Musician, mechanic, writer, dreamer, techy, green thumb, emigrant, BP2, ADHD, Father, weirdo

https://www.battleforlibraries.com/

#DigitalRightsForLibraries

  • 21 Posts
  • 107 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • And for the click-averse:

    The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

    -Credited to Arthur Schopenhauer


  • I haven’t yet. Actually, the corrupt bureaucracy has withheld residency status so far without bribes. That said, here was the path I thought I was on when I moved.

    The idea is to have been in the country for most of the year (no less than 14 days out of country), at which time you can apply for residency. Once you have residency, you must maintain it for 5yrs.

    Citizenship for Permanent Residence Holders

    1. You have been a holder of Permanent Residence for a minimum of 5 years.
    2. You have been resident continuously in Belize, this means that upon being granted Permanent Residency you have not resided outside Belize for periods that exceed thirty consecutive days or accumulate to a total of three months in any twelve month period.

    I didn’t want to muddy the waters with the reality of what happened once I moved, as the OP was about motivating factors. Power corrupts. And ultranationalism is infectious to other countries.

    Edit: If I could do it over, I would form an offshore company or similar and get a work permit. Two attorneys have recommended this, even though on paper it costs more; there’s less headache running to renew visitor status every 28 days (they claim 30-120 days, but no immigration office will renew you for more than that unless you bribe or are over 70 years old). It’s been humbling (scary) going through this process legally and being afraid on several occasions that an angry official will wave their hand and deport me. I can only imagine being deported because of my skin color or where I shop would be even more scary.




  • When my country first elected a rapist con man president, I started looking. I was born and raised in (and never left) New England, and so I also wanted a place that’s warm year round. It took me four years to tentatively settle on Belize, in late 2019. I made my first visit in Jan 2021, as the pandemic messed up my 2020 plans. By October, I had sold EVERYTHING and moved with two cats.

    Reasons (or things I didn’t even know I wanted):

    -No DST messing up my sleep schedule.
    -No more days with 17+hrs of darkness.
    -CARIBBEAN!!!
    -Every Belizean I met (exception: gov’t employees and police) is friendly and warm. In N.E., people avoid making eye contact and answer greetings in a way to stop further conversation, but in Belize, the people genuinely want to know how you’re doing and remember everything you tell them.
    -No car required
    -Culture with proud participation from the public; holidays with vibrant parades, and entire village ecstatically engaged in all aspects.
    -Tarantulas walking in the street (my partner and I love them!)
    -Path to citizenship without $0.25M investment
    -Citizenship there comes with a CARICOM passport, meaning can live and work in most Caribbean nations.
    -Food! Fish caught 30 minutes before it hits my plate.

    Things that pushed me away from the USA:

    -Truck nuts
    -Nazi and/or Confederate flags on trucks everywhere
    -Cost of housing doubled from 2017 to 2021
    -Consumerism -Embarrassed to be a US citizen