Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller discusses the challenges faced by contractors and builders in the United States, particularly in Minnesota, due to increasingly complex and burdensome regulations related to water management and environmental impact. He highlights how these regulations have made it nearly impossible to operate in the construction industry, with contractors now being held liable for water damage that originates from other properties or even public spaces. Johnny shares personal anecdotes and examples of contractors who have been sued and faced financial ruin due to these regulations, emphasizing the overwhelming nature of the regulatory environment.
The segment also discusses the evolution of water management and environmental regulations in the United States, highlighting how these issues have become significant in recent years. Johnny reflects on how the construction industry has changed, noting that it's now a complex field with legal and environmental considerations. He also touches on the legal challenges faced by business owners, including lawsuits over minor issues like cracks in flagstone fireplaces. The conversation shifts to the contrast between the U.S. and Latin America, where water rights are more flexible and regulations are less stringent, though still somewhat outdated. Johnny emphasizes the need for personal legal representation in Latin America to navigate bureaucratic delays and inefficiencies.
Johnny Mueller describes the chaotic yet charming environment of his home in Latin America, emphasizing the contrast between fleeting happiness from material possessions and the lasting joy derived from natural surroundings and simple living. He highlights the abundance of fruit trees, the beauty of nature, and the satisfaction of self-sufficiency, such as rainwater collection. He also touches on the anonymity and privacy that come with living in remote areas, and the unique experiences available in this part of the world that are not found in the northern regions.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the growing Muslim population in Latin America, citing statistics from the U.S. State Department and an article from Bright Bart. He highlights the increasing numbers of Muslims in countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Suriname, noting that in Suriname, one out of every six people is Muslim. Johnny also mentions the presence of Muslim fighters from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago who have traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS. He expresses skepticism about claims of strong relationships between Hispanics and Muslims in Latin America, citing personal experiences and anecdotes from Latin parents who would not allow their daughters to date Muslims. Johnny emphasizes the cultural and religious differences between Latin Americans and Muslims, noting that while business interactions are common, social mixing is rare.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the Muslim population in various Latin American countries, contrasting countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador with others such as Panama and Venezuela. He highlights that countries with small Muslim populations, like Guatemala, have few mosques and rarely see Muslim women in public, while countries with more Muslim presence, like Panama, have a more visible Muslim community. Johnny also mentions the recent Iranian foreign minister's tour through Latin America, focusing on economic and political ties, particularly with countries like Bolivia and Venezuela. He concludes by suggesting that expats can gauge the Muslim population in a country by observing the presence of burkas at airports or in public spaces.
Topics
Regulatory challenges in construction, Water management regulations, Environmental impact studies, Liability for water damage, Impact on small business owners, Legal challenges for business owners in the U.S., Contrast between U.S. and Latin American regulatory environments, Impact of litigation on small businesses, Fleeting vs. lasting happiness, Natural surroundings and their impact on happiness, Self-sufficiency and sustainability, Privacy and anonymity in remote living
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:56 The Growing Problem in Minnesota 00:01:06 Why Minority Contractors Might Have an Advantage 00:01:20 The Pivotal Moment for Johnny 00:06:15 The Rise of Stormwater Management as a Formal Discipline 00:06:43 Rainwater Collection Laws in the U.S. 00:10:24 Water Rights and Flexibility in Latin America 00:12:14 Fleeting Happiness from Material Possessions 00:13:07 Lasting Happiness from Nature 00:15:43 Unique Experiences in Latin America 00:17:08 Mailbox Alternatives for Expats 00:17:27 Negative Perceptions of Muslims in Latin America 00:23:17 Muslim Population in Latin America 00:24:53 Muslim Presence in Specific Countries 00:25:43 Iranian Foreign Minister's Tour in Latin America
Transcript
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 expat 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 Just a little announcement before we get started if you've been getting any emails or promotions from an old site I used to be associated with expat wisdom. Don't pay attention to them. I'm not affiliated with them in any way Okay, so let's start with an email dear Johnny on your show
[00:49] You tell us all about the good the bad the ugly and the great then maybe some of us sitting on the fence So fall off in the right direction I for one just cannot believe how bad it's getting here in Minnesota I can't see how anyone would ever want to try to start a business much less as for me since I'm a contractor Why anyone would ever try to get into the building trades or construction business at all unless of course you were a minority Then you'd be in the chips. You know, there's never a shortage of government work They have buildings going up all the time and who do you think it's first shot at that work? But let's not go there. In fact, I'm ready to give up. My last two projects were stopped dead in the water That's kind of a pun because it was about water. Here's something you probably didn't know Johnny now days Guess who's liable if there's any future drainage damage from a property or
[01:38] Construction site. Well, it's not the homeowner. It's the home builder In other words, you could follow all the thousands of rules and regulations in building any kind of property a house Church strip mall, whatever get all the right permits and final inspections follow the letter law exactly and then 10 or 20 years down the line get your ass sued because of some drainage problem that you never caused But nature did on its own get this now up to 1997 We had a kind of a loose rule called point drainage regulations Meaning you had to design the general drainage off the roof and the property itself To the existing natural flow and drainage depending on the topography in the area back Then it was very easy to figure out the general lay of the land and where the natural gradient flow and runoff
[02:25] Should be it's what farmers have been doing for centuries, you know, so after a storm There is no standing water no washing away of the topsoil, etc But now we have what they call general drainage regulations Which means the builder and the homeowner are responsible for every single drop of water that drops off a roof or flows off your land until it gets to its final destination which could be the water table itself a Collecting pond or reservoir a river stream or lake or a neighbor's property now remember We're not talking about sewage or gray water We're talking about rainwater flowing off your roof through your downspouts and water that's flowing off your land Yes, that's fair. We have to take that into account Suppose there's a storm and the water is diverted off your roof onto your driveway and it sweeps down into a narrow little channel
[03:15] On the side of the road it gets bigger and bigger and before you know it it becomes a pretty big sized channel Running through your neighbor's front yard and if it seeps into his foundation. Well, you've got trouble Have you seen that probably not because it rarely happens. We do, you know build considering 50 and hundred year floodplains However, now every single thing we do and every house we build that's not inside a planned community Needs to have an environmental impact study or statement. Yes every year There are newer and more expensive environmental regulations that we have to comply with But do you want to know the straw that broke the camel's back at least for me It's always been the case that contractors were responsible for any direct water damage as it flows on to another person's property And it does make sense. It seems right but things have gotten really crazy now
[04:04] Contractors and owners alike are not only liable for the water that drains off the property itself and onto another We're now liable for any damage from water that might come on to the property from an Adjacent property and then flows on to yet another property and damages it. Did you get that logic Johnny? That means you could have a project that's been designed perfectly the water drainage Absolutely, correct however if water flows onto your property from an adjacent property and Continues on through your property and flows onto another property and damages it You are liable for that damage even though the drainage water did not initiate from your property Now you think the ultimate responsibility would be from where the water originated, but that's not the case
[04:54] Suppose the water that does the damage does not originate from a house or a construction project But comes from bad drainage on a boulevard street or even a city or state park As long as the water moves through your yard and then moves on to another person's yard and does some damage You're the one who's gonna get sued. Oh sure You can turn around and sue the government because that's where the water originated in the first place Just be prepared to pull out a lot of hundred dollar bills because it's gonna cost you a ton and a lot of days in Court so even if you win you lose in fact I have two contractor friends who were in that very situation one guy one and it cost him $60,000 and the other guy is still dragging through court and now he's got his earth moving machines up for auction
[05:39] He's gone bankrupt again, Johnny It's impossibly difficult to go into the building and construction business in the US these days and truthfully No one can really keep up with the rules norms and regulations. They're piling on new ones all the time In fact, I can pretty much prove that at least 20 to 25 percent of any building job Involves so-called water management and environmental impact issues Sadly enough almost none of that stuff existed 25 or so years ago When I was young Johnny if I didn't know and what the construction business was gonna turn into I'd have never taken over the old man's business Instead I'd have bought a subway franchise In fact, they even give a university degrees out in stormwater management If they'd have predicted that back in my father's day, that would have drawn a big laugh, but man, it's serious business
[06:27] Let me tell you so where am I at now? Well, I've been listening to your show a long time now, and I'm one of those guys who's been sitting on the fence I just need a tiny little push to shove me on the side that's south of the border Oh and Johnny noticed that I didn't even bring up the fact that in almost all US states It's now illegal to collect your own rainwater Now if that isn't the stupidest thing you've ever heard not to say that anyone I know up here in Minnesota Collects their own rainwater, but I can certainly see in the near future. It's gonna be in a lot of people's minds Oh, and did I mention that the building and construction business throughout the US is mostly in the crapper? Save for those certain little artificial islands of prosperity like Washington DC Every dime that flows through that place was tapped from the wallet of a person who has a real job
[07:13] And finally Johnny, did you know that last year in the state of Minnesota? There were over 3,000 environmental drainage suits filed against property owners Almost all of them not filed by individuals, but by the state So Johnny coming back full circle here. Come on. Give us some more the good about Latin America Tell us more of what it feels like to live there I've heard you talk over and over again about the Latin happiness factor, but you're talking about latins. What about gringos? What's their happiness factor? That's it for now Johnny. I really do plan on attending your next seminar However, things are getting rougher and rougher financially. Your sign-up sheet shows a big discount for double occupancy I was wondering if I come down Can you hook me up with another single person to share as a double and get that discount? No hanky-panky, of course
[08:01] Oh, and I almost forgot you often talk about people in the States being extremely stressed out You don't know how true that is There's another very stressful component that private business owners like myself never talk about but it affects us almost every day Would you believe the simple act of a mailman delivering his snail mail elicits a certain amount of stress not for him? But for me, and I think all business owners we do live in a particularly litigious society I'd say the average contractor like me gets sued two or three times a year That never happened prior to the 1990s, but it's a fact of life and you have to deal with it I mean hell Johnny about four months ago I got sued by a lady because cracks began to appear in her flagstone fireplace And I didn't even install it another company did it, but they included me in the lawsuit the more the merrier, right?
[08:52] So she sued them she sued me and the guy in turn sued me So I got a double whammy out of it and it wasn't even my fault and on and on it seems like the lawyers have trained People to sue first and ask questions later So anyway that extra little bit of stress that no one seems to talk about is when the mailman comes and hands you to snail mail the first thing you do if you're a private business owner is you look at the corner return address and Keep your fingers crossed and hope it's not coming from a law firm And if it is it's like Russian roulette is it a bill is it announcement or is it a warning summons or deposition notice? Oh, and they want to have a meeting to settle out of court. That's easy money. Oh, I tell you Johnny. I've been there Every contractor has sometimes I wish I could set up a meeting and send in a suicide bomber
[09:39] But really what's so sad about all this is that my father Stanley was a general contractor, too He built countless single-family homes after the baby boom started from about 1955 to 1980 and in all that time He'd only been sued twice once by his first wife and once by his second You see he was a workaholic, but he never ever got sued by a client Johnny. We're living in a different world That's why I say tell me something good. Tell me something nice. I really need to hear that right now Thanks for all you do. Hope to see you at the seminar signing off Sad Sandy, okay, Sandy I can understand your frustration because down here in Latin America if you have some land some property whatever you can do what you want With your water. It's your water. You can collect it all day long
[10:26] You can bottle it and sell it if you want and as far as so-called environmental impact studies Well, those are only forced on first-world companies who come in and build big first world Subdivisions or shopping malls hotels hospitals high-rise residential towers and such But again, the rules and regulations are probably 30 years or so behind the first world So when you do an environmental impact study down here, it's very uncomplicated. That's not to say it won't take a while Everything down here does could take some months because this is Latin America and everybody's on manana time Which is again why you will need a personal lawyer Who's your friend who can grease the palms of these guys not to shove through something that wouldn't pass muster But just to get these guys off their dead asses because down here, you know when you say ASAP for Latins
[11:12] That means this month sometime maybe and that's for the private sector when you're dealing with government Well, you got to be on them all the time and you know, everybody says Johnny. Why is it so? To which I say get some boots on the ground and walk into a government office sometime and you'll see exactly what I mean If you can get past the huge line outside the door, you'll see monumental chaos disorganization stacks of papers everywhere And you'll even see a couple of real typewriters from the old days If you bought one from an antique joint and have it on display in your hallway like an old rustic artifact You got taken down here practically every family's got one packed away in the closet right next to the part cheesy game And the rabbit ears remember those so sandy sounds like you're a little bit down and you want to hear some of the good
[11:59] Not the bad and the ugly now you mentioned happiness Well, let me just say a little bit about that in regards to gringos now as far as I'm concerned There's two kinds of happiness. Maybe more but I can point out to one is the kind of fleeting Materialistic happiness you get when you buy a new car, you know You love that thing for about a month and then after two months, it's well just kind of transportation, isn't it? Unless someone complements you and tells you how great your car is then once again you get a little bit of that happiness back But it's only fleeting same thing goes if you get a new ipad or a computer and ladies, of course that works for shoes But it is fleeting right that kind of thing is fleeting. You know what it's like You know what i'm talking about but let me tell you down here where i'm sitting right now
[12:44] I'm looking out the window and I see a big avocado tree Packed with fruit in fact, it's falling on the ground and i'll have to pick it up and start giving it away as usual And next to that a tree just loaded with lemons not to mention oranges tangerines mangoes bananas And you know every time I look at one of those things I feel happy and a few hours later the next day the next week when I look out the window I feel happy again. It's not diminished. It's not fleeting the happiness lasts So when i'm feeling kind of neutral or blah just look out the window or take a walk in the yard and once again I'm happy. It's the same level of happiness. I had last week and last month Then maybe the next day i'll look out the window and see a pair of toucans. I feel happy couple days later
[13:30] I'll see him again same feeling happy again. It's not diminished. It's not scaled down You long-time listeners know I often broadcast from the coffee fields and i'll tell you a couple times a year Just for a day or two the coffee bushes are flowering and they're all white and silvery for as far as the eye can see How can you not smile at that? It does make you happy and when it happens again I feel happy again It's not diminished and when I drive up to my house I catch a glimpse of the solar hot water heater up there and man Do I feel happy not only am I catching energy from the sun, but i'm getting over on the man You know the electric company and such yep every time I drive up and see that i'm happy. It doesn't diminish It's not less today compared to yesterday when I first pulled in and saw it now in my yard
[14:17] I also have a big tree and all it does is flower man. Does it flower? No fruit, but some tremendous flowers and every morning like clockwork I have a dozen hummingbirds appear and zoom around that tree and hit all those flowers for three or four minutes And you know what that makes me happy and every day when it happens, I get the same feeling it doesn't diminish It's not the kind of fleeting happiness you get when you buy a new gadget. Oh and speaking about catching your own rain water I've got a really good rain water retrieval system here Where all I have to do is flip a lever and all the water gets diverted to a four inch drainage pipe Into an underground cistern. I always keep it filled, but i've never had to use it yet. It's just insurance Although I do drain it about every six to eight months and have the gardener water the plants with it
[15:06] Because you know, you shouldn't leave water sitting stagnant like that for an extended period of time However, I do throw in a cap full of chlorine bleach about once a month to eliminate any mold or bacteria And by the way, if you're ever going to use that water for drinking You're going to run it through your ceramic and charcoal filtering system Anyway, and that'll remove just about everything But but the point is when I look at that valve and that four inch pipe that's leading off the roof down into the underground cistern That makes me happy and every time I look at it and think about what it does The happiness does not diminish. So bottom line In our little latin american universe, there are countless things that'll make you happy things that you'll never get to experience up north It might be your view of the ocean or a volcano that's smoking 50 miles away
[15:56] A lot of us gringos have spectacular views like that and it never fails to make you happy Of course the poor sweaty masses living on the side of the volcano have even a better view However, they're not nearly as happy about that eruption as we are but they're there because the land's cheap or in fact free But you knew that already, right? Oh and let's not forget that sandy mentioned He has a certain amount of anxiety and stress every time he goes to the mailbox and looks at the snail mail Thinking there just might be a killjoy letter from an attorney in the box Well down here happiness strikes again because the mailman does not generally come to your door Why well as I mentioned in the past show addresses are way too hard to find and often not posted at all By the way, one of the only good reasons to own a smartphone down here is for one of those gps
[16:48] Location apps like ways they're invaluable when you're looking for something The rest of the time just turn the damn thing off and use a dumb phone But the point is you can remain very very anonymous and have a very small footprint Especially if you live slightly out of the city limits because no one's going to be able to find your house not even a mailman Unless you tell them or show them All right Then what about your mail as I said in previous shows you let your lawyer be your mailbox Or you hook up with one of the local mailbox etc type services By the way, stay tuned for an update on mail mailboxes ordering from amazon and all that Okay, let's really change gears now It's a fact that us first world people are very leery of muslims and latins have an even worse opinion
[17:34] In fact, i've never met a single latin person who's had anything good to say about muslims And when latins see a muslim in a shopping center or whatever They instantly think they're nuts for wearing a burka since this is the tropics You know, you see latins don't understand them. They don't understand their customs or traditions They don't learn anything about them in school and the fact that they're not christians is the top Latin american society is about 98 percent christian and they have an innate distrust of anyone who's not That said let me lay this email on you. This comes from ross He says last year when I was at the guatemalan immigration office. There were two women in burkas I suppose they were seeking guatemalan residency. I was surprised looks to be a trend He enclosed a link to an article about how muslims seem to be flooding into latin america like they are everywhere else
[18:25] It's from bright bart a cool alternative website and I want to read a couple excerpts for you But first I want to mention that in the past five or six months i've gotten some emails on the subject of muslims One person reported he saw something like 15 muslims at the manago nikorago airport when he arrived and agreeing a lady emailed me from panama and said that she saw a big double-decker tour bus completely filled with muslims must have been 50 or so women in burkas on that bus. She said what are they doing in panama? Now as far as I can see the women make no effort to blend in but the guys they try to be as western as possible In fact, I mentioned in a previous show that if you look at them from the back They look just like well almost gringos
[19:11] They dress in levies and tommy hill figure and all that that would be the men but the women they have those burkas and they Appear to be completely under the thumb of their macho men counterparts. Anyway, let me read this from bright part and i'll paraphrase here The title is muslim population in latin america grows 25 amid radicalization concerns This is very recent august 24th. It says islam has an estimated 3 million adherents in latin america and the caribbean as of the end of 2015 An increase of 25 says the u.s state department According to the data in 2015 there were concentrations of muslims across the following regions Number one brazil with one and a half million muslims by far the greatest muslim population in all of latin america number two
[20:01] argentina with three quarters of a million muslims Number three columbia with ten thousand plus muslims venezuela with a hundred thousand muslims panama with 14 000 suriname Of all places with 81 000. Okay. It's me johnny here I'd venture to say that not one in a thousand gringos even knows where suriname is People i've mentioned that too up in the states usually think it's in africa at least ones that have never traveled outside the country Well, let me tell you surinames in south america and it's not a nice place Unless you like rain heat humidity mudslides and unpaved roads Just my opinion. Anyway on top of that according to the statistics. I just gave you One out of every six people in suriname is a muslim
[20:49] So if you're okay with that, I guess you're okay with that And you know talking about the islands of trinidad and tubago and the caribbean. I know that's not latin america, but it's close Picture this one out of 20 people living there is a muslim again You gotta wonder how that happened and why even mention it. Well because navy admiral curt tid tid chief of u.s southern command revealed earlier this year that hundreds of muslims from primarily The caribbean islands of trinidad and tubago have traveled to the middle east to fight on behalf of isis On top of that latin countries with huge muslim populations like brazil over a million have taken in thousands of syrian refugees already
[21:36] Okay, so those are the facts, but there's one thing they mentioned in this article. I totally disagree with Guy probably never had any boots on the ground in the wake of the orlando terrorist attack by jihadists who primarily targeted latinos Remember that one turns out deputy secretary general of the islamic circle of north america Let's see if I can get this one. Well shaba sayeb Told brett bart knows that the relationship between hispanics and muslims in latin america is strong What boy is that guy an idiot? He's obviously never overheard latins expressing their real opinions about muslims to each other. Well, I have Now this might sound wrong to some people, but i've heard latin parents Especially the latin daddy say that if his daughter brought a muslim date home for dinner
[22:25] Her bags would be packed and on the front porch in a quote Oh and by the way few people call them muslims and muslims down here, which is really the correct term instead They call them arabes arab in english At least that's what the middle and lower middle classes call them which makes up around 80 to 90 percent of the latin public Anyway, if you have boots on the ground, you'll find out soon enough that muslims and latinos don't mix Except of course in business when it comes to money and commerce anything goes as long as everybody's happy and making a living and such But if you're talking about voluntary social mixing, well, that's not going to happen Now keep in mind when I previously listed latin countries and their muslim populations
[23:11] Quite a few latin countries didn't even make the list like Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and a few others. Well, that's because those countries have a statistically insignificant number of muslims In fact in a past show you might remember that the whole country of guatemala has just two mosques Whereas my home state of illinois with just about as large a population has over a hundred mosques Now i'm in and out of guatemala honduras and el solvador a lot And I have to admit in the last year or two in those three countries I've probably seen seven ladies with burkas and guess where I saw them At the immigration offices just as ross mentioned. He saw a few burkas at the guatemalan immigration office
[23:56] But you know the immigration office in any country is exactly the place you're going to see all kinds of foreigners They're the ones trying to get their passports residencies and visas in order Really? I'd say you should be surprised if you don't see a virtual united nations walking through that immigration office when you're there Let me ask you this who else is going to be there waiting in those lines latin's guatemalans honduras? No, it's their country They never have to go to their own immigration office Because they all hold their own country passports and id cards and they're obtained at a different office completely the immigration office is 100 for foreigners And that's who you're going to see in there And if it doesn't look like the united nations to you then you're in the wrong place In fact last time I was there I saw some do-gooders from switzerland and some nuns from the vatican and some canadians a french guy two russians and even a guy
[24:49] From bangladesh. Yep bangladesh all they're trying to get their visas renewed So as it turns out the countries I just mentioned where they have very very small muslim populations If you go to one of the big cities and ask a taxi driver, for example To take you to the muslim district or the area of town that hosts the middle eastern population You'll certainly get a blank stare because there ain't any however It's a completely different thing when you're talking about brazil, columbia, argentino, or venezuela even panama In fact these days especially panama as it turns out many muslim countries are setting up trade missions to panama Why because of the panama canal, of course, which is certainly why last time I was at tukkuman airport Where I was stuck on a layover at the airport for three hours I must have seen 50 muslims in their native mixed with western garb meandering around the airport
[25:37] And speaking of middle eastern muslim trade missions get this the iranian foreign minister Chancellor mohammed yavid zarif is currently on a tour with his huge entourage through latin america intending to network And create business and economic partnerships with the following latin countries write this down chile bolivia Nicaragua ekador Venezuela and panama this is very recent news came out on august 22nd in a statement Iranian chancellor zawif announced the economic and diplomatic tour And his intentions to strengthen political and economic ties with the aforementioned countries and will be holding high level talks
[26:23] With government officials and noted business leaders local experts say the iranians have their eye on natural resources Such as uranium deposits in bolivia So bottom line all you expat gonna bees and wannabes if you really are concerned about the local muslim population Of course, some people care and some people don't If it's troublesome to you You should keep the aforementioned countries that have close muslim affiliations in mind now for me There has always been a simple and easy way to figure out how much of a muslim population is in a particular country When you're at an international airport Just note the mix of burkas versus the regular latin population at the arrival gate or do a burka account at one of the big popular malls Okay, so we're getting near the end of the show now
[27:09] Don't forget to go to www the new expat.com to get in on that early bird discount for my january 2017 Expat insider seminar that'll be held in and around quite a lot We're about three quarters filled up already. So get that plan b going times are wasted Finally, don't forget to check out my youtube channel. It's fun. It's easy. Do subscribe. It's free You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And if you want me to help you sort out your own latin american plans schedule a one-on-one consult with me Just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. No, es vemos