#206 – Lag Time, Health Habits, and Safety in Latin America

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

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder My thoughts ever straight Hi everybody I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files Living in Latin America the show that tells you what it's really like to live work play and or retire in Latin America I tell it just like it is so let's get started Now here's an interesting email it says dear Johnny concerning Latin American lag time that you talk about the phenomena where everything arrives later In Latin America, which gives gringos that great business advantage

[00:46] If that's the reason why so many gringos have predictable success down in Latin America There has to be some kind of downside everything has a downside, you know a yin and a yang so what is the downside to that lag time effect that you talk about because when I come down I want to be prepared and Thanks for the show. I've listened to every one of your podcasts since you started signed Harry in Connecticut. Okay, Harry Well, you're right There are some definite downsides to that lag time effect But that downside has its main effect on the Latin population down here not so much on us expats and gringos In fact, a lot of us first worlders and expats are bothered by the way lag time has negatively affected the locals But there's not a lot we can do about it. All we could do is sit back and shake our heads

[01:31] For example, Latin Americans at all socioeconomic levels have basically no concept of healthy living and eating Health as related to diet is not on the radar for them yet There's a big lag time there Even with this so-called educated class of Latins who have all the resources and should know better still they don't I See it in action all the time The more educated Latins with more money better jobs and more disposable income when they're at the grocery store and in restaurants They're not reading labels or going organic checking for GMOs or trans fatty acids Instead of reading a little and doing some research. They're like kids with money in their pockets. They go for instant gratification They buy first world junk food instead of the local cheaper stuff

[02:18] They buy dove bars and Red Bull and better cuts of pork and steak and better brands of beer rum and whiskey I'll tell you if you visit any wealthy Latin person's house down here and you look into the refrigerator or the pantry you'll see It's just loaded with expensive cakes and cookies and pastries and imported prepackaged frozen foods from the states These are people with all the money in the world to eat, right? But they don't you know my time down here and all the wealthy upper-class Latins I've met I still haven't met one person who I can actually say is on an absolutely healthy diet Even Latins who have memberships at health clubs and actually go once in a while Their cupboards are full of junk like Quaker oats bars and special K Diet Thousand Island and ranch dressing diet coke and soft drinks and tons of diet and low-fat packaged foods

[03:06] Just loaded with artificial sweeteners like Nutra sweet and splendid and by the way when you go into one of these big first world Franchise box stores like Costco, which is called price mart down here You'll find only the upper middle class and wealthier people actually shop there because it's a membership only store And you have to pay a fee every year to get in You'll never see an indigenous person in their shopping unless it's the maid or cleaning lady pushing the cart for her rich boss Lady now when I'm in that store I notice that there are hundreds of products that are diet or low-cal all Artificially sweetened with splendid and it seems like the entire upper-class latin population is completely sold on that stuff Or more likely addicted to it and even if it's not slowly killing you softly It's you're not helping out the obesity problem down here because it looks to me that more than half the people shopping at that

[03:56] Costco clone called price mart are either substantially overweight or obese yet their shopping carts are Overflowing with pre-packaged stuff sweetened with splendid what I'm saying is there's really something wrong with that picture and it has to do it lag time Upwardly mobile latins are just suckers for diet food products that are promoted heavily on first world cable TV Never mind what's in them or what they're doing to your body as long as they're coming out of the first world They must be super because the US government of course has agencies like the FDA and Latin America doesn't So using that logic latins feel that's the ultimate seal of approval And if these are the so-called educated classes, what can you really expect from the common people bottom line? Latins aren't a society of readers. They never were books cost way too much

[04:46] They're out of reach for the common people and 95% or more of the wealthy folks who go to college and university Admit to not cracking open a single book after leaving college or in fact ever again Why should they they've got their diploma now right though? I have to admit I have a few friends and relatives up in the states like that, too So the bottom line is although brain stagnation and cerebral sclerosis is epidemic these days even up in the first world Down here. It's the status quo That's why many expats complain that it's difficult to have a nice deep Conversation about worldly or scientific things with Latin people even ones who have graduated University Especially ones that have graduated University and why is having a discussion with one of these guys even worse than talking to the common man

[05:36] Sometimes well to latins just the act of graduating from University is the be all and end all to their lives After that it's enough for them to walk high and proud and to hand out their business cards to the sweaty masses And to look down their noses at the lesser folks and some have turned it into an art in fact You just wouldn't believe the pompous attitudes of latins who've got university degrees to them Everyone else is a second-class citizen you probably don't know this but down here in Latin America when you get a bachelor's degree It comes with a title called listen Seattle and that term Lecencia though or Lecencia that if you're a woman goes in front of your name on your business card And all your stationery and your door plaque in the phone book and on your mailbox in your emails on your websites

[06:23] and well just about everything and Anyone who's not a lesson Seattle is required to address you by your title It's considered rude and in poor form if you don't luckily us gringos are completely exempt from lowering ourselves like that Note that you never have to address one of these guys as listen Seattle Gomez or listen Seattle Martina Though it's an unbreakable custom with the locals and a must with them unless you're family or very good buddies It's the same kind of treatment doctors used to get in the United States some years ago though doctors up in the states these Days are a bit more casual, but down here in Latin America There are so few people who graduate from university a mere bachelor's degree is a huge sign of distinction And thus carries with it a lot of

[07:16] Which we tell no one about because we keep a low profile anyway when people start throwing that lesson Seattle stuff around we just Laugh at them behind their backs to us It's a ridiculous stupid joke in fact any gringo who addresses a Latin as a lesson Seattle is really an idiot for doing so So my advice don't ever do it don't play that stupid game let the Latins kiss each other's asses and maintain their own stupid class Distinctions, so how does that listen Seattle name game crap rear its ugly head well everyone I mean every Latin person is Expected to call you by that title when you walk into the room or introduce yourself as if you were some visiting Dignitary or a brain surgeon or something and when you get down here You'll know exactly what I'm talking about the first time you walk into your lawyer's office

[08:03] You'll hear the listen Seattle this listen Seattle that telephone listen Seattle your wife's in the parking lot listen Seattle It's really enough to make an expat puke, but don't you'll mess up the carpet now We were talking about the negative side to the lag time effect well It's no more obvious than in the world of health nutrition and medicine Now the few times I've tried to have a nice discussion with a so-called educated Latin about vitamins and supplements for example Which these days is a very hot topic in the first world I found out to my dismay no matter how highly educated Latins are blissfully ignorant of any new or even slightly new developments in that field I've had more than one wealthy Latin tell me yeah I do go to GNC and buy vitamins once in a while and yes those first world GNC

[08:53] Franchises have landed down here in a big way, too There's hundreds of them But only in high-end malls where upper middle class and wealthy people shop and listen to this Guatemala City alone has 17 GNC stores, and I often wonder myself who's buying that overpriced stuff Well you know one day. I decided to ask one of the owners of one of those GNC stores I said I know it's got to be the upper and wealthier classes buying here because the common people won't spend 25 bucks for a bottle of vitamin C They don't even know what vitamin C is then the owner surprised me when he said you know what items move the least in our GNC stores vitamins and minerals and supplements, then I thought well then what do they sell? How do they stay in business? He said if you look you'll see most of our store is devoted to bodybuilding

[09:42] powders and liquids and everything and anything related to bulking up and then he told me now that Scandinavian gym and world gym and goals gym are down here in Latin America Places only the upper middle and wealthy classes can afford to get a membership to the men who have memberships are convinced They have to buy those bulk up powder mixes, and that's what we sell and of course that includes all those Precursor supplements and powders that are billed as natural anabolic steroid analogues That's the stuff that trainers at places like gold's gyms suggest to their clients So that's how GNC makes its money down in Latin America They don't make their money off the vitamins and minerals they make their money off those big jars of special protein Powders that are supposed to bulk you up and give you a six-pack

[10:28] Which almost no one ever achieves because it's too much like real work And they'd have to give up the Cheetos and the Dove bars and the cafe mocha java frappuccinos And that ain't gonna happen in fact you can see with your own eyes how the obesity Epidemic is working its way down here to Latin America. It's that lag time phenomena again So Latins are slowly porking up, but they aren't quite first world about it yet with the exception of Mexico Which is running neck-and-neck with the states and why not they're heavily gringoized and have a common border with the states But back to the point just how clueless are even the educated Latins about health care fitness diet and the basic foods? They eat the fact is you could be in a room full of these good-looking well-dressed people in a million dollar house

[11:14] and if you happen to mention the term GMO or the words monosodium glutamate or aspartame or Splendid or vitamin D or curcumin or anti-oxidants or olive oil or coconut oil or resveratrol or coq10 These are the kinds of topics that can come up any time when halfway intelligent first world people go to a party or a get-together Now typically down here in Latin America those kind of topics Just don't come up in fact that list I just mentioned curcumin vitamin D and stuff if you bring those things up at a party You'll end up talking to yourself all night But actually it's even worse than that the media too is absolutely dense about these subjects and here's another example You actually see in the local newspapers ads by the sugar industry aimed at the kids

[12:01] Telling them that sugar is good for you In fact, they fortify sugar down here in Latin America with vitamin A and they promote the eating of it sure It's the craziest thing you've ever seen if you're from the first world But down here because of the lag time effect and the fact that some of the world's biggest sugar producers have their home base down Here you might just look at it like a brilliant marketing maneuver adding vitamin A to sugar vitamin A fortified Like Wonder bread. It's gotta be good for you And do you think there's any parents or doctors or nurses or nutritionists protesting that? Not a one reminds me somewhat of those cigarette commercials back in the 50s where they'd say more doctors smoke camel cigarettes Than any other brand and regarding the locals and their diet and eating habits sure if you actually take the time to observe the lower

[12:50] Classes they do eat quite healthy compared to first world people and wealthy Latins They eat rice and beans and vegetables and fruit and quite a few of them have their own chickens in their own gardens So they're healthy not by design not because they're intelligent about what they eat or what they buy But instead it's because that food comes directly from their land so they don't have to pay for it It's the fruit of their own labor But believe me as soon as they get a little money and get into a slightly better economic position The first thing they do besides buying a better cell phone is to buy pre-packaged Convenience and junk food in the grocery store with absolutely no thought ever given to the nutritional value of the stuff And like I said, the wealthy Latins are like that in their own way, too They just buy more expensive imported junk food like Dunkin Donuts and Pepperidge Farm cakes and stuff you get the idea

[13:40] So bottom line don't expect to have any kind of intelligent conversation at all about nutrition GMOs or food additives or pesticides or organics or monoculture crops or any of the kind of Controversial food or health topics that expats and expat wannabes are concerned about and talk about all the time Oh, and by the way, if you ever bring up the topic of vaccinations, you'll find every Latin is of the same opinion they'll tell you how negligent their government is for not jabbing everyone with every known vaccine that the first world jabs its kids seniors and soldiers with The lag time on that is such that there isn't even a discussion about it yet There's no awareness of the links to autism or fda cover-ups or big pharma involvement gulf war syndrome

[14:26] Attention deficit or any of that stuff It's just completely off the radar even with supposedly intelligent Educated latins the men are a thousand times more interested in who's playing in the world cup and the women Well, they're worried about their children worried about getting old and worried about who their husband might be having an affair with They're forever worried about that. That's why the health clubs and the beauty parlors are so packed And there's little or no awareness of environmental problems either like bottled water, for example Even the intellectual classes have no idea that their supposedly pure bottle water is nothing more than the usual Contaminated tap water that's been chlorinated and cleaned up a little so it doesn't look brown when it comes out of the bottle Like it does from the faucet which just goes to show that what's good for us expats is often bad for the locals

[15:18] Unfortunately, and this does sound cruel, but latins do not I repeat do not have the breadth of knowledge that first world people have and I can prove it easily Just try to have a nice free flowing conversation with a latin who's got an advanced university degree And then tell me how many intellectual brick walls you've run up against start counting. You've only got 10 fingers Well that happens to expats all the time Boy, don't I sound like a pompous jerk. I'm not trying to be i'm just telling it like it is And of course, there are exceptions, but they're as rare as hen's teeth And in nearly all cases that i've come across with guys that can really hold their own They went to a first world university not a latin one And when talking about more of those downsides to the lag time effect

[16:04] One of the most notable to us expats is how latins just litter ruthlessly The yards the streets the parks the gutters whether it's a private building or public space It doesn't matter latins are like americans were back in the 60s and 70s before their big anti-litter campaigns I take that back before law enforcement started finding americans for littering That's when basically the littering stopped in the states, right? And down here in latin america you see anti-littering signs all over the place, too And the funny thing is you'll usually see a big pile of litter within five or ten feet of a sign like that And why is that there are fines it's posted right on those signs, but there's absolutely zero enforcement And i've asked around no one and I mean no one i've ever met or ever talked to

[16:51] Has ever been fined for littering or do they know anyone who's ever been fined? Same thing goes for urinating in public In fact, it's like eddie says he says guys that urinate in public act as if they got the god-given right to do it Anywhere anytime and to prove it eddie's taken his camera or his cell phone camera Pointed it at a guy who's urinating right on the side of the street and it never fails The guy always gives you a dirty look as if you're invading his privacy like quit bothering me You jerk can't you see i'm pissing and you know once again eddie's got a great white trash idea He wants to make these guys famous rather infamous He's collecting photos all over latin america of guys pissing in public and he wants to start a website You know post all the photos of these scumbags for the world to see

[17:37] And then of course invite everyone else in latin america to send in their photos of scumbags pissing too Now there's an idea whose time has come don't you think now eddie says all he's got to do is figure out a way He can make some money on this thing If you have any ideas to get this thing going email me at johnny at expat wisdom.com Eddie's thinking of calling it scumbags pissing in public.com Way to go eddie Oh, and by the way, remember I told you in a past show that eddie's cousin is down here the freeloader Well, it turns out he's been begging eddie for the keys to one of his cars and eddie won't do it Simply because his cousin's only had his license for about four months and he's never driven down in latin america before And since eddie's being tough about this his cousin's moping around a bit

[18:25] So to make his point perfectly clear eddie took his cousin out at eight o'clock one night And he pulled over and parked right across the street from a busy intersection and he said to his cousin We're gonna sit here for exactly 10 minutes And I want you to keep your eyes open and count how many cars and motorcycles run a red light at this intersection And it turned out in just 10 minutes Nine cars 11 motorcycles three taxis and six chicken buses ran that red light Then eddie turned to his cousin and said that's why i'm not gonna let you drive my car And like I always say at some time in the future maybe five ten years from now That's when latin governments are going to finally figure out they can make a mint by ticketing guys and enforcing that law

[19:12] And that's one of the big downsides to the lag time phenomena here And it's one case where us expats are affected more negatively than the common public because we all have cars And the common man he walks or rides the chicken bus Now one of the other big lag time downsides is the fact that no one bothers to recycle plastic Which means every secluded corner and rain gutter is loaded with discarded plastic bottles And every lake river and stream has a good share of them too Including of course public beaches. What an eyesore Now when I first got down here some 20 years ago before bottling everything in plastic became the norm Aluminum cans and glass bottles were used for practically everything and since they did have some value as scrap back

[19:58] Then latin america was a much cleaner place visually Oh, and I should mention 20 some years ago when I first got down here Very few grocery stores used plastic bags now Every store uses plastic and naturally they get thrown everywhere, too A huge source of non-biodegradable garbage and is anyone doing anything about it? No And because of that lag time effect there is Zero movement to switch over to paper bags like so many stores have done in the first world or to bring your own bags And recycle them except in places like costa rica and panama where there are a lot of first world Gringos who are duly concerned about the environment there? It's the gringos who've gone green but not the locals which is a similar attitude held by the locals in the rest of latin america

[20:45] For them protecting the environment is just not on the radar yet And all the baby steps that have been made in that direction were instituted by guess who first world foreigners But it's a thankless job and they're swimming against the tide Now expat eddie's theory on this is he thinks that the latins just haven't heard the old saying that you don't crap where you sleep And he just might be right about that Anyway moving on to another quick subject you remember last week when I talked about my little ayahuasca adventure I mentioned that all 10 people that were there were people of means I mean they all had cars much nicer than mine and some of them had luxury SUVs and one of the guys there a long-time american expat and he said, you know, johnny I listened to the expat files off and on but there's one thing I don't quite agree with you on

[21:33] He said you talk about the fact that throughout latin america Every city has zones or districts that are completely safe to drive or walk around in or park your car Sure, there are some bad zones You don't want to go into it all day or night But you say there are zones you can go in day and night and they're still completely safe Then he said johnny, would you please tell me some of the zones that are safe day and night? For example in guatemala city to gusigalpa honduras El solvador and in managua. Nicaragua And he said it to me like he wanted to challenge me He wanted to trip me up Then I proceeded to go city by city and name off some areas that I thought were completely safe day or night And I could see by the look on his face He wasn't buying it and he knew those cities maybe not as well as I did But he wasn't a novice now after I went through that list. I told him something he didn't want to hear

[22:23] I pointed out that none of that would apply for him and his wife Because you see I noticed right away that him and his wife had a lot of money They drove an upscale very nice suv Their clothes were definitely not from sears and the designer glasses he had caused from 500 to a thousand bucks for sure Not to mention he had a very expensive european watch one of those funky baron bond something or in other names That's a cut above a rolex And when he told me that he sent his kids to the most expensive private high school in the country And that when they get out they're going to the states or europe for university To the tune of about 50 000 bucks a year Well when i'd taken all that in I just knew this guy and his wife lived a life

[23:09] That was the farthest thing from low profile. He did not would not and could not Possibly be living the expat lifestyle that I recommend And you know for people like that who are used to living that high-end lifestyle even a kidnapping an assault or a robbery Won't stop them from living that way It's just not in their nature when you're used to dressing and traveling in style and hanging around the high rent districts After a while you don't even notice that you're sticking out like a sore thumb So in the end this guy was absolutely right to doubt my judgment about what parts of latin cities are safe and which parts aren't In a way he was right in his world. No place is safe I can tell you a simple fact right now at the school his kids go to every so often There is an attempted assault or a kidnapping because these are exactly the kind of kids the bad guys target

[23:59] And these are the same spoiled little rich kids who are obsessed with text messaging and facebook These are the same kids who are clueless enough to spill every little boring detail of their life on those social media sites And of course those bad guys are on those social media sites, too In fact, if you read the local big city newspapers, you'll notice that every week or so There's an article about kids being targeted by bad guys on these social websites You know the story from up in the first world, but down here the kids are infinitely more naive And unlike the first world these relatively wealthy kids Are such a small minority that they stick out like a sore thumb wherever they go and they don't take any steps at all To lower their profile these kids are not going to stop text messaging tweeting and getting on facebook

[24:48] They're not going to stop downloading photos and spilling the minutia of their lives to all their friends That's what life is for kids whose parents can afford the gadgets But down here, like I said, these guys are in such a small minority that makes them obvious targets for the bad guys And so this wealthy expat I was talking to is stuck between a rock and a hard place So the question remains what happened to this expat? How did he morph from a casual not the script gringo into a high-profile target? Well, it's simple. He married an educated upper-class latina who already came from a privileged background Her parents had the range rovers and the bodyguards and she went to the expensive schools And when she did hook up with this unpretentious gringo way back when he immediately got sucked into her social world

[25:37] A world filled with gringo wannabes with enough money to pull it off And now that he's been married a while has a few kids and is firmly entrenched in that crowd He'll never be able to get out. That's the life he's stuck with and you know, he doesn't seem unhappy But it's obvious he's on his own kind of treadmill and he can't get off And of course, he doesn't even realize it or he wouldn't have asked me those safety questions in the first place Obviously he's got some underlying fears doubts and certain issues. Is that any way to live? Anyway, just one more thing Regarding having kids or bringing them down I never considered it a good idea to bring your kids up in a medium to large-sized latin city a city over 100,000 let's say because there are gonna be bad sections of town You're gonna want to send your kids to the best private schools

[26:24] Which means they're gonna hang around with wealthier kids whose parents are into putting on displays of wealth and keeping up with the joneses And then your kids are going to be targeted with their kids by the local bad guys, whoever they are However, if you live in a smaller town under a hundred thousand, it's like living back in the 60s in small town america Mayberry, you know Small towns here are self-policing where repeat offender bad guys are run out on a rail and sometimes even lynched Just a little food for thought there So all you expat wannabes up there you could end up like him. Obviously, it's not a bad life at all He's got plenty of everything the gringo advantage really worked its magic for him But i'm sure every time he reads an article about another kid who's been kidnapped and of course high-profile wealthy kids are always the target

[27:15] Anyway, you can bet he and his wife have had their share of sleepless nights. That just goes with the territory Not to mention 90 to 95 percent of all the crimes perpetrated in those high-end households can be traced back to a domestic employee Or you guessed it a former bodyguard You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america Coming to you each week from somewhere south of the border and don't forget you can email me on anything at all about latin america The expat files at gmail.com See you next time most famous