutes sarcastically is That a bad thing Meanwhile those who were living in Cuba at the time say Sanders's assessment is wrong on multiple accounts They say Cuba's literacy rate before Castro was already the highest ranking in Latin America and that Castro's

[20:47] Literary campaign he began in 1961 was more political indoctrination than basic education That viewpoint she says explains why so many Cuban Americans in Florida and Venezuelans and Nicaraguans for that matter who fled socialist dictators in their homelands are suspicious of any political candidate who even mentions socialism Then it says though It's true that when Castro's bearded guerrillas marched into Havana New Year's Day 1959 to claim power on the island Cuba's educational system was fractured but doing well compared to other Latin countries. In fact, it says a 1953 Cuban census revealed that 76.4% of the population was literate. That's

[21:32] 1953 six years before Castro's Revolution and by 1958 right before Castro came into power 79% of Cubans were literate then it says right before Castro took over Cuba ranked equally high on Other health and education indicators including the lowest infant mortality rate in all of Latin America Then we have a report from another Cuban exile who was studying at the University of Havana in 59 His name was Jaime Schlicke Schlicke, huh? Anyway, he said the history books were quickly being rewritten when Castro came into power In fact, he changed the date of cuban's independence It was no longer in 1902 the year they officially broke from a military government established by the US

[22:18] It was suddenly changed to January 1st 1959 the day Castro took power Then we have another Cuban Mario Soto who was 10 years old and living in Havana when Castro took power He says by the start of the next school year in 1960 Castro's government even changed the mathematics textbooks For example, instead of two cows plus two cows equal four cows It was two gorillas plus two gorillas equals four gorillas and we're not talking about Miguel a gorilla either According to Sergio Rodriguez Greek who grew up in Central Cuba out in the boonies. He found similar changes in his workbooks He says he was just eight years old at the time, but was no longer asked to count balloons and butterflies But guns and tanks instead. He says you can see the insidiousness of their brainwashing tactics in a seemingly innocent little math book

[23:12] He said the big push started in 1961 when they started a program enlisting a hundred thousand young Cubans age 10 to 19 to trek out to the countryside to the campo the boonies to teach the farmers ranch hands Mothers and kids who were far from Havana in short on basic learning skills However, the teenage teachers were given instruction manuals with chapters that equaled Proclamations coming from the government like for example, the first chapter Entitled our revolution second chapter the title our leader Fidel with later chapters praising the glories of the Soviet Union and bashing Yankee imperialism And here's a quote from the second chapter It says quote Fidel Castro brings together the best qualities of his people and has an immense faith in the wisdom strength and courage of our people

[24:03] as Cubans it says we respect and love our chief who raised the people in arms against tyranny and foreign Domination and then in the final section of this manual They provide 20 pages of vocabulary words and phrases to be used by teachers during the lessons So along with some general definitions like resources tourism and democracy They have the following definition to describe the Soviet Union quote The Soviet Union is a nation formed by the Union of several republics with a socialist regime where there is no exploitation by man against man since in it all the goods of production belong to the people Then we have and Garcia again who was a teacher in Cuba when she was 17

[24:49] She said I dare not stray from the curriculum. I was scared Teachers were dominated by fear. She said the most disturbing part being after the final exams She said to be a teacher in the literacy campaign that meant writing a personal. Thank you letter to Castro himself Then she said finally as the months wore on Teachers realized they were taking part in something different. It was a farce. She said and a disillusionment was real Many teachers seeing Cuba for what it was and they saw the new government for what it was, too So in the end these young teenage teachers who participated in the literary program were left torn by what they did They all enjoyed teaching people they said the basics of reading and writing But as the days and months were on they realized something was very wrong

[25:39] Alright, we're near the end of the show now And I'd like to mention that my upcoming week-long expat insider seminar that'll take place in Central America Once again was set to start on July 10th. Well, it's been rescheduled for August 21st through 27 Obviously because of the virus thing the travel rules restrictions and the popping of the financial bubble The truth is this might be the very last seminar and the very last time you can get your plan B Juiced on steroids because that's exactly what my week-long seminar does you drink from the fire hose? You meet a lot of like-minded interesting and intelligent people you can connect with for advice on Practically anything as you get your ducks lined up for your plan B I expect a lot of people who've been listening to this show for a very long time and haven't pulled the trigger yet

[26:25] You know who you are you're in procrastination mode and in this crisis you've been kicked in the shorts You know you have to get seriously on track to get the hell out of dodge So to get on the early bird sign-up list for my late August seminar Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com who knows depending on a future travel restrictions This could be my last one problem is every time there's a worldwide or national calamity One of the sad secondary effects is a government crackdown on freedom of movement that includes your person and your dough We're certainly going to be looking at new restrictions along the lines of the Patriot Act where I'm told you'll have to ask for permission And perhaps get a physical and medical clearance before you can travel outside the country You can bet we'll have another round of freedoms lost look what happened after 9-11 before that who would believe you get felt up

[27:15] And sometimes a free pronto before every flight oh and don't forget no matter what your plan B timeline is You'll need to consider your health care needs That's why you really need to get my hundred-plus page Latin American health care report You can pick that up by going to expat plan B.com 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 Nos vamos