Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores the cultural and historical complexities surrounding Christopher Columbus in Latin America. He highlights the irony that while Columbus is celebrated in many parts of Latin America, especially among the middle and upper classes, indigenous communities often view him as a symbol of oppression and cultural destruction. Johnny also touches on the broader theme of cultural denial, where many Latin Americans exaggerate their European heritage while downplaying their indigenous roots. The segment includes a humorous anecdote about the confusion between the word 'cologne' and 'Columbus' in Costa Rica, illustrating the linguistic and cultural nuances of the region.
Johnny Mueller then discusses the complex and often contradictory attitudes among Latin Americans regarding their heritage, particularly the tendency to emphasize Spanish blood while minimizing indigenous roots. He also highlights the economic opportunities in Latin America, such as high-interest CDs in US dollars, and encourages expats to consider moving there for a more affordable lifestyle. The segment also touches on the fleeting interest in Mayan heritage during the 2012 Mayan calendar event and its quick decline.
In the next segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the safety of banks in Latin America, noting that they are just as safe as first-world banks, though he acknowledges the looming international financial crisis. He suggests that expats should consider parking excess money in 90-day CDs in Latin American banks, rolling them over as needed, and waiting for the real estate bubble to burst to purchase property at a discount. He also mentions the current state of the real estate market, where desperate sellers are flooding the rental market, and advises expats to take advantage of the situation. Johnny also touches on alternative investments like gold, silver, and farmland, and briefly mentions the controversy surrounding Monsanto's genetically modified seeds in Latin America.
Finally, Johnny Mueller discusses how multinational corporations like Monsanto have targeted Latin America, leveraging the region's lack of education and awareness about GMOs to push their products. He highlights the aggressive marketing strategies, including high-profile events and lobbying efforts, aimed at influencing local politicians. The segment also touches on the controversial 'Monsanto Law' embedded in a free trade agreement, which grants corporations extensive rights over plant varieties and imposes severe penalties on farmers who use GMO seeds without licenses. Johnny emphasizes the negative consequences for Latin American farmers, drawing parallels to similar issues in the United States.
Topics
Cultural and historical complexities of Christopher Columbus in Latin America, Linguistic and cultural nuances in Costa Rica, Cultural denial and identity in Latin America, Cultural identity and heritage in Latin America, Economic opportunities for expats in Latin America, The 2012 Mayan calendar event and its impact on tourism, High-interest bank CDs in Latin America, Expatriate lifestyle and cost of living, Financial safety in Latin American banks, Real estate market in Latin America, Investment strategies for expats, Monsanto and genetically modified seeds in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Interest Rates in Latin America 00:01:26 Cultural Confusion in Costa Rica 00:03:02 Columbus and the Conquistadors 00:06:28 Cultural Identity and Heritage in Latin America 00:08:19 Economic Opportunities for Expats in Latin America 00:12:36 Safety of Banks in Latin America 00:12:51 When Will the Financial Crisis Happen? 00:13:32 Buying Real Estate at a Discount 00:13:46 Upcoming Seminar on Latin American Real Estate 00:15:35 Investing in CDs for Expats 00:16:08 Current Real Estate Market in Latin America 00:17:41 Alternative Investments for Expats 00:18:26 Monsanto's Strategy in Latin America 00:18:32 Monsanto and GMO Controversy in Latin America 00:19:12 Monsanto's Past in India and Consequences 00:21:31 The 'Monsanto Law' and Its Implications 00:24:58 Monsanto's GMO Contamination and Legal Penalties 00:26:06 Indigenous Activism and the Threat to Food Sovereignty 00:26:53 Indigenous Communities and Their Role in Latin America's Food Production
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 wander 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 Now last time I was talking about all the banks that have proliferated down here in Latin America and that they offer very high interest rates Comparatively speaking in fact the interest rates down here on bank CDs will remind you of the 80s and 90s
[00:48] If you were around back then I was and probably most of you guys and gals were But as it works out if you get a bank CD down here in dollars and almost all banks offer CDs in dollars and the local funny money anyway in dollars You'll get a little more than half the interest rate You'll get if you get a CD in a local funny money version and not that US dollars aren't fiat funny money, too They are but they're an internationally recognized and accepted pre-used toilet paper I mean just try to go down to your local Idaho Walmart and buy some preparation H with a handful of Costa Rican colonis or Honduran lampiros and see who laughs harder the cashier or you oh and permit me to deviate here for a second
[01:33] Yeah, like I don't do that much now you travelers out there might know that the Costa Rican currency is called the Cologne Right, and by the way for all of you guys and gals who've been to Costa Rica the word cologne is singular for one cologne and the word cologne is is Plural for more than one cologne now note you can spot a very green gringo in Costa Rica when they call colognes Which is plural? colognes Like dude man here in Costa Rica the condoms only cost ten colognes No, bro It's de ace colognes which brings me to something that most gringos and expats never pick up on the word cologne or colognes
[02:18] means Columbus as in Christopher Columbus or in Spanish Cristobal cologne Cologne is Columbus so for example when you're in Panama and you go to the second biggest city It's also called cologne or Columbus So as you might expect every single country in Latin America has cities and towns and roads and bridges named after Christopher Columbus Cristobal cologne hundreds if not thousands of parks and statues and roads and expressways and boulevards named cologne too which begs the historical question it seems since his names all over the place that Columbus is Latin America's number one icon hero and role model But now that we're in the 21st century and have the internet and all that why aren't Latin's just completely pissed off with the guy
[03:10] I mean the truth is he came to the Americas and robbed the indigenous people blind then he raped them Then he pillaged them then he enslaved them and if that wasn't enough He and his fellow conquistadores burned all their records and destroyed all their deities Then stole all their land then for doing so were knighted and honored by the king of Spain not to mention the Pope So Columbus and his conquistador buddies basically snuffed out a whole continents culture That said up in the States for the last 10 or 20 years There's been a lot of anti-columbus activism and some activist groups up in the first world are so angry that they're trying to have Any celebration of him like Columbus Day resented not to mention
[03:58] They want statues of the old wetcher taken down and streets and boulevards renamed, etc Which makes first world cities named after the old guy like Columbus, Ohio Wondering if they're gonna be forced to adopt a brand new name So then what about the stature of Columbus and the conquistadors down here in Latin America? Well, that's where it gets kind of complicated even schizophrenic on the one hand middle-class upper middle class and wealthy lens talk about the guy and all his buddies and conquistador followers with a kind of a reverence as a father figure with a few faults and Get this in the schools down here the public schools at least It's the same old BS Columbus hero stories that we got when we were kids at school up in the states
[04:46] Columbus discovered America and brought Christianity to the corn and snake Worshipping pagans and therefore was one of the greatest Adventurers and heroes of all time and that's still what's in the school books down here in Latin America However out in the boonies in pure indigenous communities Which make up in some of these Latin countries up to 50% of the population if you do mention the name Cologne You better not do it with a happy smile on your face I'm saying if you were to sit down and have a conversation with a somewhat educated indigenous person They'll tell you that Columbus was a total sociopathic syphilitic asswipe However, and this is the real schizophrenic part when you ask anyone down here in Latin America And I mean anyone including your average indigenous person about his or her family tree
[05:36] That is their racial and cultural makeup nearly always they'll pump up the fact that they've got this grand strain of European Spanish blood that runs deep. What a contradiction, huh? Not only do Latins exaggerate their Spanish heritage, but they're bursting with pride about it, too So you have to ask yourself where did this exaggerated strain of European blood come from? Hmm. Why those sociopathic asswipe conquistadores, of course So it doesn't seem like anyone's really thought that through or at best There's some kind of strange denial going on just like I said in a past show that if you ask a black Latin American What his or her cultural roots are why they're Spanish, of course most will deny their African heritage altogether and the rest of Latin Americans from the brown indigenous types to the very white
[06:28] Creoleo types almost always they too will minimize the indigenous part of their heritage and claim Spanish blood So on the one hand they hate and despise Columbus and the conquistadores and on the other hand Latins are awfully proud of the Spanish blood that they carry even if they don't carry much at all So they'll always exaggerate the Spanish contribution and minimize the indigenous Like I said, it is schizophrenic. You try to figure out what's going on here and another thing around 2012 when that Mayan calendar thing was going on and the end of the world was in some people's minds a real possibility because that event spawned an unprecedented rise in new-age tourism Especially in Central America where ancient Mayans hung out and did their thing
[07:16] I remember that in the year leading up to 2012 for the locals. It had become very advantageous Economically, of course to say that one had some Mayan blood It seems at the time new-age tourists really respected someone who said he had that bloodline and for a year So people down here who would never have admitted to it before Were suddenly proudly saying that they had Mayan ancestry But that didn't last long and it was back to being mostly Spanish to the core when the world didn't end and the new-agers Went back home go figure So the fact is in December 212 when there was no parting of the skies no big event and no end of the world Being Mayan suddenly lost some of its cache and the whole Mayan hoopla faded away rather quickly
[08:05] Now wouldn't that be a nice master's thesis project for some psychology or sociology major up in New York or Cleveland? Remember you need that thesis to graduate and get that job at McDonald's just trying to help enough said about that Let's get back to those Latin banks and those CDs that you can get in American dollars So for example, and I'm reading right off the page here now again I've got a Latin bank flyer in my hand right now And it says and I'll translate if you take out a CD for two thousand to fifteen thousand dollars US dollars for 180 days, you'll get two point seven percent annualized interest Now if you get that same CD with a year term You get three percent interest if you put twenty five thousand US to fifty thousand US dollars in a bank CD here
[08:56] You get three point two percent annualized interest for 180 days And with a one-year CD at that amount you get four percent Now on the higher end if you have a hundred fifty thousand dollars or more and you put it in a CD for 180 days You get about four point two percent and if you put it in for 365 days you get about five percent interest now to many Expats who come down and pick up the paper and see those kind of rates first thing They think it's too good to be true Since you can only get about one percent up in the states if that yes I hear things like that from gringos especially ones of retirement age. They're saying sure it sounds too good to be true But think of it if you've got a million dollars and you put it in a bank CD in Latin America at five percent interest
[09:46] That's fifty thousand bucks a year, right? Yeah, I know I know who's got a million bucks to do something like that But believe me, I do get questions like that thrown at me from gringos and expats now anyone who's been listening to This program the expat files living in Latin America for any length of time. You'll know that on 50,000 bucks a year when you're off the gringo tours trail you can live like a prince in fact Two-three or a family of four could live the life of Riley on 50 grand a year down here in fact It's no exaggeration whatever to say that it's like living on 200 grand up in the states and if you think I'm BS and you are stretching the truth here Just come on down to my week-long Latin American seminar in January 2015 and I'll show you exactly how expats live the good life down here on much less than that on
[10:36] 15 grand a year, which is coincidentally your average Social Security payout So here's the short plug just go to www.xpetwisdom.com click on the Latin American seminar link at the upper left of the page and get all the information and Remember, there'll only be a maximum of 25 people attending any more than that and I won't be able to personalize it Which is really one of the great advantages of having a small seminar like that and with 25 people or less I'll be able to show you things on the boots in the ground portion your average gringo or even long-term expat down here Rarely get to see or experience So if you want a two to five year head start the fast track on becoming an expat that is becoming an expat the right way Just go to expatwisdom.com and click on the seminar link for full details
[11:26] By the way, it's not me who's been saying that you get a two to five year head start on becoming an expat It's what people from my past seminars have been saying people who've actually moved down here after the seminar who realize Exactly how much of a head start they really have So like I was saying some expats closing in on retirement age who have Excess money when they see that many banks in Latin America are paying five percent interest on US dollar CDs above a hundred grand Knowing they could never get that kind of return up in the first world They do the numbers and they think well if they've got a million bucks in a CD at five percent interest that should fund their retirement Completely without ever touching the principle which is true if the world economy holds out which it won't
[12:13] But let's say it does at least for the next couple years The fact is even on half that a half a million bucks at five percent. That's 25 grand a year Well two people down here in Latin America off the gringo tourist trail can live a perfectly first world life on that kind of dough Again, if it sounds too good to be true, what are the risks? Well, like I said once you've hooked up with a lawyer and he's told you the two or three most solid Banks in your new latin country or countries your money is just as safe as if it were up in a first world bank Which ain't saying much right? I mean, come on everyone with a brain knows we're at the edge of a new international financial crisis That said when's the next stock market real estate and banking blowout? Who knows but do you want your money in a CD in anybody's bank when that happens?
[13:01] However, if you believe the standard line that everything's gonna kind of remain the same and chug along as usual There's no reason why your money can't be safe in a cd in one of these latin banks The fact is I know dozens of long-term expats who are doing just that most of them by the way doing 90 day CDs and rolling them over which is a pretty smart thing to do if you have the excess cash and for most of them the strategy is to wait for the real estate bubble to blow out down here and Pick up penthouses and beachfront property for 10 to 20 cents on the dollar and believe me those days are coming In fact, and this is not a plug by the way In my upcoming latin american seminar in central america
[13:46] We'll get boots on the ground and see some of those beautiful developments that are cracking around the edges right now And who knows by my next seminar, which is exactly in three months now We'll get to see just how desperate sellers are becoming In other words, we'll get an upfront look at what a popping real estate bubble really looks like So anyway, if you're coming down with a certain amount of excess us dollars Go ahead and park your money in 90 day us dollar cds, but 90 days should be your limit Now, of course, if you see the international scene falling apart and the feces hit the ventilator You could always run down to your bank and pull your cd out by paying a penalty, of course So note that with cds down here. You're not absolutely stuck holding them for the length of the term
[14:34] So depending on the amount of time left in the term and the amount invested in your cd If you pull it out early, you will pay some kind of penalty, but you will get your principal back In fact some time ago I went with expat eddie to his bank where he cashed in a cd before its maturity date. I think it was 35 000 bucks, of course, he did have to pay a slight penalty, but he got his principal back and a little extra Though it did take 24 hours to process the transaction big deal He came back the next day and got his money So in the end most of us long-term expats agree It's not a good idea to have any kind of excess money or big money Just sitting in a bank taking up computer space Anywhere in latin america or up in the states or europe anywhere
[15:23] But when you're moving money around and transferring it from first world banks and such Sometimes it's necessary to park it for a while So bottom line if you are bringing big money down to latin america Don't be afraid to park it for 90 days and roll it over if necessary And if the amount is over a hundred grand you could easily get four or even five percent interest Now the key here is that you're not going to let your money ride in the bank forever That would be pretty stupid and for a lot of reasons The idea is to be johnny on the spot when the real estate bubble blows When the desperate owners come out of the woodwork to become desperate sellers And you know when desperate sellers can't sell the next thing they do is they try to rent Which is where we're at right now with the latin american real estate bubble
[16:12] Desperate sellers can't sell so they're renting out their places thus flooding the rental market So rents are dropping like a stone It's a renter's market which is just great for new gringos and expats coming down for a look around You rent and get some boots on the ground in other words People that were asking six and eight hundred dollars a month for rent are now taking three or four hundred dollars a month And they're even throwing in little extras like maintenance garbage water and cable tv Which means way too many high-end houses and condos and apartments going up with the owners and builders of those places Not having enough brains to figure out that they're out of range of the middle class who can't afford the payments or qualified for loans So then why are building and construction projects going up everywhere throughout latin america because you see the prevailing
[17:02] Mentality down here in latin america is that real estate always increases in value if i've heard it once i've heard it a thousand times That's what everyone thinks down here And I say all the better for smart gringos and expats who are there with a little cash When the bottom falls out and you know, i'll keep my ear to the ground on that one You'll be the first to know right after i've bought up all the good stuff Just kidding and again for those of you coming down to the seminar. We'll be talking a lot about that We'll visit some of those places and show you proof that said Another thing people ask me all the time is besides when the real estate bubble bursts. Where do you put your money? Well, I always say gold silver tangibles farmland mining rights Or you can finance your own or any number of businesses
[17:50] But first things first just bring your money down park it in one of those cds for a while and you'll start getting ideas Believe me. Okay. Enough said about that Now in the papers recently, there's been a lot of flack about get this Monsanto i'm talking about latin newspapers now and here's the story if you've been following this monsanto genetically engineered seed deal You'll see that a lot of people in the first world are upset about it and a lot of countries especially in europe have banned The use of gmo foods which hits monsanto right in the pocketbook So the monsanto steamroller has hit a couple of potholes and in order to shore up their bottom line Where do you think they're heading to the third world? Of course meaning latin america where the average person has a sixth grade education
[18:39] And the average person on the street has absolutely zero idea what gmo means or stands for so these big transnational gmo and pesticide producers like Monsanto dupont and the like thought latin america was going to be an easy play A no-brainer that's what they figured and just recently in the past two years or so They came down here to latin america to buy everyone off. That is Politicians who have the power to make laws to restrict or permit the use of these things and let's face it They tried it in india and got away with it. You might have heard there's been some very severe consequences there, too Including thousands of farmers there committing suicide by get this drinking pesticides like round up
[19:27] Whoa, that's harsh. You couldn't make that stuff up Now you might remember also in a past show that I mentioned the monsanto corporation was on tour In latin america hitting all the big cities and putting on shows and seminars Promoting of course the glories and the salvation of gmo products their gmo products So in the last year or so they came in with their entourage spreading a lot of money around Giving big one-day seminars first class all the way at four and five star hotels What a racket now. I wish I would have gone to get some pictures Anyway, you know post them on the internet and blow their cover the least I could do but alas It didn't work out. I saw the big ads in the local papers myself
[20:12] Yep, they invited politicians and farmers and anyone in the food processing business That is anyone with any clout to come down to this big free event for dinner drinks, etc And listen to a little spiel about how their gmo stuff was going to save the world Now this first class monsanto entourage wasn't traveling along. They were also traveling with get this people from the usfda and department of agriculture who were also on the podium giving Monsanto and gmo's their gringo seal of approval. Of course. What do you think of that? Yep, that little traveling first-class gmo circus hit every big city in latin america Especially the capital cities from mexico down to the tip of south america all to wine and dine and kiss the collective asses of
[21:04] Local politicians, of course who just sit on their dead asses all day long and collect favors Live like kings and queens and suck off the private and the public trough as demonstrated by the heavy turnouts at this Monsanto traveling circus because you know politicians down here in latin america are Emanently bribable and they come cheap The main point being to get these politicians to vote for what's now called the lay Monsanto the monsanto law now going sound like that aren't surprising here in latin america And as a rule, you can buy off a latin politician with a mickey mouse t-shirt and a night out at hooters Well practically, but wait the snot thickens yet another revolt and development
[21:49] Did you know that in 2005? A latin american free trade agreement was signed between costa rica el solvador guadamal honduras Nicaragua dominican republic and the usa now, of course everyone wants a free trade agreement For one thing countries agree to them to stimulate trade by eliminating taxes and lowering tariffs but get this slipped into that free trade agreement was a resolution now referred to as the Monsanto law lay the monsanto which aimed to regulate intellectual property rights in plant varieties What else? And of course all those aforementioned countries signed on to that free trade agreement
[22:34] Only to see that tiny little monsanto law insertion pop up eight or nine years later like a pimple on prom night Whoa, try saying that six or seven times in a hurry So anyway, it looks like everyone's signed on and only recently did someone bother to read the fine print Amazingly enough and no one thought this would ever happen, especially not monsanto indigenous activists got together and figured out what that monsanto law really means Some indigenous leaders with college degrees Sussed out that the wording in that hidden monsanto law Was to give companies the rights to establish intellectual property rights for new plants and plant strains Giving monsanto and other transnationalist who developed them
[23:23] Certain rights over the people and the land that those crops are planted on now according to the agreement Copyright patents on plants like monsanto gmo varieties Would be awarded an airtight copyright for 20 to 25 years and the use of these plant varieties by farmers Who don't have a license knowingly or otherwise would constitute a crime Subject to punishments of up to four years in prison and fines of up to 1300 us dollars Which is well above what most latin american rural farm workers earn each month And even above what some managed to earn in a whole year Now even though in latin america the minimum wage for most rural farm workers is around 10 to 15 dollars a day
[24:13] Even so in most places, especially out in the boonies. It's almost never enforced People take much less they work because they have to eat and they take what they're given So in reality up to one half of rural farm workers only make about one to three dollars a day That's especially true of female agricultural workers And now comes the monsanto law which promises to punish these poor people even further So in effect farmers that use gmo seeds in latin america Will have the very same problems that farmers in the states are having when they use gmo seeds knowingly or not In fact farmers up in the states have been fined heavily and even have lost their farms when
[24:58] Monsanto reps have discovered that gmo seeds have mixed in with a farmer's crop. Surely you've heard those stories It's been on 60 minutes and there've been a few documentaries about it Only note that in the states when farmers get nailed for violating so-called monsanto intellectual property rights The fines and penalties are huge 10 to 20 times that of the penalties in latin america Anyway as luck or fate would have it Indigenous activist groups were clued in in a big way By the horrible things that have been happening in india as one indigenous activist put it If it wasn't for india's tragic gmo example, we would have never seen this thing coming We would have never jumped on the bandwagon at all
[25:43] So what happened is that the indigenous people started their protest movement in central america Where most of those free trade countries are located and guadamala was the first country where the indigenous people went into big time protest mode Now let me quote the coordinator of the national indigenous people's observatory. His name is mario istep He says quote instead of promoting development this monsanto law Severely threaten rural and indigenous communities food sovereignty and sacrifice national biodiversity He said eventually under this law all food will come under the control of domestic and foreign companies like of course monsanto
[26:35] And he said the law truly risks our native seed varieties Some that are over 7 000 years old that never required patents or labs But have been able to sustain the lives of latin american people for countless centuries. So bottom line Indigenous people are starting to organize because most of them live in isolated rural areas that produce most of latin america's food Sure latin america has many big mechanized farms, too But they're mostly producing things like tobacco sugar bananas and corn Most of the other agricultural products are grown on small individual farms Now you might have noticed that this activism that's coming out of the indigenous communities
[27:21] Seems to be 100 focused on the penalties and the fines in monsanto's favor But since i'm at the end of the show, we'll have to dig into it again next week South of the border 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 don't forget to check out expat wisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america See you next time. Nos vemos